“I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read in the train.”
I spent so much money at the garden center yesterday, the employees stood in a group, applauded and then released balloons. My backseat and my trunk were filled. Now, those new herbs and flowers, lined up on the walk, wait patiently in their pots. They wait to be planted into the deck window boxes and the two gardens, but it won’t be today, another dank, cloudy and damp day. Earlier, when I went to get the papers, we had misty rain. The weatherman predicts the rain will be gone on Tuesday and leave in its wake a sunny day in the 70’s. I guess that’s Mother Nature’s gift for this stretch of over a week of rain. I keep looking out my window here by the desk at the forlorn and empty deck.
I miss trains. One ran through my town when I was a kid. I used to watch it and listen for the whistle. Near where my grandparents’ lived was one train master’s house. He’d come out and lower the wooden gate to stop the cars. That house still exists, but it is just a regular old house with a strange configuration. The other house was torn down to make way for a lumber yard. The square brick train station has been many things including a gift shop. I don’t what it is now. The tracks have disappeared for the most part. They have been gone so long many people probably don’t even know they existed.
A train ride is like nothing else. The clack of the wheels is background music. The windows give views of the backs of houses, and I’d peeked through those windows as the train went by them. I took night trains when I backpacked through Europe. They were my hotels. I remember as we’d near the station, the view would change, and I’d see factories and lines of track after track. The stations were always busy. I’d get my bearings, find a tourist kiosk and a cheap hotel room, change money and use my map to find my way around.
I took trains in Ghana. In the first class compartments with their huge leather chairs and sliding doors, I always felt like a character out of an Agatha Christie book. I’d travel from Accra to Kumasi, but from what I’ve read, most of those trains are gone too. That’s too bad.
I think we need to bring back trains. I’ll take a berth and fall asleep to the music of the wheels.
Explore posts in the same categories: MusingsTags: music of the wheels, rain, Train station, trains
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keepthecoffeecoming.blog 
May 21, 2011 at 11:35 am
It´s people like You that keeps those nurseries alive 🙂 🙂
I love traveling by train! But I do miss the old lines that are gone now. There used to be one in Tråvad where I had my gardencentre. It was a narrow gauge railroad and it was quite profitable. But in the seventies and eighties they closed all smaller railroads if they could.
So to have a reason to close the one in Tråvad they started to drive way to heavy trains on it, so they had to repair it all the time. Naturally it didn´t give any profit then so they could close it.
Now days the old embankment is a popular walking and bike road instead.
Sunny and warm over here but the wind is to strong so it actually feels cold 🙂
Have a great day!
Christer.
May 21, 2011 at 10:59 pm
Christer,
That was only my first shopping spree. I still need herbs for the deck boxes, a couple more geraniums, tomatoes and a few more flowers for the front.
The trains here are gone too. They used to run all the way down cape. Like yours, most of it is now a bike trail.
That’s s shame they wrecked that railroad.
Enjoy your Sunday!
May 22, 2011 at 12:03 am
Here´s a link to another blog I like to read and they too are talking about trains this week. Yesterdays post has two videos:http://thefrogandpenguinn.blogspot.com/2011/05/finallythe-video.html
Christer.
May 22, 2011 at 12:26 am
We’ve already gotten about 10 good size tomatoes with many more to follow. And I’ve got a good crop of chilis pequin and Tabasco peppers. They should serve me well for another season of HOTCHA seasoning!
The tomatoes are in two Earth Box planters, while both peppers are in the third. We learned several years ago that with tomatoes, there needs to be bracing. The wife put a circle of fencing around the two boxes and a tree stump. The stump stabilizes the whole thing without blocking the sun.
May 21, 2011 at 3:13 pm
These oil prices keep climbing we may have to return to trains and horse and buggy days. I wouldn’t mind that at all. It’s the cowboy in me.
May 21, 2011 at 11:01 pm
Z&Me,
I would love trains to come back. I used them all the time in Europe, parts of S. American and Ghana. Whenever I could, I took the train over the bus.
Horse and buggy would be nice, but then we’d need stage coaches for longer trips.
May 21, 2011 at 4:28 pm
Cheers
May 21, 2011 at 11:04 pm
Minicapt,
I’d never heard this before your posting. I liked it but couldn’t find a download at my usual sites. Hank Snow is someone I usually hear.
May 21, 2011 at 4:56 pm
Oddly enough (only case I’ve ever heard of this happening in my narrow window into life), after we moved from Ganado, Texas, to Mathis in 2008, they REPLACED tracks torn up some 20 years earlier to allow train traffic from Houston to Victoria. They did a bang-up job. But no passenger trains…yet. Wish they had one from Corpus to either Houston or Austin. I’d be using that for most of my trips.
May 21, 2011 at 11:06 pm
Rick,
I wish I could go all the way to Boston on the train. I can go half way on commuter rail but by then I figure I might as well drive. I did take a train to DC once, a long while ago and it wasn’t a great ride. What I would most love would be to take trips of two and three days, probably in Canada.
May 21, 2011 at 7:14 pm
Waving but not awake yet. Used to take the red eye train from White River Junction Vermont, to NJ, I think. They had a restaurant and a bar ( my drinking days). We are trying to figure out how to save a lemon tree whose roots have been not doing well in the pot that it really outgrew. A new one, maybe. Lemon tree, oh so pretty…
Lori
May 21, 2011 at 11:08 pm
Lori,
The overnight train I took in Ghana derailed. It woke me up. Quite an experience. There, whenever the train stopped, girls ran to the windows to sell bread, coconut balls, kenkey-our train snacks. No drinks though.
May 21, 2011 at 8:55 pm
Hi Kat,
Trains are such a nice, soothing way to travel. Someone else is driving. You have a reasonable comfy seat and a lovely view of people’s backyards. Now you even have Wifi. Just like being on the couch at home. 🙂
There is still a crossing guard, a real human one, in our town. He/she sits in a tiny house at the bottom of the hill, right next to the gates. The crossing is in a bad place and I guess the automated gates aren’t safe enough. It needs the human factor.
The freight tracks that came through our town have been closed for a few years now and the right of way is going to the Rails to Trails program. I miss the sound of the freight whistle in the wee hours of the morning but I bet the people next to the tracks don’t miss it all.
May 21, 2011 at 11:11 pm
Hi Caryn,
It’s true about trains being soothing. I love just sitting back and enjoying the ride. Sleeping on the train is one of my favorite parts of the ride. In my backpacking days, I slept in a chair, the berths being too expensive. Later, after I’d been teaching a while. I’d pay for a berth. I loved it.
The sound of that whistle is still one of my favorites.
May 22, 2011 at 10:21 am
Rock,
My flowers and herbs are all planted and, what a surprise, it rained last night. Depending upon the number of people, I may be going back to the garden store today. I have the garden disease!
May 22, 2011 at 10:22 am
PS That would not be Rock-it’s Rick!