An Advantage of a Train Ride

I can't believe that it's almost been a full month since I wrote my last blog post. When I originally began this blog I had originally planned on writing at least a post per week, although to be fair, I have been pretty busy. Along with working at my current day job I've been taking classes to add to my education and resume, working on other writing projects, and most recently, I took a quick trip to Canada. I took a couple of days off and spent some time in Vancouver, British Columbia, exploring and just having a good time.



Rather than taking a plane I took the Amtrak from Seattle to Vancouver (usually a little bit cheaper that way when going that distance). Overall I prefer taking aircraft over trains, although I do like taking trains every now and then; it's a different experience. The views from a train window can be beautiful, like that of an airplane. Seeing the lakes and hills of Bellingham while on a train in the evening seemed particular beautiful. Also, there were hikers and campers that would oftentimes wave to the train, which is always fun.

But I found what is perhaps the best advantage of taking a train. On the train ride over to Vancouver, I happened to have been seated right behind a mother with her screaming child. The dialogue this child and his mother had went something along the lines of...

Child: MOM! MOM! MOM!

Mother: (sighs) Uh huh...

Child: Tickle me! Tickle my body!

Mother: Uhhhh...

Child: Ahhhhh!

Mother: (sighs)

Child: Are we there yet?!

This went on all the way from Seattle to their final destination in Bellingham, non-stop. I was seated next to a poor college student headed back to her dorm in the University of British Columbia, desperately trying to work on her French homework with the screaming child in front of her.

I then realized something. With a plane, as much as I love to fly, aside from going to the restroom, I am pretty much stuck in my seat. But with a train, I have access to a beautiful place called the dining car. So after listening to this nightmare of a child and his barely responsive mother who happened to be sitting right in front of me for awhile, I decided to head down to the dining car (I was getting hungry anyway), where I enjoyed the views while sipping coffee and eating Ivar's clam chowder for three hours (waiting it out until they got off at Bellingham).

I ended up sitting next to an older woman who looked at me with a smile and said, "Let me guess, you're from the same car as that screaming child?"

"Why yes," I said.

"Me to," she said. "That's why I came here and got a sandwich."

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Using Imagination to Accept Facts

Image
I read an article recently titled “18 Really Toxic Things People’s Family Members Had the Nerve to do at Thanksgiving Dinner.” Basically a bunch of people contributed to the article and described insane things happening at their Thanksgiving dinner, ranging from simple etiquette blunders to family members having affairs. I browsed the comment section and saw that one person posted, “None of these are true. #3 is among the fakest thing I’ve ever read. If you believe any of this I honestly think I could convince you to eat a rock.” I on the other hand thought, “Yeah, I could see any one of these incidents happening.” I feel that sometimes people have a hard time believing things that are true because they have no real experience with what’s being described. For example, one of my favorite books that I’ve read in the past couple of years has been Tara Westover’s “Educated: A Memoir.” It’s gotten mostly universal praise, this tale of a young woman who went from being in an abusive ho
Read more

Me vs. Cracked.com

Image
Hey everyone! Hope all of you are doing well! I know it’s been a bit since I have written in my blog. Been kind of busy, between my job, working out, and of course putting the finishing touches on my new book, “ The Princess of Infinite Tomorrows: Child of Prophecy.” If you haven’t checked out my new novel yet, feel free to do so (hint hint, wink wink). Anyway, here is my latest blog article and thoughts about life in general.   I’m not really a big fan of the website cracked.com. I’ve enjoyed some of their articles but in the past few years or so I feel that the writers in general try way too hard to sound edgy and cynical. I’m not saying that it’s necessarily bad to write something edgy or cynical, but oftentimes when I have read the articles on cracked.com, I feel that they often try way too hard. Also there have been multiple times in which I have found that facts touted in the site’s articles are often just plain wrong.   One of the articles cracked.com posted is titled, “9 Lame H
Read more

The Jetsons' Car That Turns Into a Suitcase

Image
  Back in the 1960s, a lot of people thought we’d have flying cars by the year 2000. It’s 2020 now and we’re probably still a little ways away from flying cars. I’d love to see them come to fruition at some point in my life, although realistically I think the automobile industry should first focus on making vehicles much more energy efficient, and perhaps also self-driven. Flying cars have been a staple in science fiction for decades upon decades, but perhaps they’re most famous in the classic cartoon “The Jetsons.” I was just looking at the opening of “The Jetsons” on youtube and there are a couple of things I noticed. One thing is that while it still looks futuristic, stylistically the animation feels very much like the 1960s. This is pretty common in science fiction, for the style to look like the era it was made in, or for people to look and behave like people from the era the series or film was made in rather than the future. If you watch “2001: A Space Odyssey,” the clothes t
Read more