Leaving DC for good

There is a backlog of blogs - and since I have only just reached a place with internet - these don't come in the right order ... so about a week late .. here's leaving DC...

I write this blog rather unusually, on board a train - ten hours into a 20 hour train ride, the sun has set, massachusets is behind us, Canada before us, and we plunge into the blackness that only snow and starlight can create. There is only one train a day from the East to the West coast of the United States - and only one Northern route. This trip began with madness and has conitnued that way right through until the present day. Last week my room mate, Sylvia and I were chatting - and decided that we should take the train back from DC to California - it’s a 6 day trip straight - but it seemed like it made sense. And the wonder of the Rockies, Montreal, Boston, Montana and Niagra Falls stretched ahead - gleaming with all the potential and wonder that comes with places you;ve never looked at properly on a map or actually considered the practicalities of getting to. Within moments the plan was agreed and Sylvia was gone - with the decision that we would meet in 5 days in New York - in Madison Gardens at midday and take it from there. There were two weeks before us, I had my Whsmith map of Northern America and my International 15 day rail pass - what could possibly go wrong?

My first mistake was putting my Train Pass in a “safe place” - the bag I was sending back with another friend to California by plane. My second mistake was the failure to realise that trains in the states don’t work the way they work in britain. In short - their ability to work is even more limited and generally restricted to one train a day - involving a 10 hour sidetrack back to New York before you can get anywhere. My third problem was the issue of luggage - after living for two months in DC - my luggage was not ideal for “spontaneous” leaping between public transport vehicles - two large book filled suitcases - with broken handles. Lastly, there were the issues of the two 20 page essays due in that week as well as my “market research report” due for my embedded reporter - now in Iraq and so uncontactable.

But, determined - and with the thought of meeting friends and roomates scattered throughout the states who I had not seen for 4 years fresh in my mind as the date for the New York meet=up grew nearer I grew happier. As usual the last week involved ridiculously late nights, saying goodbye to people, having “a last drink” that actually turned out to be “drinks”, and then returning to my computer and essay writing before plunging into last days at work. It all took its toll - by the last night - half delusional - and determined to pack as much as I could into a suitcase that my friend could take home to California for me - rather too enthusiastically I managed to also pack my rail ticket.
Problem number 1.

The next day, after one hours sleep - woken none too graciously by an Australian friend heading back to Aussie forever - waking from his stupour swearing that he was going to miss his flight and running through his apartment (where I had been sleeping on the sofa) fighting his clothes into his suitcase I realised I myself still had the horrible prospect of packing up. In DC - true to its unusual and annoying fondness for rules our apartment building had been advertising all week its latest favourite rule to make our lives hell -- “anyone who is not checked out of the building by 1pm Saturday 12th march will be charged a $25 fee every 15 minutes they are late” had been prominently displayed proudly in the elevator alongside the paranoid snow warnings. As I hurricaned through the apartment, cleaning, packing, hugging goodbyes to people as they passed by, trying in desperation to get through to Amtrak to ask if they could re-issue my rail pass, texting California to get my friend to fed ex my ticket across to a friend’s friend in Boston my time ticked by. As I emptied last night’s coffee granules away (my staple diet for the last week and possibly at that point my life blood) into the sink - another disaster hit. The sink blocked itself. I promise - this had no relation to any of my actions - and was a freak occurance - completely unpredictable and wholly independent of my own actions -- my bags were bulging bigger and bigger - my sink filling blacker and blacker with coffee grains - and the time ticjing ticking by, with 5 minutes to spare - my saviour arrived. A german friend (daniel) arrived to save me as my last strands of sanity ebbed away. The two minute bell rang as I sat on my suitcase to shut it - and with 1 minute to go I ran into the shower, clothed myself without drying, and ran my way down to the elevator - meanwhile Daniel had managed to unplug the sink (apparently it had something to do with the plug that was in there). In my defense I was dillusional, caffeine hillusionegnic and living off a stupidly small amount of sleep.

Dripping wet and panting from running down the ten flights of stairs - I arrived at 2 minutes past 1pm to check out. Right on time.

Here came problem number 2 - aching under the weight of my suitcase - no way to return to our apartment - and with no train ticket out of DC I stood outside the DC “University of California”apartment block with a sinking feeling in my stomach. I glared at the people walking past in the hope of making myself feel better. It didn’t. It was one of those cold, bright, sunny days and it just didn’t ring true.

So, not one to let a little extra luggage and the lack of ticket deter me I made a valiant effort. At a snails pace I crawled down the street. I decided the best way of dealing with all those happy, bright DCers was to keep my eyes turned downwards - and after 10 minutes - I looked up - and realised I had managed a grand total of 1 block of walking. Defeated, for the second time that day I felt like I had almost lost hold of my sanity.

But just as German Daniel had arrived at the perfect moment to unblock my sink and give me back enough sanity to continue - so looking up I saw a post office and it seemed to be the perfect answer. I would just post my suitcases. With two minutes before their closing time I started unpacking - bras, books, Dick Cheney momentos burst out of my suitcase onto the post office floor- and hurridly deciding to be economical on the clothes front I packed the 10 books I needed for my two essays, my laptop and some clean underwear into my rucksack.

If you are ever unsure about what is important to you and want to learn how to prioritise I thoroughly advise repeating my experience. As the post office staff locked the doors and swept the floor around me I made remarkably quick decisions - and wondered out of the office with my mini rucksack and my suitcase on its way to California - amazed that I ever thought I needed anything else.

Problem 1 remained a problem two days later as I left Philadelphia and discovered from my news in California that my suitcase had actually ended up in another stranger’s house in San Jose (a city about an hour from my friends and Santa Cruz).

Problem 3 didn’t blossom fully until Monday. Sylvia and I did indeed meet - as arranged in Madison Gardens - unfortunately the delights of New York escaped us.
“Oh you want to get to Montreal” we were told
“well - you’ll have to come back to New York first - you can’t go direct from Boston”
“Oh - and as for Chicago on Friday - that’s just not going to happen - there’s only one train a day and its all booked up”
“hmm.. yes you would have thought you’d be able to travel 100 miles in a day but the rails don’t belong to us dear - they belong to the freight trains so our trains can only use them when the feight trains aren’t - it will take 20 hours and not 10.”
“Oh you want to buy tickets from me - the ticket lady -- I’m sorry but we can’t do that - you’ll have to phone up - it’s against regulations”

It really did surprise me that this was not some third world country - out of reach of the civilised concept of public transport - this was the most ‘advanced” nation on the planet...

My eyes are drooping - and Sylvia and the rest of this carriage are sleeping (even the little boy across the way who has been playing mario games for the past ten hours - with those annoying little bleeps whenever he loses - which seems to be frequent, so I’m starting to feel that I’d like to join them - we’ve just left Buffalo (Niagara Falls) - and have had a 30 minute stop to allow the freight trains past - again. So, I leave you as we plunge on into night time and Illinois. Good night.