2013 NYC by Train 14 - The Long Road Home

We didn't have to get up too early today, because our train from Penn Station did not leave til 3:45pm. Check-out at the hotel was noon, so the morning was leisurely. We ate at The Red Flame again. This time getting a seat in the front. That was fun because we could watch folks strolling or hurrying by outside. We both had bagels and cream cheese. Mike added lox to his. Umm, so good. Wish we could get NYC bagels in Kalamazoo.

Back in the hotel we cleaned up, finished packing, and checked out. The Algonquin was a great place to stay--centrally located and with a true-blue New York City vibe. Although our room was small, it reflected the personality of old times and we would definitely return.

We had about 3 hours to fritter way, but we also each had a roll-away suitcase that we had to deal with. We decided to slowly meander the streets toward Penn Station, traveling down new blocks that we had not yet seen.

We made one last pass through Times Square. Always excitement there. We noticed one thing we had not seen before. Under the big Coke ad there were bleacher type seats facing the Square. On the top row, if you turned to face the ad, there was a camera set up. You could see yourself at the bottom of the ad on a big screen. We didn't try it, but how fun!! Folks were posing and acting out--"movie stars" for a moment.

We continued our walk at a slow stroll and happened though the Fashion / Garment District. This is a mid-town neighborhood around 7th Avenue and 34th Street, at least that is where we found ourselves when we discovered it. It has a high concentration of fashion and textile manufacturing and design businesses, and showrooms for major fashion labels. It is geared mostly to the wholesale market.


There we passed by lovely outside cafes with lots of big, colorful potted plants and shade umbrellas. There was also a "Fashion Walk of Fame," similar to the one you see in Hollywood for the film industry. A huge billboard displayed a continuously morphing design--it looked liked masks or insects or just an abstract composition. We watched it for a while and never saw the same arrangement repeated.

Yes, we got to Penn Station way early with about 2 hours to wait before boarding. That was fine though. We weren't the least bored. As airline employees, we had spent so many hours waiting in airports for our plane to depart. We are always prepared with reading material, iPad solitaire, and playing catch-up on my notes for this blog.

In the early 20th century, different companies used different RR stations, so they were named after the company using it. If a train station was shared by several companies it was then called Union Station. That is why there are so many Union Stations around our country.

Penn Station is named for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company. We had not explored here the day we arrived, but had plenty of time to do so today. It handles up to 1,000 passengers per 90 seconds per Wiki. It services local transit, as well as regional routes and Amtrak. It is located on underground levels beneath Madison Square Garden. There are lots of little stores, cafes, news stands, and carry-out places to browse. We picked up sandwiches to eat later on the train. 


In the Amtrak waiting room, we enjoyed the ever entertaining people-watching parade. For a while we observed several security dogs being trained as bomb-sniffers. A police officer would "plant" a decoy bag and let the dog weaved through the crowd until it spotted the decoy. As soon as the decoy was spotted, the dog sits next to it and gets high praise from its handler for a job well done.

Our train was delayed for 30 minutes. No surprise and, again, as transportation employees we are used to that and actually expect it most of the time. If something is right on time, that's a bonus.


We chose good window seats so we could see out the opposite side of the train from our inbound journey. With an afternoon (instead of midnight) departure we were able to view new territory. We enjoyed the route out of Manhattan, through the tunnels under the Hudson River, and then along side the river for many miles.

We saw more of northeast rural American. We stopped in Albany again to add several train cars from the Boston route who joined us going west. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset in Schenectady. We saw Cleveland Stadium at dawn. Interesting graffiti art was everywhere along the way. Except for the new views, our train ride home was uneventful.

By the end of our journey to Elkhart, we were a couple of hours late, arriving about 10:30am. We had stopped or slowed a few times for construction and to let faster moving freight trains pass. We were soooo ready to be HOME. If we were college kids, able to sleep in any position with any amount of noise, it would have been better. But our oldish, achy bones did not handle this type of travel well. Next time we will definitely ante up for a sleeper-ette arrangement as suggested by some of our fellow travelers.

All in all our trip was fabulous. We loved NYC, Manhattan craziness, the food, the people, the whole experience. We are already planning another trip for Mike's birthday next year. Yahoo!