Day 3-4: Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts and Rhode Island
The weary traveler finally arrives
- 0800: A night of fitful sleep brings a lackluster omelette for breakfast. I devour it anyway, having had no supper the night before.
Lake Erie
- 0830: A glimpse of Lake Erie, as well as a tiny little house with a sign out front proclaiming “Gran’s Pierogies.” Sadly, I wasn’t able to get a photo of the latter.
- 1200: REDEMPTION. WE HAVE ROLLS AND BUTTER, HOUSTON. Repeat: WE HAVE ROLLS AND BUTTER.
- 1215: In my excitement, I ate the rolls before photographing. Not that they were anything to look at anyway, but morale has increased by 300%.
- 1300-1700: Traveling through upstate PA, upstate NY, and western MA, there are lots of towns and cities that prosperity seems to have bypassed – the sorts of places that crop up in Bruce Springsteen songs. Springfield, MA, in particular, was a bit of shock to me, with so many beautiful old buildings abandoned and in serious disrepair.
- 2300: After a long delay outside Worcester and a resulting a missed commuter rail connection in Boston, I am finally in Rhode Island. Exhausted, sick of traveling, and ready for a quiet, non-moving bed.
Pawtuxet village home 
Pawtuxet marina
- Day 4, 1300: How blissful to sleep through the night and wake up late! The weather was sunny and warm, though breezy, so I wandered down the road to Pawtuxet Village, an adorable seaside town with historic Colonial homes and a tiny little marina. It’s good to be in the Ocean State at last.
Post-Trip Thoughts:
- The trip was definitely one for the bucket list; I’m glad I did it, but I wouldn’t do it again. As small-minded as it sounds, I’ll be honest and say that most of what I saw from the train was not worth seeing (or at least, not for 5+ hours at a time).
- Biden’s proposed infrastructure plan is sorely needed. While my sleeper rooms on both legs of the trip were fine, they were clearly old and in serious need of updating. I wasn’t expecting the Orient Express, but I got something along the lines of a 1988 Days Inn room.
- The federal government needs to start enforcing regulations that give Amtrak trains priority over freight trains. During the course of the trip, the train pulled aside for freight trains at least 8 times, and as a result, arrived around an hour late to Chicago and to Boston.
- In Boston, my missed connecting train resulted in a RI arrival that was 2 hours after my scheduled arrival.
- If we ever hope to persuade Americans to consider rail as a viable alternative to planes and cars, we have to make train travel cheaper, faster, and more timely.