My Trip to Houston, Texas

I will be on this Texas Eagle in September if all goes well.

So the goal for September is to get down to Houston, Texas to see my sister Erica and my Dad. My idea is to take a train down. A lot of people think I’m crazy. Yeah thats a given, anyone who knows me knows Im a bit off. That’s beside the point peeps.

Look, when I go to Puerto Rico, I go on a plane. I hate taking planes. Im terrified of them but I DO take them. I know the flight to Texas is shorter but the fact is, I’ve always wanted to take a train across the country. I have always been a huge fan of road trips and scenic routes. If I had the money and the time I would go on road trips more often. A friend of Jay’s actually drove from Peru allllll the way to Massachusets. Everyone including her said it was crazy but just the thought of it made me excited! I think thats so cool. I mean she struggled cuz she had no radio and I dont think any air conditioning which yeah that would suck. If I were a better driver I would so do that. In fact I do know eventually I want to take brush up courses just so i can stop feeling the need to wish that more of my friends had cars. I should just shut up, take my courses, and get my own. Im a scaredy cat though. I own that. Hence the reason Im hesitant lol.

But back to trains!

When Erica told me that my dad wasn’t doing too well I know I had to go down. I was just going to suffer through taking a plane but the idea of taking one by myself was not my idea of fun at all. Im sorry but when Im on a plane I freak out looking out the window. I dont wanna. Not only does the height weird me out but wtf, all I see are clouds, after a few hours, thats boring as hell. I grew up in Long Island while the rest of my family that lived here in NY lived out in the city. Therefore taking the Long Island Rail Road became the transportation of choice. Sure there is some downsides to taking a train. I hated the crowding of it. We would always get on the train during rush hour because it took a few hours to get to the city so it would be filled to capacity and would smell like beer. Despite that, omg I loved it. I loved that because the seats were more comfy than a subway car I could sleep easier, I loved that there was a bathroom (it was gross but still available), because it would arrive hourly there would be regulars on the train that would become your friend.

The best part? I loved watching the scenery pass by. Living where I lived in Long Island it was the ghetto suburb. Brentwood sucked. There were parts that were beautiful but the train didnt go anywhere near that so whenever I was coming home the smile just disappeared. You saw different parts of the island and it was beautiful. From the beautiful forests, grasslands, to the beautiful homes, highways, towns with big clock towers, I loved it. My imagination would run wild of what life would be like in those towns.

I still do that. I dont go to the island like I used to but when I do I just look in awe and think to myself “Omg I forgot there were parts of Long Island that looked like this!”. Take the Babylon train and look out the window as you go into Rockville Centre. OMG just beautiful!

So, lately, I’ve just been feeling that I need some time to discover things. I looked at Amtrak just for fun and saw that the train doesnt go DIRECTLY to Houston Texas but it makes stops. Not only can you stretch your legs out, but you have a few hours to kill. Therefore I can take a train from New York to Washington DC, do some sightseeing, eat lunch, then get on the train headed to Chicago. By the next day I can do some sightseeing in Chicago and then get back on the train and sleep that night on a bed and get to Texas. All in all about 48 hours. Its a long trek but I see it as a challenge and it seems exciting to me.

I decided, this would be fun and it would be more fun to DOCUMENT IT!! I have a video camera and I find it to be a good enough reason to use it. I would document my journey, talk about what I am going through, see how my family down in Texas is, you name it I can do it.

I figured out how much round trip amtrak service would be. About 850 bucks. Yeah its alot. However I think it would be worth the money. I also think this journey would be a time for me to figure myself out. I have a lot of internal soul searching to do. Maybe I need this time to see what Im capable of. If I can handle this journey and enjoy it, I can handle others and I know that will put me in a good head space.

Now to get the money… thats the hard part lol.