Sep. 11, 7:05 am: board the 51 bus bound for Olney Transit Center
70 degrees, no jacket
I lucked out and got the single raised seat in the front of the bus so I can put my bags on the flat wheel well area
One mode of transportation
7:29 am: board the south bound Broad Street Line subway bound for City Hall / 15th Street Station
Crowded car, AC is comfortable
There's no good place to sit or stand with three bags, so I'm inconveniencing one or two people
Two modes of transportation
7:47 am: board the westbound trolley bound for 30th Street Station
7:57: waiting patiently in the majestic great hall of 30th Street Station
8:50: standing on the platform in the lower level of 30th Street, the Acela roaring in, an elderly black locomotive pulling a NJ Transit train, and Amtrak trains coming and going efficiently
8:56: board 79 Carolinian at 30th St Station bound for Charlotte.
9:32: our train comes to a gentle halt on the midst of some trees. There is no apparent reason. Some minutes later an Acela whips past us and we resume travel.
9:49: the club car is mostly empty, and a cup of ice is free (I have a bottle of iced tea). The windows are not tall enough for my height, but the views are periodically great. I spent a chunk of time staring at blank walls of trees going past before realizing the other side of the train was the Chesapeake Bay
10:51: arrive DC Union Station for two hour layover. Track 23, location B
12:40: back on board after some crochet in the halls over the tracks. This train smell like weed now
6:24: we've reached the part of the trip that starts feeling endless. Interminable trees through southern Virginia and west North Carolina. No landmarks between Richmond and Raleigh-Durham, if you can consider them landmarks. Increasingly annoyed at fellow riders: the sleeping seatmate sprawled over his half of the seats, the drunk in the cafe car, the guy shifting his weight every twenty seconds rocking and pushing your seat. Not having the right cable to charge your quickly de-charging phone, the overwhelming smell of chemical air freshener to cover the smell of weed after the DC layover.
11:02 pm: arrive Charlotte.
Sep. 12, 12:01 pm: Lynx Blue Line light rail.
5:25 pm: Lynx Blue Line light rail again. I will not manage to ride the Gold Line streetcar on this visit.
6:24 am, Sunday: the drive-through at Bojangles is a robot. The order was correct though. Icculus wouldn't let me pay. Thank you, Icculus.
6:45: Amtrak north, the Carolinian 80. I am one of two people in coach. Let's strap in for eight hours of North Carolina.
8:45: after four stops of relative peace and quiet, at Greensboro a woman boards talking loudly on her phone. She walks until she is standing directly next to me, and begins placing her bags overhead in the space across the aisle. She continues talking on the phone until she stops to ask a conductor to please lift her too-heavy luggage into the overhead. She is still talking now.
While this is happening another woman in a head wrap walks down the aisle saying “I'm bleeding” to no one in particular. She later clarifies “I'm bleeding from my arm” while speaking in a clear conversational tone to - again - no one. She also requires aid from the conductor to stow her bags.
2:36 pm: I had a good run from Charlotte to Richmond where I didn't have to share my space with anyone. My seatmate is quiet so I have no complaints.
I finished 36 inches of progress on my sea-to-shore blanket, which was my goal. I'm going to pad out the amount a little and then switch yarns. I'm a little shocked.
3:55 pm: “don't YOU tell me to calm down, I don't fucking KNOW YOU, FUCK YOU, you don't fucking talk to me like that, FUCK YOU, telling ME to calm down, fucking tell ME that, I don't KNOW YOU “
(I eventually reached the city of brotherly love, took the El and the sub and the bus home. Exhausted, I was not fit to carry three bags, badge on to various plinths and panels, and memorialize everything in text. I got to Philly about 7 pm and got home about eighty minutes later. I do not feel like this would have made a very good Miles in Transit video.)
--uploaded 9/16/26, Philadelphia, PA, "will I see you tonight? on a downtown train? all my dreams just fall like rain"
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Crowded but managed to get a seat for me and my bags because everyone was rushing into the back door to board, allowing me to walk to the front, pay, and get a seat
I'm mostly riding the trolley because I can. Trolleys rule
Three modes of transportation
I love transit.
Annoyed the conductors are putting single coach passengers in one car and saving the other cars for groups
There's a ton of empty seats in the group car, but nooooo
(Okay, he says the group car is actually getting split off at Virginia so this is the Carolina car, I'm still irked)
Four modes of transportation
The little ruined towns along the track that should benefit from access to an interstate rail line and instead display the same mix of vacant and cash businesses barely hanging on.
I'm in the cafe car because my seat doesn't have a tray table and I want a surface to crochet on, and trying to manage my big bag of crochet and my sleeping seatmate just seems untenable. But the cafe car has: drinks, children, loud telephone talkers, smells… it has views though, and I have music, and someone I love packed me snacks, and this trip won't last forever. I hope my back is okay tomorrow. I'll get some recliner rest after I do some more work on the crochet.
Five modes of transportation.
The private car experience was nice while it lasted. A woman took the seat behind me and apologized when I un-reclined my seat. No sweat, boss, you're being quiet and self-sufficient, you can have all the legroom you want.
I'm going to start crocheting so I can focus on something aside from my hatred for my fellow man.
I have a slight ache in my left middle back. Two days of train riding, two nights of air mattress, and tweaking both sides of it earlier this week – if a slight ache is all I end up with, hallelujah.
That's the woman who boarded the train loudly talking on her phone, doing it some more, and more loudly.