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Saturday: travel planning
Jan. 21st, 2024 04:00 pmThis was sort of a weird day.
I did a lot of train research, mostly US and some Canada. After years of on and off casually trying to figure out what would be involved in taking the train instead of driving or flying, I finally sat down and tried to work out a trip involving a train. Any train. Any trip.
First, at least in the US, there’s the upper bunk problem. Apparently most people solve this by getting one roomette per person. Second, there’s the problem of There’s Only One Train Per Day on the long routes, and sometimes not even one per day but 3 per week or whatever. Which means, whatever time it arrives at a particular town is the only time it ever arrives in that particular town. Now you could hope for a delay, but never rely upon it.
Second, let’s say you wanted to get around that by taking the train some ways, and then stopping to sleep and do stuff. Well, the next time you get on that train, it’s just a continuation from the same point you got off on the same schedule. So you can see where that doesn’t fix any issues you might have with sleeping on the train.
I haven’t completely given up on this, but I think I need to first schedule a single night on the train trip, to find out whether the sleeping-on-the-train works for me and/or A. at all, before attempting anything more complex.
Also, at some point, R. commented about solving the north station / south station dilemma (most Amtrak is going to be coming in to one, but if you want to commuter rail from Boston to home, you need the other) by saying they aren’t that far apart. But of course, they are. He claimed some within-airport distance was comparable, but of course, that’s dead flat. I said that, but he said, so is between the two stations. And I absolutely 100% lost my shit and became wildly verbally abusive. Because I realized that I’ve put days - literally at this point — into figuring out how we could travel without going to the airport. I did this because he keeps leaving the rest of us behind at airports and he says he does _that_ because airports are so awful. So I’ve been planning travel that does not involve airports, and honestly? Airports are not the problem here. He is the problem here. And whenever he’s stressed while traveling, he just walks faster and leaves A. and me behind. Which is very not okay.
I don’t think I have a solution, and I absolutely understand that he is not unique in doing this and I am not unique in complaining (I’ve done google searches; this is basically like complaining about the other parent, typically the man but not always, failing to feed the kids if unsupervised / reminded to do so. Depressingly familiar). Alas, it’s not clear anyone else has a solution either.
ETA:
I keep remembering the previous train trip to NYC and trying to get to the hotel from Penn Station. It wasn’t that far, and I let myself get talked into doing the subway part of the way and walking the rest and it was horrible. Curbs and potholes and lots of people and navigating A. (11 at the time, I think) and luggage was a nightmare. Absolutely unnecessary; NYC has cabs and Uber and Lyft and everything.
I did a lot of train research, mostly US and some Canada. After years of on and off casually trying to figure out what would be involved in taking the train instead of driving or flying, I finally sat down and tried to work out a trip involving a train. Any train. Any trip.
First, at least in the US, there’s the upper bunk problem. Apparently most people solve this by getting one roomette per person. Second, there’s the problem of There’s Only One Train Per Day on the long routes, and sometimes not even one per day but 3 per week or whatever. Which means, whatever time it arrives at a particular town is the only time it ever arrives in that particular town. Now you could hope for a delay, but never rely upon it.
Second, let’s say you wanted to get around that by taking the train some ways, and then stopping to sleep and do stuff. Well, the next time you get on that train, it’s just a continuation from the same point you got off on the same schedule. So you can see where that doesn’t fix any issues you might have with sleeping on the train.
I haven’t completely given up on this, but I think I need to first schedule a single night on the train trip, to find out whether the sleeping-on-the-train works for me and/or A. at all, before attempting anything more complex.
Also, at some point, R. commented about solving the north station / south station dilemma (most Amtrak is going to be coming in to one, but if you want to commuter rail from Boston to home, you need the other) by saying they aren’t that far apart. But of course, they are. He claimed some within-airport distance was comparable, but of course, that’s dead flat. I said that, but he said, so is between the two stations. And I absolutely 100% lost my shit and became wildly verbally abusive. Because I realized that I’ve put days - literally at this point — into figuring out how we could travel without going to the airport. I did this because he keeps leaving the rest of us behind at airports and he says he does _that_ because airports are so awful. So I’ve been planning travel that does not involve airports, and honestly? Airports are not the problem here. He is the problem here. And whenever he’s stressed while traveling, he just walks faster and leaves A. and me behind. Which is very not okay.
I don’t think I have a solution, and I absolutely understand that he is not unique in doing this and I am not unique in complaining (I’ve done google searches; this is basically like complaining about the other parent, typically the man but not always, failing to feed the kids if unsupervised / reminded to do so. Depressingly familiar). Alas, it’s not clear anyone else has a solution either.
ETA:
I keep remembering the previous train trip to NYC and trying to get to the hotel from Penn Station. It wasn’t that far, and I let myself get talked into doing the subway part of the way and walking the rest and it was horrible. Curbs and potholes and lots of people and navigating A. (11 at the time, I think) and luggage was a nightmare. Absolutely unnecessary; NYC has cabs and Uber and Lyft and everything.