The Capitol Limited ~ With a Barrel of Monkeys

Thursday & Friday ~ March 5 - 6 

From the moment we hauled ourselves up the narrow stair of the train and settled in our seats, I knew we were in for a rough night. A woman a few seats back had several loud phone conversations in which she liberally sprinkled the most disgusting language. A man beside us (a dead ringer for Cuba Gooding Jr, from the movie “Radio”) jumped out of his seat at least every ten seconds and often could be seen conducting silent concerts or singing quietly but frantically. Another man, a few seats up had many loud phone calls with a man he hopes to keep as a friend and sponge off rather heavily in the near future. I'm assuming that “friend” has now relocated to Florida.


Since the cafe car was still open, we took a break from the “Funny Farm” and getting some snacks, sat down to play a few more games of Dutch Blitz. The only other person at a nearby table was a young man with a couple of beers in front of him (seriously, who orders them two at a time?). When he had downed those two, he got two more. Thankfully, before he was done, he took them back to his seat in the car behind ours. After we were settled back in our reclining seats, he came back for two more cans. And yet again. But that time he came back with just a cup of ice. Apparently someone finally got the brains to cut him off. I was having flashbacks to my teenage train trip where my seatmate did likewise.


There had been quite a few extra seats so many people were sprawled across a set of two. At Cleveland, OH, at about 2:00 am, many more boarded and people were rather disgruntled to be awakened and have to move their bodies and belongings to one side. Alyssa and I were glad that we had just sat up beside each other.


Somehow morning came without me doing any bodily harm to anyone. Alyssa and I dragged our tired selves down to the “Ladies Lounge”, a very fancy name for a tiny, rather shabby little room. But it was nice to have a spot to set down a bag, change clothes, etc.

In the Ladies Lounge

Cleaned up, we went to the dining car. Not quite the service we received on The Empire Builder. We waited nearly a half hour to be seated and that long to get our food. Our breakfast companions were a young, very immature black couple. She wore a heavy gauge, unattractive nose ring, and he made a big show of ordering water with a whole bowl of lemon slices, which, with the addition of all the sugar packets from ours and a neighboring table, made a free glass of lemonade. Once they left, with very little conversation, Alyssa pointed out that “he” was a she.


After breakfast, I turned to a fresh page in my journal. Every day can have a fresh start at any point and I wanted my journal to reflect that. We spent the remainder of the trip to DC in either the cafe car or the observation lounge, enjoying the beautiful scenery. Everywhere we looked there was sunshine, fresh snow and sparkles. Icicles hung from rocks, rivers rushed along, churning with chunks of ice, everywhere, snow laced the trees. Vast expanses of white were dotted with peaceful farms and little towns. Against the white it was easy to spot a couple of fat doe, a pheasant, and what looked like wild turkeys.

Morning fog on a slushy river

Frozen Swamp

Crossing the muddy Potomac River

The only thing that blighted our morning besides lack of sleep was a man that took great interest in my little laptop while I was typing on it in the cafe car. He wanted to know all about it and I was glad to share some information, but I wasn't prepared for him to sidle ever closer and continually stare at it. Finally I zipped it into my backpack and we pulled out Bananagrams. When he still didn't go away, we went to the lounge car.

Several groups of Amish have traveled with us for much of the way. Up until this morning, they haven't been too friendly. I sat with an open bag of Chicks & Rabbits and soon a girl of about ten moved to sit near us. When I offered her some (her parents were right behind her), she happily took one and one for her younger brother. She showed it to her dad, so I offered him one. Beaming, he said he'd like one too.


We finally pulled into Washington DC's Union Station almost 3 hours late. We'd been delayed several times for work zones and for freight traffic. Many of our fellow passengers were quite angry about their missed connections. We sat back until everyone was off and out of the way before we made our leisurely way into the station. Once inside, we were in awe at the splendor of it. Without gawking too much we made our way out front to the taxi stand. Ten bucks later and a crazy ride through DC traffic, we had arrived at our hotel, just blocks away from the White House!

Capitol Limited outside Union Station

Inside Union Station