Prescript: my partner called me after returning to my grandmothers house and relayed to me that Little Dog was standing on the FRONT porch waiting for someone to come back. She fucking jumped over or wiggled under a 6-foot fence, walked around the block and waited out front for my partner. I'm not sure how she feels about my absence, let's hope she hasn't noticed. Anyways:
Now that my train is moving and I'm settled with my grapefruit San Pellegrino, (best flavor,) I thought I might expand on the feasons I consider train travel superior:
1. It's like a roadtrip, but no driving.
2. You can get drunk on alcohol you bring with you.
3. Security is so lax. No one looked into my bag to see the five and a half joints I have in a mason jar, no one goves a shit about my 32 oz of water, 8oz of coffee, 72 oz of beer, or 72 oz of grapefruit soda. I have a knife in my jacket. No one even asked.
4. Carry on items are practically unlimited, which means I can bring my Thule messenger bag, (huge) and my food bag, (huge) and my tenor Ukelele onboard with my blanket and no one bats an eye. Two carry-on PLUS two personal items, none to exceed 50lbs means I can bring 200lbs of crap with me before I have to check anything.
5. You get to move around. The dining car is rad after 10pm. You can bring an instrument there and play because no one's there to sleep and everyone wears headphones anyways.
6. Even in Coach, there's tons of room to stretch your legs.
7. You have time to unwind and relax and shake the excess bullshit out of your brain.
8. You can meet new people if that's what you're into. I'm a misanthrope (read: shy and introverted) and not usually interested in meeting people only to never talk to them again. But I have friends who aren't that way, and they've made friends and even gotten laid on overnight train rides.
9. You can feel snotty and superior to those plebian plane-takers. You're classic and vintage and cool and into the finer things like smelling roses. It's always good to feel superior for arbitrary reasons.
10. The view is great. Water, farmland, rolling hills, sunset and sunrise- you get to see the beauty that this country has to offer, which is quite a bit. No city bullshit for the most part.