What a wonderful vacation. I am having so much fun, but I have to share some stories. I am just so impressed and although I have traveled a lot all over the world, this has been quite a unique trip and it continues to be. Half the fun has just been getting here. I will start with telling you about the train ride.
Me and the kids traveled by train from South Florida to New Hampshire. We met the most exciting and friendly people. I vow to take the time to "enjoy the ride" on the plane and avoid the fast paced stress and cost of air travel.
On the train, I met Barbara. She lives in Miami but was going to her original home in New York. She was looking for someone to play dominoes, so I passed the away the wee morning hours away with her. We played dominoes and she has related she has been traveling trains for years. we played several games and then Bobby woke up and joined us in the dining car to play one with her while I checked on DJ and got the boys their breakfast, then all three of us played one game. We also met Sam who befriended DJ sitting next to him, it was his first time on a train, he was going home to North Carolina from Central Florida. He related that the gas prices and the airline fiasco made him travel by train for the first time. We saw eye to eye on this one. He gave DJ his blanket when he got off the train and wished us well, as DJ has been borrowing it most of the trip, lol. DJ's next friend Craig boarded at the same stop that Sam departed from, (just before daylight), he had been living in NC for 20 years and was going home to New Jersey to visit parents, he related he had been traveling the trains for years as well.
It was his preferred method of traveling due to cost and just the pure sheer fun and the people you meet. The people on the train were wonderful, in the dining car we met lots of nice people and the staff were absolutely wonderful, I loved traveling by train so much I will do it from now on. We felt an instant kinship with the staff. Our train stopped in Richmond VA and we had a wonderful visit there, with a 5 hour lay over we stored our carry-ons and went off for a walk. We walked to Shoney's and had a wonderful lunch, the boys could not understand the waitress when she said water, when I told them what she said they wanted to know what language she was speaking. It was so hard not to laugh! If they only knew how their accents sounded to others.
Our next train was late, and not as cushy, although at least we had plug ins at our seats (which we have not had before so the boys could use all their electronic forms their seats). It did not have a dinning car, only a snack bar, but the kids were happy they got pizza, and we got to meet neat people on this train as well. The seats on this train seemed larger to me though and more comfy, although the boys noticed right away they had no foot rests, something I probably would never have noticed. I also got to read a great fiction book, first book I have read for pure enjoyment in years. I had brought a bible study book and Hillary's "It Takes A Village" to read, but still have not opened them yet, lol.
I'm afraid this old train ride has reinforced my old prejudices however. I thought I was making progress on my opinion of the upper class, but the middle and lower class train travelers, and those traveling by train to rail against the gas prices were so much more real, nicer, friendly and more open and welcoming than any travelers I have met in my years of airline travel. Perhaps I have found a new way to travel, there is little hustle and bustle, and people take time to "enjoy the ride", enjoy life and really live. It is something foreign to airline travelers. There was a comradery amongst us.
Not to mention watching all the wonderful forests, rural towns, and countryside along the way. The towns and store fronts around the tiny train stations were wonderful, in VA there was one little store front along the tracks, looked like an old trading post. It was a mile or so from the station and called the "smashed penny country store", I had to explain to the boys why that was funny. They did not understand how one could "smash" a penny that was already flat, lol. I thought about showing them, but then remembered the sugar train near our house and my fear of them playing near the train tracks and decided it was was best for Bobby just to think I was "dumb Mom". I could just imagine the boys standing to close to the trains as they washed their own pennies being smashed on the railway.
The trip from VA to Boston was still good but not as nice. The train was more cramped. The people were not as friendly, although still much better than fellow air travelers. We got to Boston and found our bags were in New York, lol. We filled out all the paperwork and then went to enjoy a nice breakfast in the fancy Boston train station, much bigger with more amenities than the others we had seen. Then we took the bus to New Hampshire, and again, the people who travel by bus are just so much nicer and friendlier than those who travel by plane. It was a wonderful trip getting here.
I have enjoyed my family while being here, and the weather is so cool. I giggle every time one of them complains of the heat and humidity and invite them to South Florida in August. We sleep with the windows open and the lovely breeze. It is so cool and nice. I cannot get over that my husband's family leaves their doors open, locking only the screen doors so as too keep the fresh breeze going throughout the house. I borrowed the car one day, to pick up our luggage (2 days after we arrived) at the bus station. I was so happy! But was again shocked, my sister in law leaves her car unlocked with the key in the door panel. OMG! There apparently is no crime here, no one worries about it at all. AMAZING. But it is so relaxing, the trees and nature and the people here in the Valley are wonderful!
I am also doing a great job on sticking to my exercise plan, although I have gone over on my calories some days. OMG! Hold on everyone, while on vacation I went shopping for jeans, I AM NOW IN A SIZE 14! WOOOO HOOOO! Today we are taking a day trip to Vermont, cannot wait to tell you about it!
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