(no subject)
Yep, so I'm back in Virginia. :D
Friday was my last day of moving out. After throwing out the last of the stuff I wasn't taking home and seeing my rented furniture returned, my completely empty apartment was freaking me out. I crashed in my landlord's office until thedaytheystop came and rescued me. :D We went and got an excellent lunch and then went ice skating. I'm really glad I got to spend my last day in Phoenix with her.
To get to my train I had to go up to Flagstaff; That particular route starts out in Los Angelos, passes through Flagstaff, and then heads up north-east to Chicago (where I had to catch another train to take me back down South-East. More on that later.) After breakfast, Anna drove me to the airport so I could catch what turned out to be a hilarious tourist bus out to to Ye Olde Flagstaff. That was actually a really beautiful journey. Driving up the mountains to Flagstaff is always fun.
Iiiii... had intended to do epic shit in Flagstaff, as I whined a few entries back, but despite getting a fair amount of sleep I was still recovering from three days of almost NO sleep. (Moving is stressful!) I immediately passed out in my hotel, woke up to get dinner, and then came back and passed out again this time until the next morning. But then I was much more energetic. It was also raining a bit and I was like a babby with a new toy about that because I haven't seen rain in months and months. Flagstaff was really funny and overrun with fourth of July related tourists. I really didn't mind it; I mean I was a tourist too XD. Oh, and I bought some pretty new clothes! And found all these linguistics books in a used bookstore and thought of haremstress
I didn't bother sleeping at all. My train was due to leave at 4:45 am, and we had to be there at 4:15, so I didn't see the point. Checked the worst of my luggage (was four pounds under the 50 pound limit HAH despite having to throw a lot of moving related odds and ends into that suitcase) and then got on the train. :DDDD
I had a sleeper car for this portion on the trip and even though it was tiny, I was actually very fond of my room. For the next hour and a half I watched the sun rise over Arizona:
Lack of sleep caught up with me, so I intended to nap for a bit. (Hey, so, if someone asks you "is it easy to take contacts out while on a moving train?" and you say "oh yeah, totally" you're really really wrong.) But then around 8 a.m. the cabinet attendant started announcing the breakfast hours every 30 minutes. After a while I peered out the window, went O_O and took some more pictures:
Ni hao ma, New Mexico?
Brief interlude to the pictures to say that in between all this I was doing all the book reading, 1776 watching and beer drinking I mentioned earlier on this lj, carry on. XDD
Gonna quote my facebook caption for this: Still New Mexico. idk New Mexico went on for like 6-7 hours. It was pretty ginormous and a lot of my pictures are from it. I wikipedia'd this when I was on the train and apparently New Mexico is the fifth largest state in terms of land mass? The More You Know.gif.
Pretty sure this is from Colorado because I took this picture in the dining car. The food was overpriced (lol captive audience) and yet surprisingly okay.
Sunset in Colorado. Colorado and New Mexico were both friggin' gorgeous. Hahaha the next day gogoratchet asked me what the prettiest state was and I almost couldn't decide because they were ALL pretty. (But I think I decided on Colorado.)
Last picture from that day. I wanted pictures of Kansas so bad because I wanted to get images from all the states we passed through, but it was too dark and nothing developed right. Eventually I gave up and listened to my iPod and watched the fireworks and later the stars for hours. This was very very peaceful. <3
Barely slept that night because of aforementioned sirens. Train was also going really really fast. Although my "this will help you sleep good!" music did help eventually. In retrospect I wish I had gone "fuck it!" and taken pictures of another sunrise. :(
Woke up to Iowa and TREES. :D
An hour or two before arriving in Chicago. And for some reason it was more surreal to get on the train in Flagstaff and wind up in Chicago than it ever is going cross country by plane. Not sure why.
I had two hours to kill in Chicago so after being followed around by a frat boy trying to get a dollar from me (ya rly XD) this happened:
Yep, an early dinner with gogoratchet, Atti, and Dan's shoulder! The food and coffee were both really really good. This whole thing was so :DDDD making.
I had to catch a train from Chicago to West Virginia. (It was actually easier for my family to come get me in WV than at any of the VA stops.) I wish I had gotten to leave Arizona slightly later than I did- okay, let's be real, I still think reading ADwD on the train would have been super entertaining- but circumstances at home now being what they are I'm glad I left when I did.
Anyway, I didn't have a sleeper car in this train. Everything was laid out much like a plane, but there was faaaar more legroom and pretty much everyone got a row to themselves. Seeing as this leg of the trip was 16 hours both things made all the difference.
Sunset in Indiana. Most of this portion of the trip was at night so I have very few pictures.
West Virginia (mountain mamaaaaa.)
And then suddenly we were in White Sulphur Springs. I gathered all my stuff, left the train, and met up with my mother and younger-but-not-youngest brother. :D Hahah and then we had a 1.5 hour drive back home, but mom and I talked about everything ever and that was pretty fun.
To conclude: Traveling cross country by train is definitely a worthwhile experience. It takes forever, and if you're like me you're going to really feel it in the last hours of such a trip. It's still really fun and relaxing if you want to take the time. After spending two years in Arizona, and not having to be anywhere at any particular date, I was glad to have those 50 hours to reflect. Likewise, I can't emphasize enough how gorgeous American landscapes can be. My pictures do not do them justice. I freaking loved watching the deserts and flat areas I've becomes accustomed to shifting to mountains, rivers and forests. I'm glad I went with my impulses in this case!
Friday was my last day of moving out. After throwing out the last of the stuff I wasn't taking home and seeing my rented furniture returned, my completely empty apartment was freaking me out. I crashed in my landlord's office until thedaytheystop came and rescued me. :D We went and got an excellent lunch and then went ice skating. I'm really glad I got to spend my last day in Phoenix with her.
To get to my train I had to go up to Flagstaff; That particular route starts out in Los Angelos, passes through Flagstaff, and then heads up north-east to Chicago (where I had to catch another train to take me back down South-East. More on that later.) After breakfast, Anna drove me to the airport so I could catch what turned out to be a hilarious tourist bus out to to Ye Olde Flagstaff. That was actually a really beautiful journey. Driving up the mountains to Flagstaff is always fun.
Iiiii... had intended to do epic shit in Flagstaff, as I whined a few entries back, but despite getting a fair amount of sleep I was still recovering from three days of almost NO sleep. (Moving is stressful!) I immediately passed out in my hotel, woke up to get dinner, and then came back and passed out again this time until the next morning. But then I was much more energetic. It was also raining a bit and I was like a babby with a new toy about that because I haven't seen rain in months and months. Flagstaff was really funny and overrun with fourth of July related tourists. I really didn't mind it; I mean I was a tourist too XD. Oh, and I bought some pretty new clothes! And found all these linguistics books in a used bookstore and thought of haremstress
I didn't bother sleeping at all. My train was due to leave at 4:45 am, and we had to be there at 4:15, so I didn't see the point. Checked the worst of my luggage (was four pounds under the 50 pound limit HAH despite having to throw a lot of moving related odds and ends into that suitcase) and then got on the train. :DDDD
I had a sleeper car for this portion on the trip and even though it was tiny, I was actually very fond of my room. For the next hour and a half I watched the sun rise over Arizona:
Lack of sleep caught up with me, so I intended to nap for a bit. (Hey, so, if someone asks you "is it easy to take contacts out while on a moving train?" and you say "oh yeah, totally" you're really really wrong.) But then around 8 a.m. the cabinet attendant started announcing the breakfast hours every 30 minutes. After a while I peered out the window, went O_O and took some more pictures:
Ni hao ma, New Mexico?
Brief interlude to the pictures to say that in between all this I was doing all the book reading, 1776 watching and beer drinking I mentioned earlier on this lj, carry on. XDD
Gonna quote my facebook caption for this: Still New Mexico. idk New Mexico went on for like 6-7 hours. It was pretty ginormous and a lot of my pictures are from it. I wikipedia'd this when I was on the train and apparently New Mexico is the fifth largest state in terms of land mass? The More You Know.gif.
Pretty sure this is from Colorado because I took this picture in the dining car. The food was overpriced (lol captive audience) and yet surprisingly okay.
Sunset in Colorado. Colorado and New Mexico were both friggin' gorgeous. Hahaha the next day gogoratchet asked me what the prettiest state was and I almost couldn't decide because they were ALL pretty. (But I think I decided on Colorado.)
Last picture from that day. I wanted pictures of Kansas so bad because I wanted to get images from all the states we passed through, but it was too dark and nothing developed right. Eventually I gave up and listened to my iPod and watched the fireworks and later the stars for hours. This was very very peaceful. <3
Barely slept that night because of aforementioned sirens. Train was also going really really fast. Although my "this will help you sleep good!" music did help eventually. In retrospect I wish I had gone "fuck it!" and taken pictures of another sunrise. :(
Woke up to Iowa and TREES. :D
An hour or two before arriving in Chicago. And for some reason it was more surreal to get on the train in Flagstaff and wind up in Chicago than it ever is going cross country by plane. Not sure why.
I had two hours to kill in Chicago so after being followed around by a frat boy trying to get a dollar from me (ya rly XD) this happened:
Yep, an early dinner with gogoratchet, Atti, and Dan's shoulder! The food and coffee were both really really good. This whole thing was so :DDDD making.
I had to catch a train from Chicago to West Virginia. (It was actually easier for my family to come get me in WV than at any of the VA stops.) I wish I had gotten to leave Arizona slightly later than I did- okay, let's be real, I still think reading ADwD on the train would have been super entertaining- but circumstances at home now being what they are I'm glad I left when I did.
Anyway, I didn't have a sleeper car in this train. Everything was laid out much like a plane, but there was faaaar more legroom and pretty much everyone got a row to themselves. Seeing as this leg of the trip was 16 hours both things made all the difference.
Sunset in Indiana. Most of this portion of the trip was at night so I have very few pictures.
West Virginia (mountain mamaaaaa.)
And then suddenly we were in White Sulphur Springs. I gathered all my stuff, left the train, and met up with my mother and younger-but-not-youngest brother. :D Hahah and then we had a 1.5 hour drive back home, but mom and I talked about everything ever and that was pretty fun.
To conclude: Traveling cross country by train is definitely a worthwhile experience. It takes forever, and if you're like me you're going to really feel it in the last hours of such a trip. It's still really fun and relaxing if you want to take the time. After spending two years in Arizona, and not having to be anywhere at any particular date, I was glad to have those 50 hours to reflect. Likewise, I can't emphasize enough how gorgeous American landscapes can be. My pictures do not do them justice. I freaking loved watching the deserts and flat areas I've becomes accustomed to shifting to mountains, rivers and forests. I'm glad I went with my impulses in this case!