All Aboard!

While there are many benefits I gave up when I left the classroom, I still have retained my right to a SPRING BREAK. Starting last Saturday night, I caught the #5 California Zephyr westbound to Denver. I knew I made the right choice to travel by train when I had my first conversation with a 15 year old boy sitting next to me in the observation car. He was doing homework and kept glancing at me and smiling. Filing though my past-student memory, I determined he was not a former student. But still he kept staring and smiling. Finally, he asked...

Were you on Jeopardy?

Never, have I been mistaken for a Jeopardy contestant before.

That was on the train from Iowa to Denver. Yesterday's trip was from Denver to Grand Junction.

I also loved overhearing conversations that were taking place on the train. For instance this was a conversation between an elderly, hearing impaired gentleman and a young Croatian man over a game of Chess:

So where are you from?



Croatia.



(The old man repeats himself , remember, he is hard of hearing.) So where are you from?



Croatia. (A little louder) Have you heard of it?



Croatia. You are the good guys.



It sounds like you know something about Croatia.



Yes, you are the good guys. (Very loudly) And Serbs are the bad guys. Except in World War Two, they you were the bad guys.



Uh...It is a bit more complex than that.



Yes, you were the bad guys



It is more complex than that!


I chuckled at the conversation, but felt for the Croatian man.

The dining car experience was fantastic, and a story in and of itself. I was seated with a 6th grader, his sister, a 7th grader and a politically boisterous man on vacation from Atlanta.

You know you have stepped into an bloggable story when part of the conversation goes something like this...

Atlanta guy to the kids: You need to vote! When you are old enough to vote, you need to vote anyone who is over 40 years old out of office. (He was not a fan our our past administration.) You need to vote all of these criminals and Nazis out of office. Make sure you vote!

The children quietly nodded their heads. And then the 6th grader broke the silence saying... I have story about Nazis!

He proceeded to share a story he learned from his friend's grandmother about her experiences in Hungary during WWII. At the end of the story, the man looked at me and jabbed
See, you can't test that! You can't measure that with statistics! Impressing upon me he knew what real education is. Obviously, he inferred a completely wrong conclusion about be from the one sentence introduction I shared earlier.

Later in the lunch, he asked me if it was a conscious decision to leave teaching. He rubbed his thumb along his index finger while inquiring. I explained that it was (as if anyone enters a PhD program unconsciously!) and in less than three sentences I had won him over to my side and he realized I wasn't an enemy after all.

In the end, the guy bought the kids ice cream and payed for all of our meals. Quite a pleasant surprise and an appreciated random act of kindness.

The train is wonderful. If you live anywhere near an Amtrak depot, I recommend you highly consider traveling by train on your next trip. It is better than flying or driving. You get to see the sights as you travel, meet fascinating people (and characters) and it is an more "green" way to travel. I can't wait for my 22 hour trip back home!

I promise to post pictures at some point.