XC 1X2

 I hate rain. Having spent most of my life in climates that rain very little, water falling from the sky seems like a needlessly obnoxious way of replenishing our watersheds. Surely there must be another way. This distaste for rain and lack of experience with rain means that I own precious little rain gear and my shoes are not prepared for it. Nevertheless there was business to conduct in Manhattan so I braved moisture from the sky and made my way into the city. First stop was a shave and haircut. I’m dressing at Luigi for Halloween and I’m a little furry to do him justice. My barber immigrated from Lviv to the US two years ago to cut hair and pursue his acting career. Both are a tough game out here. The rain by this point was still immense enough for me to justify the $3 Subway fare to go one stop. Anything to keep at least a little rainwater out of my shoes. My destination was a small tea house in Greenwich Village to drink oolong and book flights to Uzbekistan. Consider that a p...

 An easy morning trip to Reading Terminal Market. For those not in the know, this is a collection of food and grocery stalls in an old railroad terminal. It’s a little touristy but there’s still plenty of good to be had there. I was on the hunt for something to bring north to my next host and I found it. A bottle of honey harvested in South Philly. It might be toxic but at least it’s cool. Pack up, ship out, and all aboard Amtrak to the run to Newark and Jersey City. Yeah yeah JC isn’t NYC but this is a global blog, we’re going to blur the lines. I’m staying with my friend Matt and his girlfriend Avery. Matt is the first friend I made when I started at Drexel over a decade ago. A decade wow, we’re getting old. We catch up over dinner and drinks. Lots to talk about even though it’s only been a few months since I’ve been here, time flies.

My last full day in Philly. After lunch with Shannon it was time for a little grocery shopping. As a thank you to my friend Jackson for tossing me the keys to his apartment I cooked dinner for him and his girlfriend. That means shopping and what better way to do that than leisurely strolling the Italian Market. For those not in the know, that’s an old school open air market in South Philly. Fruits and veggies are sold from stalls, anything that needs to stay really cold is in a store. The neighborhood is old and changing to serve the changing demographics. The older Italian groceries don’t sell staples anymore. I’d guess this is because anyone going to an Italian grocer there is looking for specialties and prepared food. Hispanics are moving in and the Mexican markets are fully featured. I had an amazing afternoon wandering from stall to stall picking up my vegetables, bread, cheese, and canned goods. Jackson picked me up and brought me north to his girlfriend’s place to cook. I wish I...

 Breakfast today was a very Philly experience. I walked a few blocks north to a spot that claimed to be open. Popped open the door and immediately an old man in a chair pointed for me to leave and just said “window”. Foolish of me to assume that just because they sold breakfast and I saw people walking out of the door with food that I should also go in the door. I walked up to the window which was just the window of a house complete with iron bars. Someone had cut out a chunk of the bar at some point to allow money and food to be passed around. A man slid the window open and asked me what I wanted, I asked for a menu and he seemed annoyed. The breakfast sandwich he made me was fantastic. Eggs, hot cheese, peppers, and ketchup on the sort of Italian long roll that you just don’t get out west. I scarfed it down on Broad Street and walked to a coffee shop for a cuppa tea and to work on a visa. Today is a planning day, I’d like to go to Uzbekistan but first I need permission. The time ...

 After a good night’s sleep Emily and I met up to look for brunch. We were both in dire need of food. This would up being harder than we expected to take care of. Neither of us had cash (this is a cash heavy city) and the Eagles were playing today. Everyone is in the city going to “their spot” for lunch. Lots of green in the crowd. Eventually we found a spot and sat down. It’s only been a day but there’s still a lot to catch up on. We found food eventually After brunch I went to Fishtown to meet Jackson for a bike ride. He’d graciously managed to requisition a bike from a mutual friend. The roadie was in good shape but not well suited to the roads out here. Glass and cobblestones are common. We did about 10 or so miles going down the river path into a park on west Philly. When I went to school here a decade ago they were just starting to open this path, now it goes for miles. How time flies. We bikes through West Philly to get back, trying not to get hit by a driver, while not gett...

 Woke up and tossed my bag in a safe place. Today is shaping up to be an adventure and I’m not sure quite when I’ll be back. I hopped SEPTA to Fox Chase to meet up with my friend Shannon. Normally this wouldn’t be a big deal but the trains have been catching on fire lately so many of them have been pulled from service. Lots of chaos with getting around on the regional rail here.  We grabbed breakfast and walked through a park in her neighborhood. It’s so incredible to me that with a 30 minute train ride and a 15 minute walk you can get into dairyland out here. So incredible. From there I went to Fishtown for the Kensington Derby. This is a long standing kinetic sculpture festival. Think block party that ends with crashing a lot of cool looking bikes into a mud pit. I missed that part but did make it in time for the Awful Wrestling. The hi light for the audience was a match between a Philadelphia Parking Authority officer and a gorilla. Lots of cheering for the gorilla. My frie...

 I woke up in DC and grabbed breakfast. The worker behind the counter and I were chatting that he remarked how strange it was that he got a breakfast rush at 11 am on a Friday. Government shutdown. If you’re in DC and still getting paid, there’s nothing to do but party. Everyone seems to be enjoying a partially paid vacation. Bussed to Union Station and hopped the next train to Wilmington. The joy of the railpass is that once you hit the NEC, last minute bookings become the lay of the land. The ultimate in flexibility. I disembarked in Wilmington to meet my friend Ollie. He’s just moved back east from California and seems to be settling in nicely. We walk his dog, shoot pool, and catch up. After this comes the shortest Amtrak leg of my trip. Wilmington to Philadelphia. 20 minutes later I’m at 30th street and hopping the El to tonight’s crash pad. I drop my bag and book it to Society Hill for my friend Emily’s birthday. Her friends look confused when I walk in. I was just here a cou...

 A beautiful day in our nation’s capitol. I met my cousin Rebecca and her boyfriend Noah for breakfast at Tatte, a DC mainstay. After a pastry, we wandered the mall, caught up, and watched hordes of disappointed schoolchildren trying to make the most of a trip to DC during a government shutdown. Not shut down Once she had to go to work, I made my way back to U Street to meet up with my friend Jeremy. While waiting for him I got to witness something that pretty much sums up life in DC these days. A black man dressed as a Union Soldier talking to the deployed national guardsman. Just a chat about civil war reenactments. This was the most engaged I’d seen our national guard in DC, usually they look so bored they could cry. Jeremy, Cage, and I grabbed lunch at Ben’s Chili Bowl. An old school DC mainstay and the only business on U to survive the metro’s cut and cover shutdown of the street. The history was sad but the food was fantastic. My half smoke sent me in orbit and the banana pud...

Checked out for my morning train. There weren’t very many of us on the platform, I think in all about a half dozen of us boarded at Cumberland, two of the passengers came with bicycles at the end of their tow path run.  A seasonal display The ride was uneventful, meandering our way down the Potomac while I napped in my chair. We pulled into DC just after lunch, I dropped my bag, and went off to kill some time. First stop, The Smithsonian! I went to DC as a tourist fairly often when I was younger so for many years I felt I’d had my fill of our capitol’s monuments and museums. This trip seemed like a time to revisit them as an adult. The moment I started looking into it I was confronted with the fact that my government was still shut down. “Congress shall make no law.” Not a seasonal display Since most of the city was shut down I decided to do a little mall walking. Seniors like it, why not me. I meandered the city to the mall making a few stops along the way. I’d just finished my bo...

 This morning’s first mission was to go to Curtis Famous Weiners to try one of the famous Coney Island style hot dogs there. Curtis has been slinging dogs in Cumberland for well over a hundred years and is a local institution. When I walked in and started looking for a menu the man behind the counter knew I was in need of guidance. People usually walk in and know what they want. One with everything and a Vanilla Coke. What does that mean? A steamed hot dog with whole grain mustard, a dry chili, and onions. The Vanilla Coke comes out of the fountain like any other coke and has vanilla mixed in after the fact. You don’t see that much anymore. The atmosphere reminds me a lot of Long Beach’s own Joe Jost’s, a similarly aged mainstay. After breakfast I wandered off to the canal path to see the thing that everyone comes through town for this time of year. The Chesapeake and Ohio canal ends in Cumberland, the canal and towpath make up a national park that people typically traverse. It is ...

 I slept in today. Beds are hard to come by when you’re bumming around, especially the kind that I’m allowed to occupy for as long as I can bear. Relishing the luxury. I wandered off to explore the ReStore sale. Habitat for Humanity had for some reason come to possess the assets of a recently shut down bank. I didn’t know what I might buy there, I can hardly get a desk back to California, but it was neat to walk through. Everything was open and the old executive offices were beautiful, back when a bank meant something in a small town. Downtown  One of the pleasant surprises of this town was learning that I have family closeby. My cousin Tori and her husband Caleb purchased some land in West Virginia, not far from Cumberland. I let them know I was going to be in town and they scooped me up for lunch. They’ve been enjoying their time out here and the kids and relishing the amount of land at the their disposal, especially the oldest. They took me back to West Virginia (as soon as...

 I woke up as we pulled out of Pittsburgh winding through the curves of a river with an Algonquin name I had no hope of pronouncing. A trip to the cafe united my teabag with hot water and I could start my morning. The leaves are starting to change and watching the orange trees on the riverbanks made for a soothing environment to nurse my morning cuppa.  Don’t ask what river We pulled into Cumberland at 9 am and I was ready for breakfast. What to eat proved to be an easy question to answer, there is only one restaurant open for breakfast in Cumberland on Sunday mornings. I made my way to Cafe Marc along with everyone else. There are about 20,000 people living in Cumberland and more or less all of them were standing in line at Marc waiting for breakfast. I had my eggs and potatoes and proceeded to my hotel. Not my train Cumberland is something special. The Queen City was in its prime a place of great wealth and at one point the second biggest city in Maryland. It is rich in hist...

 My last morning in the Oak Grove crash pad. There’s nothing wrong with the place but there’s nothing right with it either. After so many days of being cooped up in that hotel room it felt good to check out and move on. I took a bus to the L and the L to Union Station to drop my bag off. Luckily CHI is staffed and will hold your bag for the day for ten bucks. A bargain. As I made my way out from The Loop I noticed gobs of people heading east. I read their shirts and signs. Ahhh yes, No Kings Day. There is nothing more quintessentially American than a protest against executive power. Well, maybe avoiding paying your taxes. America the beautiful After breakfast I walked to Grant Park to see the assembly. Wow what a crowd of people. It warmed my heart to see so many peacefully assembling to stand for what they believe in. I pushed further east to the shore of Lake Michigan. The city has a lovely walking path connecting the lakeshore, their parks, and the riverwalk. I spent the afterno...

 The big news today is that my mind was clear enough to plan. The new big idea is to take The Floridian to Cumberland Maryland and spend a few days there before making my way in to DC. All booked, reserved, ticketed, and ready to go. The other big event was making my way to the frozen custard place across the street from my hotel. Exciting stuff!

A good deal more energy today, I even managed to get a walk to Target in! Lunch came from a Mexican restaurant on the main drag that had some of the best tortillas I’ve eaten that weren’t made in house (Tortillería Atotonilco for those in the area). I’ve got enough of my brain back to start thinking about what’s next. I’m scrapping the entirety of my plans from Chicago to Washington, there just isn’t time. Instead I’ll be taking The Cardinal from here to DC over the course of a couple days stopping in some of the more interesting towns for a night or two. Not quite sure which those will be just yet. Movie hilights today… Tenebrae - old school Italian horror. Amazing soundtrack. If you like Suspiria you’ll like it. What’s New Pussycat? - Peter O’Toole looks a lot like David Bowie.

 I’m sure that it may annoy people who live off the L that I’m titling these posts in Chicago even though I’m in Oak Lawn. Let’s say that these posts are for a global audience and the two are close enough.  After my morning bedrot I went for lunch. Today was dreary and drizzling so I went for my favorite midwestern indulgence, deep dish pizza. New Yorkers, please pause your groaning until the end of the paragraph. People are allowed to enjoy pizza that doesn’t come from your island, learn to contend with that. Midwestern food is often made fun of on the coasts and often for good reason. It has a reputation for blandness, questionable ingredient choices, and even more questionable ingredient quality. However, sometimes you just need to eat a pile of hot cheese. $20 got me the “world’s largest” slice of deep dish, a massive salad, a bread roll, and a cup of soda on the house since I came in before it was ready. The gooey sacrament was perfect for a wet and dewey day. The gooey s...

 In my haze yesterday I neglected to book a hotel for the entirety of my isolation period. Mostly this was because by brain was so non functioning that it didn’t occur to me that I was going to need more than a day to heal. Of course, the place I booked was full up for the rest of the week so it’s off to Oak Grove where my new room overlooks Illinois Route 50 and the usual sprawl of parking lots that grace this nation’s self identified rural spaces. I took America’s favorite rolling stock museum (Metra) to the local train station which is blissfully close to my hotel. This is the first time I’ve been in a gallery car since Caltrain gave all of theirs to the city of Lima… For free… and the people felt ripped off. The meds are kicking in and I’m feeling I picked pretty good. There’s a shocking amount in walking distance and because the pedestrian environment is unpleasant here I’m not in danger of getting anyone else sick if I need to grab something. Today was a movie day. Hilights i...

 Woke up Searing headache… again. I still feel like garbage. That’s not good, I should be better by now. Lucky me, I’ve hit my deductible for the year and at least I don’t have to think about how much urgent care is going to cost. One eternity in the waiting room and two really awful nose swabs later and I get my diagnosis. The flu.  Guess I’ll be holed up here for a while. At least it’s a good excuse to spend a lot of money on a fancy bed.

 searing headache The plains of Iowa roll by My head hurts My mouth is dry I have to pee Why is there never enough water? I spend most of this leg taking 30 minute naps. No regrets, not much scenery in the plains.  We pull into Chicago only an hour late. Not bad. I make it to my cousin’s and pass out as soon as I can. I’m meeting her boyfriend for the first time. He’s kind and smart. Perfect for Alanna.  We catch up over dinner I fall asleep

 I feel like Hell. The cat decided she needed to eat at 5 am and I am succumbing to altitude sickness. I’ve spent the day resting in some hope that I’ll be able to recover my sensibilities. The train was delayed two hours getting in but for me that was time spent blissfully asleep, recovering.  One hilight of the day was getting to see Jenna’s garden. It is as chaotic as it is verdant. She has so many plants at her home that she could probably start a catering company.  In a vain attempt to claw back some sanity, I’ve asked the station agent what I would pay to upgrade to a sleeper car. For the $1000 they’re asking I’ll just suffer.

 I woke up in luxury. A bed that wasn’t moving. It has been days since I’ve experienced that and it makes me appreciate the little things. The lady of the house (Ricky’s cat) decided I needed to be up at 7 am to feed her. It is still the most restful I’ve felt in days. After placating the ferocious feline, I went off in search of breakfast. A walk to the other side of the tracks had the answer. Ricky’s neighborhood was at one point the industrial heart of Denver. Since we don’t make things in Denver anymore and people cannot bear to build housing where housing already is, the whole area has been rebuilt full of luxury apartments and loft conversions. Jenna has lived here for considerably longer and has watched the neighborhood change. “I knew it was turning when Patagonia opened a store here.” Ricky’s apartment abuts a railyard and I cross it to get to breakfast at The Butcher Block. I sit down at the counter and order a breakfast burrito. It arrived covered in gravy and hatch chil...

 I slept okay. Not amazing, but okay. Amtrak’s long distance coach seating is comparable to first class in an airliner. Almost lie flat, but not quite. My eye mask, earplugs, and beers helped a lot. For someone, this is somewhere I woke up and made my way to the cafe car. Overnight we had traversed through Salt Lake City, our only overnight stop and just about pulled in to Helper Utah. The cafe car provided me with hot water for the tea I carried with me. There’s a benefit to being a tea drinker over a coffee drinker. A coffee drinker has to suffer through whatever is around. I get to bring Ceylon with me and beg for hot water. I guess we both suffer. The mighty Colorado The train chugs on. I talk to a gentleman who boarded overnight in Salt Lake who I clocked as a cyclist by his hat. For those who know it’s a dead giveaway. He’s riding the train to Chicago with his bike and then touring all the way to Mexico. Now that’s an adventure. My morning was spent sorting through yesterday’...

 I woke up on my sister’s couch and tiptoed into her car. While her house is close enough to Emeryville station to walk, I was lucky that dropping her off for my next leg was convenient for the both of us. Happy birthday and goodbye. I sat on the platform and waited. Emeryville is the start of the line for The California Zephyr, an Amtrak route that runs all the way to Chicago. I’ll be riding the whole thing but luckily I have a layover in Denver to break up the journey. This first leg is a mere 36 hours. Board at breakfast and disembark at dinner the next day. Boarding Amtrak is a hilarious bit of chaos. Moments like these are when our country’s underinvestment in rail really shows. In most cases, you will not have a seat assignment when you book your ticket. The station agent marshaled us to various spots on the platform based on ticket class and destination. I was in the back of the train, coach passengers going far. We were warned not to stand too close to the yellow line lest ...

Another slow start. Today is a moving day so I kicked it off by packing my things for the road. Raphael and I popped into the Korean supermarket by his house to secure some provisions. For me this meant high quality ramen. Food on Amtrak isn’t too bad or too expensive but it does get dull over time and I have to pace myself on it. The only way I can ‘cook’ on the trains is to add hot water to things. Luckily, any self respecting Asian market has enough options in the instant noodle aisle to stay entertaining. After lunch with Ryan and a stop at the mall Raphael brought me to the local station in Sunnyvale where we said our goodbyes. Historically I’ve been up in the bay every few months and saying goodbye is pretty easy. Knowing that I won’t be around for a few months makes it harder. I Caltrained my way to SF to make a brief stop in Chinatown to buy some tea, very important. Making little stops when I’m moving all my things is particularly difficult right now since I don’t just had my ...