080511 Riding the Rails

I am sorry Gentle Reader, but I seem to have screwed up this week’s blog. It was all written and ready for me to upload Saturday evening prior to my departure for Florida when my cab (and I was lucky that they had one driver who knew how to find his way out to Hoag’s Corners) arrived a half hour early. I suppose I could have asked the driver to wait while I went to blogspot and cut and pasted it all into the proper box, or got the bright idea to e-mail it to myself, but the truth is that I panicked when I saw something as unfamiliar as a cab so far out in the woods and pulling up my driveway.

So I am sitting here writing an apology as I speed past New Jersey marshes after my train popped up out of a tunnel under the Hudson River. A brand new and exciting blog sits trapped in my desktop back in my study. Fairly, you might not consider it all that new. As I am departing the great northeast for an undetermined length of time (I do have cruise ship reservations to sail from NYC on June tenth so I cannot stay overly long.), I thought it best to revisit all of the topics we have covered in the last few months and make an effort to solve all of the world’s problems. We could all use a couple of weeks to relax before we read over the news and say, “Wait, how many people still died in Burma after food, water and supplies were brought to the border?” There will time to be righteous and indignant later. (Well, not for the children in Burma who are getting dysentery today and the days to come.)

Right now, I am fascinated by the rail. While I have always said I wanted to take a train across Canada, I have never really thought it would be a good idea. When situations this weekend put me on a train instead of a plane, I was more than a little dubious. Flying would have been cheaper (okay, there fuel surcharges which are not immediately apparent when you shop for a ticket) and quicker. I would not have had to crash at a friend’s so I could get up at four in the morning and go the two blocks to the station without a shower.

It turns out that there is something to be said for rail travel. Rather than being packed into cramped quarters like cattle as I usually am on a plane, I have a more comfortable seat than from the airlines with more than enough room to stretch out my legs. I can ride along enjoying the passing country and cityscapes while sipping ice tea, writing this blog and watching Babylon 5. (If you have not been keeping score at home, I am a giant nerd or, more properly, nerdicus gigantium.) Plus, I am not making the carbon footprint I would on a plane.

While I have not been a regular rider of the rails, I have long been a defender of them. One of our country’s great failings is its ongoing reluctance to properly fund the rail system. It is a vital resource the value of which has not always apparent. It is hard to always see the worth of a resource that is not needed immediately. With gasoline rapidly approaching four dollars a gallon, the need for both commuter rail and freight lines is growing more obvious with each passing day.

Long time readers will remember that when I build Drumlin Cove, I have a room set aside exclusively to build a model railroad in. Nerdicus Gigantium.

So, it may be a week or two before I can connect online sufficiently to put in a new blog. Rest assured, my first act after returning to the Empire State will be to file a new edition.

Happy Mothers’ Day.