Flying to the Past
My first experience with airline travel was on a Douglas DC-3. This tells you a bit about my age and experience with airplanes, airlines and long distance travel. I flew from western Nebraska to Denver, Colorado on the "milk run," to submit my body and mind to the Armed Forces Entry and Examination Center, where I was "injected, inspected, detected, infected, neglected and selected."
The Sordid Traveling Present
Nowadays and all, airline travel is sleek, efficient and relatively inexpensive. It's also demeaning, insulting and uncomfortable, exposing the intrepid traveler to the less than gentle ministrations of the National Security Industry, fully trained and equipped by Homeland Security, our national repository for paranoia, fear and oppression.
After a wearying trip to the UK and back in 2005, my wife and I decided we had had enough, and we would never fly again. We've stuck to that vow ever since.
No, we haven't stayed at home fondling our travel dollars, we've traveled across the United States, from Santa Cruz to Massachusetts, to Austin, Texas, to Norman, Oklahoma, and up and down the West Coast.
Do we drive in our 1972 VW Bug? Nope.
We ride the train.
Leaving Home
Believe it or not, it's possible, and even easy, to travel from Santa Cruz to just about anywhere else in the United States and even North America by public transportation.
When we leave our cozy home a mile from the beach, we walk downtown and begin our travels on the Hiway 17 Express to the San Jose Diridon AMTRAK Station. It takes about 45 minutes, and for us Seniors costs all of $2.50 each. The Diridon Station is well kept, staffed with friendly and helpful personnel, and, for no extra charge, offers an ever changing floor show of the amazing variety of passengers arriving and departing from the various trains.
From this Station we catch our train to our next destination, either AMTRAK commuter to Oakland, or the Coast Starlight, the finest train on the AMTRAK line, to Los Angeles or Seattle.
On the Train again!
Flying is not travel, it is anti-travel. Flying annihilates space and time, transporting the passenger from one place to another without experiencing the intervening territory. All airline terminals are universally dull, oppressive, jangling and offensive places (that why they're called terminals). One could travel around the world by airlines and always be in the same place, tucked firmly within the bowels of the travel industry.
The best part of traveling by train is (SHHHH... don't tell anyone!) the total lack of oppressive security. No long lines waiting to be frisked or bombarded with elemental particles, no surly TSA agents asking impertinent questions as they snap on their rubber gloves, no grumbling passengers angry at the delay and inconvenience. No throwing away your tubes of toothpaste, and shampoo. No taking off your shoes. Just say a cheery hello to your train car attendant and climb aboard the train!
Train travel self-selects for travelers who are not in a hurry, who have time for leisurely travel, who make the trip an important part of their travel experience. Train travelers are not frustrated, anxious, or uncomfortable. They're interesting, thoughtful, thinking people who choose train travel for its advantages, not for expediency.
Traveling by train is at a human pace, where one can watch the world pass by outside the window of the dining car, experience the change in climate, topography, geology and ecosystems. When you arrive at your destination and decant from the train, you're rested, acclimated and ready to extend your experience to this new, fascinating place. No jet lag, no cricked necks, no weary bottoms.
What, you've heard that AMTRAK trains are never on time? While trains do sometimes experience delays, especially on coast to coast routes where weather, incautious motorists and other impediments on the rails sometimes cause delays, most trains are on time. But... WHO CARES? You're on the train! You have everything you need: comfortable seating and sleeping space, room to walk around, showers, good food, pleasant company, gorgeous view. What difference does it make if the train is standing still or moving? If a delay should cause you to miss your next connection, AMTRAK is superlative in making sure you get to your destination.
Give it a try some time. Hop on the Hiway 17 Express to San Jose and take the Coast Starlight north or South for a weekend somewhere between Seattle and Los Angeles. You'll be glad you did, and you'll never fly again.
But don't tell TSA!
