Hey Team,

This may be the most indecisive I’ve been so far on this trip. I’m en route but still haven’t decided exactly where I’m en route too. I’m sitting on a bench in Greensboro, NC right now. At 9:21am I board a train for Raleigh and I have a ticket that leaves for Orlando later tonight.

Mostly I’m indecisive because I would like to go diving in the Atlantic this week but I already know I have to be in Florida the 18th-21st for Biketoberfest, (Which I’m totally stoked about. I love being places where everyone has something in common and they’re nothing like me. It such a great way to absorb a lot of information quickly.) so it wouldn’t make for a very efficient trip…but then again who said this trip has anything to do with efficiency.

And I just bought another rail pass yesterday so despite the fact that I’m dangerously close to broke at least I don’t have to worry about any travel expenses for the next month, so getting to and from Florida wont be a problem on that end.

I’m completely exhausted right now after only catching a couple hours of sleep on the train–

Hey! Maybe you can’t relate, but what the crap is up with conductors who try to do assigned seating on the train?! One stop after I got on, despite an almost empty car, the conductor asked me to move my stuff and made some lady sit next to me. Which normally wouldn’t be a big deal, but if all you want to do is spread out and sleep and you can see pairs of empty seats from where you’re sitting it’s kind of aggravating. And not in a “the grass is always greener sort of way.” More like an “are you freakin’ kidding me?” sort of way.

“Hey, do you mind if I head over to one of those pairs of empty seats so I can spread out and take a nap?”

“I’m afraid not sir, we’re going to have a lot of people aboard tonight and we’re going to need all the seats.”

Three hours later, after repeatedly trying (and failing) to speak Spanish to the lady next to me (who spoke less English than I do Spanish, so at least I was entertained) pairs of seats were still open! Eventually my neighbor got tired of my second-rate Spanish and dove into one of the empty spots across the way.

Four hours later I woke up at my stop curled in a ball taking up two seats and looked over to see my ex-neighbor doing the same…so obviously these mystery people who were supposed to take up the whole train weren’t getting on until after I left! So why…arrgh! I’m tired. You can follow the rant to its logical conclusion.

I’m done.

Brett.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, September 27th, 2007 at 5:13 am.