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!