#198 The Two-Day Train Ride Home

.....I am home

Dec 21, 2024

May 18, 2024 & May 19, 2024

TRAVEL DAY 1

Guests can have two eggs with all the pancakes and coffee you can handle. But you make it yourself. I grab two eggs and the mixing powder and begin cooking.

Afterward I head outside to finish off my last cup of coffee and watch rowers zoom by on the Connecticut River. Some of the long thin boats have only two people rowing, some have six or more.

I could sit here on this picnic table all day enjoying this blue sky and cool breeze, watching people on the water, and doing nothing. But I better get my gear ready to go. Besides, I’ll be doing nothing for the next two days on the train.

These Solomon boots have got to go. They have served me well.

Their final act of service was to carry me seven-hundred-twenty-five miles along the rough terrain of the Appalachian Trail. The tread on their bottoms have been mostly eroded. The mid-soles have been shredded. The sides of the toe boxes, along with several other areas, are torn wide open. These are but one of many pair that I’ve hiked in over the years, but these have borne the brunt of the torture.

As though lost in a solemn moment, I hesitate to put them into the dumpster but know there’s no reason to take them home. They’ve hiked their final mile.

I toss several other pieces of clothing and other things that I don’t want to carry home into the dumpster as well.

The shuttle driver takes me into White River Junction, Vermont where I’ll catch the train to Washington DC.

Walking around the downtown district, I pop in and out of a few small shops. I buy a coffee and a large cranberry muffin at one of the shops, then walk back to the station’s picnic table to eat it.

Only a hand full of us get onto the train, but the closer we move towards New York City the fuller it gets.

I work my way through my trail notes, rewriting them into a larger notebook, making them more legible.

I catch up on my friend Bad Bat’s videos. She’s a thru hiker who began in February, posts daily ten-minute videos from the trail, and is still out there, somewhere.

I talk with several passengers as they come and go.

One man is on the phone with his father in another country. When he’s finished, he tells me that he came to America several years ago, did very well financially, and bought his father a house in his home country, and also pays for people to tend to the property.

He gets off the train in New York.

A very large lady gets on, sits by me, and immediately falls asleep, trapping me in the inside seat…..then snores loudly. She gets off a little later.

The sun is setting over New York City as the train rolls through. I’m looking on the horizon for the mountain summits from where I saw the NYC skyline last month. I can’t see them.

The train rolls into Washington DC after 10:00 p.m. I go outside to see the Capitol Building lit up, then walk around Union Station looking for a safe place to set up for the night.

I meet a retired lady who’d just finished hiking a long trail in Virginia and will be here most of the night. We agree to watch over one another’s stuff. She runs to the restroom while I stay with our stuff, then I go.

She found a wooden bench long enough to lay down on where she spreads her pad and a small blanket out and rest her back and head on her backpack.

Anyone is allowed to come inside from 6:00 a.m. to midnight, but at midnight, the police begin sweeping the station, going person to person, asking to see everyone’s tickets, escorting anyone to the door that can’t produce one, leaving only the passengers waiting for overnight trains.

To protect my backpack from anyone left in the station, I push it under a bench and lay my sleeping pad, sleeping bag liner, and inflatable pillow on the floor in front of it. I set a water bottle out, mostly out of habit - cool dry air night on the trail make you thirsty at night. I’m sure cool train station air will too. I pull a buff down around my eyes to block the bright lights, in hopes of getting a few hours of sleep.

Once you’ve gotten accustomed to sleeping on your pad night after night, you can lay down just about anywhere and sleep.

TRAVEL DAY 2

My slumber is disrupted by a group of station employees and police officers talking and laughing about five feet from me at around 5:00 a.m. I managed to get a few hours of sleep but not enough.

My hiker friend is gone. Her train came in the middle of the night. I guess I slept deeper than thought, I didn’t hear her packing up.

I wander around the station for a while. When the station’s McDonalds opens, I buy a large McCoffee and a small cup of hot water. Using my backpack as a chair and the luggage carrousel edge as a table, I pour leftover oatmeal and peanut butter into my camp bowl, pour in the hot McWater, and mix it all up.

I find a real table where I can sit and write, mostly to burn time. The phone rings. It’s my dad calling to see if I survived the night. I tell him it was about like sleeping in a crowded shelter, minus the snores.

I walk outside one last time and find myself in a nice conversation with an older lady who is packing up her belongings into a duffle bag, thankful she survived the night. I want to take her inside to feed her, but my train will be here soon. I slip her most of what little money I have left in my pocket in hopes that she goes inside and feeds herself.

The train leaves at 8:00, so I make my way to the terminal with little time to spare.