Journeying to the Charleston Area

So I already wrote a post sharing about what I experienced at the NWA conference, in the post "Expressing Weather Enthusiasm" back in October.  Yet I am a firm believer in the reality that the journey is as much a part of any traveling as the destination.  That couldn't be more true regarding my journey to North Charleston, SC, as well as my travels around the Charleston area.  So I continue writing to relate some of the particulars.

As it turned out with my personal circumstances, I ended up using Amtrak to reach North Charleston.  This particular train ride resembled another journey I took by Amtrak many years ago with my family, when I was 5 years old.  I rode more than one train to get to my destination, and upon arrival (at one of the destinations), I checked in to my hotel well before the standard check-in time, as had been the case when my family stopped in Sacramento, CA.

For this journey to South Carolina, I rode two different Amtrak lines: the Capitol Limited Line between Chicago and Washington, DC, and the Silver Meteor between Washington, DC, and North Charleston, SC.

By the way, Amtrak's Charleston, SC, station is actually located in North Charleston, SC, which is also where the Charleston Area Convention Center and Charleston International Airport are located, not to mention my hotel.  I am clear to make the distinction of the particular place within a larger geographical area.  I do so especially in light of a conversation I had with a man on the Silver Meteor train going south.  I told him that I was headed to the NWA conference at the North Charleston Convention Center.  Later, when I told him this would be my first time in South Carolina, he was clear to say that I was going to North Charleston, not South Carolina, distinguishing the latter as not really being representative of the former.  He added that it would be worth my while to go to downtown Charleston.  And you know, if I hadn't, I would have been cooped up in North Charleston during my whole time there, with my only sense of being in South Carolina manifested by the plethora of Palmetto trees planted everywhere around the North Charleston commercial area, of which the convention center was a part.

I boarded the Capitol Limited at Chicago Union Station on Saturday evening.  It ended up leaving an hour late, held over so a few passengers could make their connection from a train originating out west.  But with the way the schedule is structured, it was only 10 minutes late arriving at Washington, DC.

It was already dark as we headed out of Union Station, but I caught some glimpses of sites on Chicago's South Side and then in Northwest Indiana, like the cities Gary and LaPorte, the latter of which I remembered from when I visited a good friend of mine who lives there.  At South Bend, a certain man got on who made for some very lively company on the train ride east.

During the night, I stepped off at Toledo to get some fresh air, and later caught glimpses of Cleveland and Pittsburgh.  The sun had already risen as we pulled into Connellsville, PA, a sizable city in the generally rural southwestern part of that commonwealth.  From there, we headed through some very scenic areas of the Appalachian highlands in Maryland and West Virginia.  One spot that really fascinated me was Harper's Ferry, a town with historical importance, and located at a geographically significant spot, where Virginia, West Virginia, and Maryland meet, and where the Shenadoah and Potomac Rivers meet.  (It was also nice to pass through West Virginia, celebrating 150 years of statehood this year.)

While we rode along, I referred to a route guide brochure that offered fascinating snippets about the culture and history of the places we passed through.

It was only a short matter of time after leaving Harper's Ferry that we entered the Washington, DC, Metro Area.  I couldn't help but sense a difference in this urban area versus the Chicago area, as the developments have such a different feel, like in the arrangement of the buildings, and it seemed as if there was so much more greenery, like the trees strewing the tracks leading into the city, which were tucked away a little bit from the homes and buildings we passed by.

Shortly before 1:30 PM, we pulled into Washington, DC, Union Station.  Both on the trip there, and the return trip, I would have a multiple-hour layover in the nation's capitol.  This excited me because I couldn't think of a better place to have a long layover.  The idea of being able to spend some time there even factored into my decision of which train route itinerary I used to return to Chicago.

The first thing I delved into was the dining selections at Union Station.  From being there just a couple years before, I knew there were quite a number of eateries there.  So upon disembarking and walking off the platform into the station, I walked around to look at the selections before deciding which one I would pick.  While doing so, I was offered a number of free samples.  I eventually decided upon some honey chicken with rice and vegetables at a Chinese place.  And I went outside to the plaza in front of the station entrance to enjoy it.

Then I decided to just walk around, encountering a number of churches in the vicinity of Capitol Hill.  First, I went over to St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Parish, kitty corner northeast to the Senate Office buildings, and sat out on the grounds there for a bit.  Then I walked along 2nd Street, and poked my head in the Folger Shakespeare Library.  I passed by some other churches, Lutheran Church of the Reformation and St. Mark's Episcopal, before reaching St. Peter's on Capitol Hill Roman Catholic Parish, about a block from the House Office buildings.  I sat inside for a while.

Subsequently, I decided to fulfill my desire to see Georgetown.  So I hopped on the Metro at Capitol South and rode it west to Foggy Bottom.  I have to say, I REALLY LIKE the Washington, DC, Metro train system.  It's a cool system, very modern, and has a great network that goes all over the metro area.  The only disadvantage for someone like me is that paying the fares isn't so feasible as in other cities, like Chicago, where the fare is based on the distance traveled, and isn't a flat amount of money, not to mention the surcharge for not using the SmarTrip pass.

I disembarked at Foggy Bottom (what an interesting name), and walked west along Pennsylvania Avenue until I crossed over the Rock Creek Parkway Bridge.  Georgetown fascinates me because it harkens back to Washington, DC's 18th-Century heritage, especially in the design of the buildings.  After looking around for a bit, I went to grab some dinner at George's, a small Middle Eastern restaurant.  I had a falafel platter.

Once I finished dinner, I walked down to see the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal corridor, which starts in Georgetown.  (It actually forms one of the longest National Parks in the country.)  Then, I walked about 3/4 mile east back to the Foggy Bottom station, and rode two train lines to Union Station.  By this time, my train south appeared on the train board, and so I went to the gate to await its arrival from New York City.

About 7:10, the boarding call was made, and so I got in line, and made my way to the platform.  Up until this point, I had been wondering how the train was going to travel through the city of Washington, DC, to get south.  From looking at maps of the city, the tracks were only shown to head northward from Union Station.  I figured all of this out as soon as I found myself walking on some stairs headed down to the train's platform.  The trains heading south from Washington, DC, Union Station go underneath the street level.  They then reemerge above ground on the south side of the National Mall.  As we headed out of the city, I got some great views.

We started traveling in an area I remembered well from the 2004 trip I made with my family to the area, when we stayed in Alexandria, and rode the Blue/Yellow Metro Line corridor from there into the city.  The train stopped in Alexandria, within sight of the George Washington National Masonic Memorial Temple, and the Fairfield Hotel we stayed at.

Then, it was into the dark of the night and deep into the Commonwealth of Virginia.  Throughout the ride before lights out, I got to talking with some of the fellow passengers, including this man named Phil Meyer, who told me about North Charleston vs. Charleston.  He also flashed some of his wit and humor, like pointing out how people stumbled around a bit to get to the lavatory in the rear of the train car, but walked steadily when headed forward.  (As an aside, this was my first time riding long-distance on a single-level traincar, unlike the double-decker Superliner trains I have ridden to/from Chicago.)

Between 9:30 and 10:00, when the train stopped at the Richmond Staple Mills Road station, I stepped off the train to walk around and get some air.

During the night, the train passed through southern Virginia, North Carolina, and into South Carolina.  Around 2 AM, when the train stopped in Florence, I decided to step off for some air.  And that was the first time I had ever set foot into South Carolina.  (It makes me think back to when I stepped off the train at the Longview, TX, Amtrak station, my first time setting foot in Texas.)

Just before 5 PM, a few minutes ahead of the scheduled arrival time of 5:06 AM, the train reached the station in North Charleston.  I disembarked, and was struck by how beautifully mild it felt outside at that very early hour.  While waiting to get a taxi, I chatted with Phil, who enlightened me some more about the climate and politics of the local area, before parting ways with him to join another friendly guy on the very short ride (all of about 5 minutes, at most) to my hotel, Comfort Inn.  And so there I was, in the early morning dark, beginning my time in the Charleston area, which you can read more about in a subsequent post...