the train they call 'The City of New Orleans"

has anyone ever ridden it?

i recently had my first over-night train ride (16 hours to Chicago) and it was the second best travelling experience of my life (the best being the drive back from Chicago with my brother). except they don't have limes for their gin and tonics and there's no damn smoking car.

i am eager for more.
perhaps i should become a hobo.

good morning, America, how are you?

[Edited on Dec 04, 2004 by paisleyplaid]

I rode the Southern Crescent from Birmingham to DC when I was about 12. We had a sleeping car and everything. Puked in the dining car during breakfast from the motion sickness. Quite memorable.

But it was the best part of the trip and I'd love to do it again.

well i live in New Orleans, But i don't know a thing about a train.

it runs from Chicago to New Orleans.

I like willie nelson's version of that song a lot.

For two years I lived on a train. You get to see parts of America that no one gets to see... and I had the best sleep ever. I'm one of those people who love to sleep in the car, so the long trips at night were the best.

Oh, and how could I forget sitting on the vestibule while the world wizzed by?! Getting drunk and watching the train chase the moon... made for some fun nights.

what do you mean by "lived on a train?" working? hobo?

sleeping on the train was wonderful. it rocked me to sleep, and i awoke to the sunrise over cincinatti.

that's what inspired this thread. we heard the song on the radio on the drive back from chicago, and talked about how much we wanted to ride that route.

Yeah, I thought it was nice too, until I threw up in the dining car.

You should watch this movie about modern-day hobos...pretty good.

i took the train from new orleans to san francisco and some crazy lady stole my seat while i was in the scenic car. she moved all my stuff onto another seat (well, my one bag) and set up camp, taking up both seats in the row. she had a life-size teddy bear. she didn't smell wonderful. the train was full so i had to make her move her things into the next seat so i could sit (she was beyond trying to explain that it wasn't polite moving my bag). the first night when she fell asleep she started making all these weird moaning noises, like, um, you know, and since i was sitting next to her everyone in the car started laughing and telling me to keep it up, that i was doing an awesome job. i spent the rest of the ride getting drunk off margaritas in the scenic car. i got busted trying to smoke out of the window in the boarding door, downstairs with a few other people. they didn't kick us off. it wasn't the greatest, but it's still better than the bus.

Dude, walking is better than the bus.

i rode the train from albany, NY to florida and back. three times.

it was fucking awful. the worst thing is that by the time you're in the carolinas, the shitters are full. FULL. as in there's a pile of shit, piss and toilet paper up to the rim of the toilet. sometimes higher. why the hell can't they empty those things somewhere around maryland?

edit: it was two round trips to orlando, one one-way to miami.

[Edited on Dec 04, 2004 by lostarchitect]

i take the train pretty regularly from chicago to the quad cities to visit my parents. it's only a 2 hour ride, but it makes me want to take a long trip on a train. me and my wife talk about how cool it would be to take a ride out to the west coast on the train, stopping in denver to visit friends. it just seems hip.

i think i'd like to fly back though - when i'm ready for a trip to be over, it should be over.... the ride back would be hellish for me i think

No joke ... I performed with the circus.

really? what did you do?

I was a clown. And I looked like this...


Not exactly what Americans think of as a clown ... but I was ... and I was funny.

I'll be gone 5 hundred miles when the morning comes.

Raised by folk music fans, isn't that grounds for abuse charges?