9 October 2023
It seems these days I go to bed and wonder what’s happening next. About 3 am the joints in my wrists and my ankles started aching – fiercely, sometimes with sharp pains. I downed a couple of Advils and that did no good so eventually, I tried the Claritin Holy Cross recommended for joint pain when I was getting injections to boost my immune system (which I haven’t had for a month). I think it was around 4 am that the aches finally went away and then my left knee started.
I didn’t see anyone or speak to anyone on the phone but if I had, they probably would have thought me grouchy from lack of sleep and lack of coffee and lack of breakfast. I had a blood draw (fasting) this morning for my endocrinologist (the one who will have a heart attack when he sees my A1c level). The gentleman who draws the blood is exceptionally good at it and he always finds a vein first thing. When he didn’t this morning, he wanted to shift to my left arm and I told him it had to be the right arm because of the left breast mastectomy. He didn’t flinch and went back to the right arm and eventually palpated enough to find a vein on the right.
After the blood draw, I headed to Walgreens to pick up a prescription (Flomax) and then stop in at Winn-Dixie. With all the shopping I’ve done this past week I managed to forget to pick up milk. I’m back to cereal and fruit instead of my usual watermelon/cantaloupe, and other assorted fruit. Watermelon season is over and what they do have in the stores has no real taste.
Of course, milk lead me past the candy aisle which meant more Tootsie Roll miniatures. It’s gotten to where I give as many out at the cancer center as I eat so I’m stockpiling bags of the stuff. Never fear, I eat my share.
My cousin Jo called this afternoon and I gave her the news about the repair of the railroad bridge in Mobile. The last time passenger service from Mobile to New Orleans occurred was 2005. A passenger train crashed when a bridge was knocked out in 1993 and 47 people were killed. Since then, Amtrak has not re-established service due to conflicts and disagreements with regular rail service. The train was known as the Sunset Limited and historically ran from New Orleans to Los Angles as part of the Southern Pacific Railroad. In 1993, it extended from New Orleans to Florida. Perhaps it will only be a matter of time you will be able to get on the train in Florida and travel across the country via the southern route.
I’ve had a love affair with trains all my life. The first train I remember was going to see my Dad at Havre de Grace, Maryland. Mother, Archie and I either boarded in Jackson, Morton, or Meridian (I don’t remember which) and probably went through Atlanta and then up the eastern seaboard. I do remember Archie and I putting coins on the track at one of the stations to see if the train would flatten the coins. That was something we used to do as kids in Morton. Today, parents would go into shock if kids played along railroad tracks much less run put coins on the track before the train got to you.
Back then, the locomotives were coal burning and they belched smoke and steam. Once the locomotive got up to speed, there was a rhythm to the train that Mom described to me as telling me “gonna see Daddy.” I think she was trying to allay my fright at the huge size of the locomotive as it pulled into various stations. It worked.
I remember my first train set for Christmas. It was an O gauge and instead of two rails, there were three with one rail down the middle. The locomotive had a headlight and there was a tablet you could put down the smokestack with a drop of water that would give off wisps of smoke. Here’s what the locomotive looked like. Note the price you would pay for just the locomotive today!
Some of the more famous (and romanticized) trains that made it through New Orleans were the Crescent (New York, Atlanta, New Orleans), the City of New Orleans (Chicago to New Orleans) the Panama Limited (Chicago to New Orleans) the Southwestern Limited (technically, Meridian, Ms to Shrevesport, La) and the Sunset Limited (New Orleans, San Antonio, Los Angles). I’ve ridden the Crescent and City of New Orleans.
Train travel in the 50’s was posh. I definitely remember the dining car with white table cloths, waiter service, and the clickety-clack of the rails. I don’t think we could afford sleepers so we probably sat in coach the whole way to Havre de Grace. Of course, you dressed up to ride on trains.
I went to radio school at Governor’s Island in New York in the 70’s and decided to take a train back home to Mississippi. At the time, I didn’t know there wasn’t rail service from Atlanta to Jackson so I bought a ticket to Atlanta. That was the last time I rode the Crescent. They still had waiter service (but you had to write your order down) and no white table cloths. I still loved it. I don’t think they even have a dining car any more.
My last trip on the City of New Orleans was in 2014 when Archie, Tanis and I went to the WWII museum in New Orleans. We caught the train in Jackson. An unusual feature of the train is that it actually backs into the train station in New Orleans. The train pulls off to a side track somewhere above the city and backs into the station so it will be heading in the correct direction for its return trip to Chicago.
Brightline has recently inaugurated high speed rail service from Miami to Orlando. I’ve done the Fort Lauderdale to West Palm Beach segment and it’s great! It’s worth springing for the first class ticket with the extra amenities and they still run specials that can significantly reduce your fair.
The one train trip I would really like to take is the Rocky Mountaineer that goes from Vancouver to Banff. Maybe one day!
Stay tuned!