Saturday the 6th Sept. Pm.

Ahhh, this is better. A much more pleasant train awaited us, and we were soon installed into the top deck of the double decker coaches. The pleasant guard cheered everyone up with his witty announcements, and generally slow, but very pleasant way of speaking. “Now y’all should listen to this safety bit now, ‘case we get a crisis wiv da choo-choo!”

We’re currently clattering our way through flat fields of corn… just passing a train with 130 wagons full of the stuff. Not much to look at, but for some reason… I don’t care! The landscape is already starting to look very mid-westerly. The sort of place you’d imagine an alien abduction film being set! It’s nice not to be rushing around for a change. We have now finalised the rest of our itinerary, and looking forward to picking up the hire car tomorrow. The time is now 6:30, we have a video, “George of the Jungle”, to follow in an hour, and dinner for 8:45. I think I’m finally beginning to recover from Greylock!

Tags: america,travelogue,usa
Categories: Chicago, Illinois, america, travelogue
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Morning came, and brought with it a change of time; back one hour to Central Time. The rising sun illuminated some nasty factories, and huge farms. But miles passed, and we were soon backing into Chicago’s 30th St Station.

WOW! What a city! It felt like what I imagine Miami to be like. The sun was blazing in a crystal clear blue sky, and we exited the ornate station plaza and almost immediately found ourselves at the foot of the Sears tower, the country’s tallest building. After watching an excellent video presentation, we boarded the express elevator, and went up 110 floors in 1 min 20s, just a little slower than the World Trade Centre. Again, the view was more stunning than I’d imagined. Chicago is HEYUUUGE! Bordering lake Michigan, the climate seemed perfect on that day. After spending the regulatory time in awe, we proceeded to the waterfront, by way of a tram station, where I accidentally left my old-school hip-hop tape with da funky blackman der, and confused the hell out of a server in McD’s, (even though I tried to keep the sentence down to monosyllables). After taking an excellent waterfront tour, we headed toward the aquarium/oceanarium, with a very impressive collection of things that glowed, flashed, metamorphosed, and changed colour. Or was that just the after-effect of too much Dyphedryl the night before? Then came the dolphin show, with four performing dolphins who were very well trained. We made a mad dash back to the station, via a crew filming Michael Jordan, and caught the train.

Tags: america,travelogue,usa
Categories: Chicago, Illinois, america, travelogue
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6am, Friday the 5th.I awake to find David telling me it’s 6am, and we’d managed to sleep through 3 alarms. A mad dash to the station ensued, but we got the train, which had backwards facing seats, and a backwards steward, who told us the front facing seats were “only for smokers”. Positive discrimination, or what…

We arrived on time in Philly, PA, and stepped from the train to find a fantastic piece of architecture in the shape of the station concourse. Shortly after leaving the station, we found that this was to be the way things were. Founded by William Penn, the town is steeped in history, and justly proud too. After being recommended breakfast in the Down Home Diner, we went to watch Chubby Checker, who was playing a promo for the Penn lottery.

We then went to the liberty bell, town hall, and the site of Benjamin Franklin’s house. This is such a lovely city… had I arrived here from the UK, I’d have definitely stuck around to find work; It’s just crisp and clean and light and friendly We headed back to the station, grabbed something to eat on the train, and prepared to board.

We were shepherded onto the train, which had more room than the last, but I still wasn’t really impressed. The windows were badly pitted and scratched, but the guard made a good job of announcing points of interest that we were missing. When sleep time came, it was disappointing to find that the chairs only reclined about 38.157 degrees (roughly). So David slept on the floor, and I proceeded to see what the least painful neck angle was, but failed to find it. Then lights out came, in name, if not nature. The main side lights went out, leaving just the 5 MegaWatt halogens burning in the middle of the car. 2 notes for next time I travel Amtrak… eye cover and blanket. Oh… and become smaller!

Tags: america,massachusetts,summer camp,travelogue,usa
Categories: Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, america, travelogue
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Thursday, the 4th, 1997.
(Chess in New York city)
Today was arrival day for my brother. On time and complete with passport, we took the subway back to Brooklyn, for a $1.50. After checking into the AYH, we walked from W103rd and Broadway, down to Times Square, from where we caught a subway to the World Trade Centre. It’s easy to underestimate its height, but 107 floors and 58 seconds later, we were gazing out over the most spectacular dusk view of Manhattan. After finishing off a roll of film out on the cold and blustery rooftop, we headed back down to take in a Jazz Club. Wandering past “The Blue Note” ($30 each, thank you), we found ourselves in the small and intimate “Visiones”. Reasonable cover charge, reasonable band, but disappointing to see it so quiet. Remembering the 5:30am start the next morning, we decided to head back at 11pm stopping back by Times Square again, and wandering past the Radio City Music Hall, where the MTV VMA’a were being held. Arriving quietly back around midnight, we set our alarms for 5:30am…

Tags: america,massachusetts,summer camp,travelogue,usa
Categories: america, new york, travelogue
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