Indeed the night had been short as I had to get up by 4.30
in the morning. Luckily the new phone had woken me up, what would I have done
without a phone? I would certainly have missed the train. After a quick shower
I left the hostel by about 5 am. There were no buses running this early on a
Saturday morning so I had to walk to the Amtrak station. I wasn’t sure how long
it might take which was one of the reasons I had left so early. It was still
very humid and walking in these conditions not very pleasant. Nevertheless, I
made it to the station and it had taken just a bit more than 30 minutes which
meant I arrived an entire hour before boarding began. But rather early than
late and the waiting hall of the Union Passenger Terminal in New Orleans was
quite nice. Boarding began at 6.30 am and the train left at sharp 7 am just
like indicated in the timetable. I was traveling on train 20 alias “Crescent”
a daily New Orleans to New York service. The train wasn’t too full and seats
were not assigned so I could choose wherever I wanted to sit. After passing by
many suburbs and a large cemetery the train left New Orleans behind and went
along the lake shore for quite a while before crossing the lake over a long
bridge. After about an hour the train had its first stop in Slidell, Louisiana
before crossing the border to Mississippi with stops in Picayune, MS,
Hattiesburg, MS, Laurel, MS and Meridian, MS. A volunteer from the Trails &
Rails program came along and distributed some brochures featuring major sights
along the tracks. I spend the morning with recovering a bit from the rather
short night by taking advantage of the recline ability of the seat and I also
took some time to further set up the new phone and to customize all the
features. By 11.30 I headed down towards the dining car, I had a 12.00 table
reservation for lunch. The remaining time I used to have a chat with the
volunteers from the Trails & Rails program, a very nice couple from
Grainsville. They are traveling frequently on the Crescent providing passengers
with information on natural sights along the tracks. They gave me a lot of
valuable tips for my upcoming Atlanta visit. Then it was time for lunch. I had
the traditional veggie burger and a soda. I also had a nice chat with two
ladies from North Carolina from the neighbor table. I spend the afternoon at my
seat sorting some pictures and having a look at the data that I luckily could
recover from my broken smartphone. During the afternoon the Crescent picked up
some delay cause by the late Crescent train number 19 New York to New Orleans and
some cargo traffic. In the end we reached Tuscaloosa, AL with 60 minutes delay.
The delay remained also when we called at Birmingham, Alabama which we left
exactly 60 minutes behind schedule. Finally we made one more stop in Anniston,
AL before crossing the border to Georgia. Once again it was time to adjust the
clock, moving now to Eastern Time. We finally arrived in Atlanta, GA with 50
minutes delay. During the last two to three hours I spent such a great time
with the guys from Trails & Rails in the launch car sharing so many
interesting stories of previous trips and future planned trips as well the joy
and eye-opening experience of traveling. They also gave me so many great tips
for Atlanta and brochures. Once off the train in Atlanta I had to walk about a
mile to the nearest MARTA subway station. I got a bit lost but there was a very
friendly local lady who had the same problem so we went together on the search
of the station which certainly wasn’t that easy to find, hidden behind tall
buildings. Getting then to the airport was easy as the subway I had boarded was
bound for the airport station. After a 20 minutes ride I reached Atlanta
Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the busiest airport in the world with
almost 100 million passengers annually as I just learned at a recent
conference I attended in Singapore where I also met the managing director of
the airport. However, I only bypassed the airport transferring from MARTA to
the complementary hotel shuttle. I was certainly impressed by the bus station
that alone just served all the hotel shuttles, a concept that however certainly
makes sense. I had to wait a while until my shuttle showed up but once on board
the ride didn’t take long and soon I was checked in and could get into my room.
It had gotten late and I went to sleep pretty soon.
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| Crescent has arrived in Atlanta |
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| Atlanta station with Crescent |
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