Amtrak to San Francisco: Community on the Rails

I got back to Union Station from my walk around Chicago with about 15 minutes to spare, and for the next 14 minutes struggled to liberate my luggage from the electronic lockers, which maddeningly refused to recognise my fingerprint.   At the very last moment as they were closing the gate, the locker popped opened. I dashed for the train, found a seat, and settled in for the next 48 hours, ready to update my blog and read David Byrne’s Bicycle Diaries cover to cover.

Of course things rarely work out the way you think they will.   After meeting my seat mate Alexei, a Russian-Canadian medical student from Pennsylvania, I walked around the train and met a number of other interesting people- people I ended up having long conversations with over the next couple of days.  And, as a result neglecting David Byrne and my laptop (as you might have guessed as this trip took place a month ago now!)

The Rocky Mountains

Nice Japanese guys we met, enjoying the view

Writing my Masters dissertation about the prerequisite conditions that humans need to develop healthy social networks has made me notice when these circumstances exist- and when they don’t.  In the midst of a red wine- fuelled late night conversation in the observation car with new friends, I realised (again) that long distance trains provide the ideal circumstances for community to flourish.   Such community as was never seen in the rushed, kerosene fuelled world of aviation.  From the cornfields west of Chicago, to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, we stared out the window and talked about what we saw.

It’s a slow ride, but the view is fascinating, and everyone seems to have the time to talk.  A woman named Amanda boarded the train in Denver- Alexei and I started to chat to her and the conversation inevitably turned to climate change (the coal trains rolling by must have had something to do with it).  It’s incredible that people still parrot the fossil fuel industry line on climate change, in spite of international scientific consensus.  I suspect that the emotional pain of accepting that we are currently destroying this beautiful planet is too great to bear.  Plus, the psychological mechanisms that perpetuate denial around our addictive relationships with energy are easily accessible- just switch on Fox “News”!!

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Other highlights of the trip included a staggering sunrise over the Nevada desert, crossing into California as an early season snowstorm hit the Sierras, and a nice chap from Tahoe sharing his special chocolate chip cookies with us.  Welcome to California!

Watching the wreckage of a freight train derailment that had occurred a few weeks back  (Glenwood Canyon, Colorado)

Fall colours- (Glenwood Canyon)

Sunrise over the Nevada Desert

An October Blizzard in the Sierra Nevada- welcome to California

Passing time watching DVD’s and offending everyone in the observation car with the naughty language in ‘Stepbrothers.’  I blame Kate, who got on at Reno and led us astray!

As we crossed the Bay Bridge with the City’s skyline in the background, reflecting off the puddles left by the recent storm, I realised how much I had missed San Francisco over the last three years, and how much I was going to appreciate re-acquainting.