Utmost thanks to Jerry for taking me directly to Union Station this Sunday morning! I don't know whose brilliant idea it was to tell us to pack and use a duffel bag, and one without wheels at that, but I was never so glad to get rid of a bag as I was that thing. No wheels, no really comfortable way to carry the thing - almost 27 pounds of clothing and cosmetics. I wondered how the senior citizens who were part of our group were going to even get that bag from point A to point B. I ended up with the strap looped over my head, creating what looked like a major hickey behind my right ear and a major neck ache. This in addition to the 16.7 pounds of electronics squeezed into my backpack! Thank god for the gym!
So, with total weight just below the 44 pound restriction, so feeling like a pack mule, I hoofed to the Amtrak "quiet" car in Union Station. (There are quotation marks surrounding the word quiet because apparently many so-called adults do not truly understand the definition of the word). One woman was on her cell phone for the entire 3 hours, explaining to the numerous callers that she couldn't talk on her phone because she was in the quiet car. One father kept wrestling with his son in the seat behind me, talking loudly and telling his son to be quiet because they were in the quiet car.
Despite all that, Amtrak was definitely the way to go to the Newark Airport - 3 hours from Union Station to the airport. The train station stop was less than a 5 minute walk to the air train, which took you to whichever terminal you needed. In about a half hour I left the train, arrived at the terminal for British Airways, checked in that duffel bag, and was on my way to the gate. Because I was so early, I waited for Iris at Chili's, eating a burger and having a beer. Once Iris arrived we quickly caught up on what was happening in our lives. I don't know what made me look at my watch, but when I did I was startled to see that we only had about an hour before boarding. Since we didn't know what to expect with security, we thought we'd better hustle to get to our gate. Turned out everything went smoothly and we had a good laugh about the whole thing.
The plane seemed to be only half full (to our delight) so Iris was able to stretch across 3 middle seats and I stretched across the 2 we had for the 6-hour flight. As you can see from our photos, Iris and I were kept well supplied by our wonderful flight attendant, Carlos.
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