What Recession?

It is true that there are vacant stores in the area around DC where we were staying. The Courtyard Hotel lobby was full most of the time with guests waiting to check in or trying to fill their cups with freshly brewed coffee. We had to wait for 35 minutes to be seated at the co-located restaurant which also had a micro brewery that had some excellent German beer. The bar area was over crowded on that Friday evening. The waitress had too many tables to wait on that after taking our order, she never showed up except to bring the bill. We wanted to ask for a bottle of Tabasco. What type of tip should you give to the waitress when you are treated like that? The next evening we went to Asia Nine, a Thai outfit that advertises as an Asian-Asian Fusion restaurant. The hostess and server were attentive, courteous, and efficient. The restaurant was full and the turnaround time was the minimum. The food was good and they served Thai beer. The guests were going their merry way and they were definitely stimulating the economy. The DC chamber of Commerce estimates that up to a million visitors would come to Washington to attend the Cherry Blossom Festival. The Amtrak train on the way back was full with no vacant seats. People were definitely traveling, spending money, and enjoying themselves; all healthy signs of a recovering economy. Paul Krugman (the Nobel prize winning economist from Princeton) was seen standing near a gate waiting for a New York bound train. Perhaps I should have approached and told him to be less pessimistic and allow some time for the stimulus package to work its way.

Return Trip

We flagged a taxi and reached the Union Station around 9:30 AM. Once again we had another African immigrant as driver. He was not in a talking mood.So I could not ascertain his nationality.He too was probably an Ethiopian. Not many places serve breakfast at the food court. Again we had a heavy breakfast which will probably serve as our brunch. The train was on time. What a difference a couple of days make. It is sunny and warm today and the country side of Virginia and West Virginia show signs of greenery sprouting from the apparently dry branches and the underside of the trees. There are cows grazing in the meadows in the the small farms around the countryside.

Cherry Blossom in DC on a Gloomy Day

Saturday, March 28 was the first day of the Cherry Blossom Festival this year. The forecast was for a cloudy day with occasional showers in the afternoon and a high temperature of only 50 oF. We ventured out around 11:00 AM and ate brunch. Since it was not raining, we walked to the Mall area. Although it was cold with an occasional drizzle, children and adults were flying kites near the Washington monument. There were a few cherries in partial bloom around the montument.

We walked over to the Tidal Basin and the cherries around the Jefferson Memorial were beautiful. In spite of the cold weather, there were a large number of tourists walking around, snapping pictures and closeups of the flowers using telephoto lenses. Local folks probably didn't come out in this kind of weather. They will probably have warmer weather next weekend, when cherries were expected to be in full bloom.

On the Way to Washington, DC

The scheduled departure time for Amtrak's Cardinal from Charleston was at 8:30 AM on Friday, March 27, 2009. We had to wake up at about 3:30 and leave by 4:30. We made it to the train station by 7:45. The train was a bit early and started rolling through the Kanahwa valley, passing I-77 on one side and the river on the other side. For most of the trip through West Virginia one or the other river was on one side of the tracks. For some time the train tracks were parallel to I-64. This time of the year, not much leaves were on the trees and we get a good view of the rocky terrain underneath. There were small rocks and some big boulders. The scenery in October when the leaves change color would be very beautiful. That is the time when they run special trains through the New River Gorge to attract tourists. The New River Gorge bridge with its spectacular arch and with a length of just over 3,000 feet is one of the longest in the world of its kind. The town in Summer County probably was the largest we passed through in West Virginia. The rest were all relatively small with one or two church steeples visible from a distance. Most houses in the small towns were small, some of them abandoned and there were motor homes and trailer parks. Some of the houses on river banks were built on stilts. There was one major coal mine that we saw on the way. I wonder what the economy of the rest of the areas would be like? One of the train stations was at White Sulfur Springs in the Greenbriar Valley. There were horse stables and golf course visible in that area.

The train was probably about three fourths full. The Cafe/Lounge served hot sandwiches, pizzas, snacks and beverages at moderate prices. Passengers sit around tables in the lounge area playing cards and chatting with new acquaintances. The conductors and engineers joined the conversation swapping stories of their adventures and answering questions. I learned that the maximum speed allowed during this leg of the journey was 79 miles/hour. At Washington, DC they will switch the diesel engine for an electric one and then the train can travel at a maximum speed of 133 miles/hour. We talked to two well dressed black gentlemen traveling from Covington, Kentucky to Philadelphia. They were retired employees of Amtrak who get the privilege of free travel in the U. S. and Canada on-board Amtrak and its affiliates.

The largest town on the way was Charlottesville, Virginia, home of the famed University of Virginia. There were red brick building all over the town. The train stopped for approximately 15 minutes allowing some passengers a cigarette break. A good many commuters boarded the train from there most of them returning to the DC area after a days or a week's work. A lot of them immediately opened their computers and started to work. They might still be on company time. A young lady of Indian origin sat on the next seat and she was typing in a report on Excel until she disembarked at Alexandria.

The Union Station's remodeled interior was majestic. There are shops. restaurants and a large food court with a wide variety of choices. We took a taxi to the Courtyard-Marriott Hotel on 9^th Street. The driver was an African immigrant and he was talking on the phone. The language sounded familiar. He confirmed my suspicion that he was conversing in Amharic, the language of Ethiopia. I still remembered a few greetings and was able to recite them to him. He immigrated to this country about seven years ago from Debre Zeit, a city in Eastern Ethiopia close to Somalia. I taught at the nearby Alemaya College of Agricultue (now Alemaya University) in the 1970s. What a small world!

Thursday of Spring Break

A week between winter and spring quarters is too short. By Tuesday all grades have been submitted. In the last two days, worked on all course websites, except the one I don't have much control myself. Even for that course, the first few modules could be made available to students. Even though I offered to go through every item myself, the bureaucrats still wanted to go through all the items. I actually did review the first five module which are ready to go. The "administrators" think that they know much more than the actual instructor who created the content and who interacts with the students who use it. Eventually, I may have to clean up some of the mess created.
At least tomorrow, we can take a break. The train trip to Washington, DC from Charleston, WV on board Amtrak's "Cardinal" starts at 8:30 AM. Will post again later with some more photos. The photos of Eastobound Cardinal, the New River Gorge Bridge and the Babock Mill are from Flickr Commons. They are gratefully acknowledged.