Whirlwind Trip to Vermont, Part 1

The trip to Vermont was indeed a whirlwind! Where am I? Is it over? I'm not sure. The trip started ear;y Wednesday morning when I left my sweet babes (there may or may not have been copious amounts of crying, but I'll never tell) and caught a ride with my sister to the school where she works, and was picked up there by my little niece Lexi and her mommy Kris. Remember them from this post? This is what little Lexi looks like now.

Forgive her messy face, but she just loves Fudge Stripe cookies, and most of the chocolate ended up on her face! No, mommy Kris doesn't usually allow her kids to eat chocolate for breakfast (even though chocolate is the Breakfast of Champions, as everyone knows), but she made an exception. Come to think of it, Kris really didn't have a choice as I just gave the cookies to Lexi without asking. My bad! Thanks a bunch to Lexi and mommy Kris for taking me to the train station. Kris has a lot on her plate with three kids and another due in December, but insisted on taking me to the train station. I couldn't have had a better ride to Philadelphia!

Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station is just like it is in the movies. Think "Witness". I had only been there once before and that was when I was a little kid and we all took my father’s mother to the train station for her to go somewhere. I don’t remember much about it, except for the big, high ceilings and church pew benches. The ceilings are just as high as I remember, and the church pew benches are still there.I absolutely love the train arrival/departure board. You would think it would be a new electronic board or LED or something snazzy like that, but nope. It’s the old fashioned one that has a board full of individual letters that rotate and go tick-tick-tick-tick-tick when the board changes to update for boarding or departing trains. It sounds so old-fashioned --- just like it should in this beautiful old building.

A nice surprise at the train station was the dogs! Two yellow labs and one German Shepherd. They were there supposedly to sniff for drugs or bombs or stuff, but you and I know they are really there just to keep the security guards company and to calm down any nervous-nelly passengers like myself that are already missing their dogs so much it’s like a big lump inside my chest and I start to tear up every time I think about them. I keep telling myself - two days…two days…they will be fine for two days. Especially with my sister and my niece and the Nanny all taking such good care of them. The question is, will I be OK without the dogs? Yes…I can do this. I am strong.

Pretty soon it came time for all passengers on “The Vermonter” (that’s the name of my train) to board, so we all lined up like good little sheep and went down into the bowels of the train station, which is just as spooky as it sounds. Very, very creepy.

I’m glad the train came rumbling into the station shortly after, and I found my way to the business class car. Wow, is it nice! Big comfy leather (ugh!!!) seats, lots of room, and it’s set up that there are two seats on one side of the train and one seat on the other, so I chose a seat on the one-seat side so I have the best of both worlds - a window and an aisle. Who could ask for more, especially on the looooooong ride to Montpelier, Vermont. I have a couple of knitting projects to choose from, a recent issue of Spin Off magazine, a bottle of water, and some granola bars and trail mix, so I’m all set.
All I need is my iPod with the audio book that I loaded onto it, but I couldn’t find it last night. I think I might have packed it with the stuff I gave mom and dad to take with them so I wouldn’t have so much to carry on the train. Brilliant, eh?

To be continued...