I can't not blog about my train ride yesterday before I go to bed

It was awful. Amtrak is dead to me (until I go home in a few months).

Train at 1:30.

I wake up at 11am (don't judge I was home for Christmas): "TRAIN DELAYED DUE TO MANDATORY CREW REST PERIOD". Okay no big deal we live 10 mins from the station and my dad's day is clear.

Train set to arrive, 4pm. My sister and I get there at 3:45 (thanks dad!). We see the train about 100 yds away we think (we actually landed on 150, 100 felt to small but it's what I've been saying anyways). Dead. Stopped. It's under 30 degrees (F), it's freezing literally. 4, 4:15. 4:30, 4:45, 5:00 all these times pass. Regina (sister) calls Amtrak, because the app won't update with any info beyond the 4pm estimated time of arrival, even though that's well in the rearview. We call our dad to come let us sit in his car in the parking lot. Some stranger joins us (by invite). The train comes one minute after he arrives.

We're on the train and the outlets don't work on our side, so I plug my phone in at the front of the car (only 4 rows ahead of us, right by these two ladies that wouldn't stop talking about the train and narrating everything happening around them. Regina called them the "two comedians". I live-texted our other sister about them. I sent this, an excerpt of their dialogue:

"Please god I hope I don't get the flu. I've been a good girl. I've been mostly behaved on the train."

"You've been very behaved on the train"

"Well we did scare all those people off earlier... [a minute passes] may need to break open the bar [another minute passes] oh southwest is up to 28 hundred flights canceled"

One of them had those kinds of hair extensions that is tinsel. She said she and her partner (pretty sure a boyfriend or husband, but I missed that detail) do couples massages every New Year's Eve. "Usually it makes me feel pretty loosey goosey, you know? And I like that feeling, you know?" She said.

So anyways they were on the same train as us.).

We sat next to two people meeting for the first time (a teacher of sorts and an off-broadway prop designer) who were having such a boring conversation, but the teacher either had a really old iPod touch or like the original iPhone, it was so tiny, which was neat.

A baby cried, I had one bite of and then threw out the worst sandwich of my life from the café car (which the "two comedians" called the bar car).

Our original arrival to Penn Station estimated at 5:30, (before the first delays of the day). Actual arrival time around 10:30, so that sucked, but I lived to tell the tale and can exploit the story now in this post while I fight the good fight (the one against Amtrak Customer Relations team until they give me a free ride voucher or something).

-Henry