Episode 15: As the Cardinal Flies

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and is looking forward to a happy new year. I just wanted to take this chance to thank you all for coming along on this journey with me. I look forward to a 2020 full of travels, adventures, experiences, and being able to share it you all.



This is unusual as Christmas episodes go. Or maybe not. We’ll see. Thanks again and enjoy!



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It’s a rare treat when I have a traveling buddy.



Amanda and I have traveled together before, but generally our schedules don’t align. Also, our travel needs, like our social needs, are different. She likes to compare my social cup to a thimble and hers to an ocean; this metaphor is apt, though I used to call my social cup more of a shot glass… and I’m not exactly sure when the cup shrank. My need to Get Out, though… my need to stretch my legs and feed my peripatetic nature… is very different from her reasons and needs to travel. Like me, she is an experiential person: the journey is as much the point as the destination, which is why we took the train out to Norfolk to visit my daughter and her fiancé. The difference between us is a small but significant one. I Go because it’s in my nature to Go and this results in experience and occasional adventure. She goes because her nature is an adventurous and curious one. Like I said… a slight difference. But a significant difference. And I count my lucky stars every day to have a life partner that understands what I need and loves me anyway.



So we caught the Cardinal from Union Terminal in Cincinnati – which most people seem to forget was ACTUALLY built to be a train station. Don’t get me wrong: I’m glad the city managed to bring the old Hall of Justice back from the brink. And if that reference confuses you, then you also should know that the Cincinnati terminal was actually used as the model in the Superfriends cartoon from the 1980’s. There’s a museum and an IMAX theater there. The city’s archives are also housed there.  And yes, a train stops there. The westbound Cardinal rolls through at 1:27am and the eastbound at 3:27 am, when they’re running on time.



True, the waiting area could use some updates; but the art deco interior of the main hall is breathtakingly beautiful. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve been there during regular business hours. At least once I slept there waiting on a train (before Uber was a thing, and I didn’t have the cash for it or a plain ol taxi anyway… and I didn’t want to burden anyone else with getting me to the station when most sensible people are still asleep.) So we walked into this huge, echoing space, with only a few people there. Over the hour or so until the train arrived -- about 40 minutes late, which still counts as “On Time” as far as I’m concerned – more people arrived. My old Losantiville, it seems, is split between those who travel on the train and those who have no clue it’s there… which is a shame not only for the train, but for the city.  Maybe if Amtrak thought there was more interest in the Cardinal, they wouldn’t have taken the dining car … such as it has become… AND the observation car away.



The Cardinal is called such because every state the train goes through calls the little red flyer its state bird. I’m sure that’s easier than choosing, say, a state tree… the dogwood, or the buckeye for example. Or the white oak or tulip tree. But the Cardinal runs from Chicago to New York, with stops along the way, only twice dipping into Kentucky … further upriver in Maysville and Ashland, leaving Louisville passenger train deficient – a shadowy pall on what can be a nice city when it feels like it.  



I almost always end up with a window seat, unless seats are assigned like they are on the Southwest Chief and Empire Builder… and even then, if I can get to the line in time, I can usually score a window because of the length of my trip.  So Amanda got the window seat, since she hasn’t been on a train for a while, especially since (AND DID I MENTION) there was NO OBSERVATION CAR ON THE TRAIN.  And while I have never enjoyed driving through West Virginia – whose state tree is the Sugar Maple – it is a LOVELY chunk of geography to ride the train through. Appalachia in the winter is stark, dark, and … in its own way… seductive.  Get away from Charleston and the mountains cast themselves across your vision, stretching north and south, creating a natural barrier between the Ohio River Valley and the flat lands that slide into the Atlantic. Rolling through on the train, just how OLD those mountains are becomes more evident; not as tall and new as the Rockies, though still not as old as Ozarks; as a matter of fact, what we call the Appalachian Mountains was actually formed by TWO different events – 45 million years ago and 250 million years ago. But none of that is evident barreling down and back on I-64. Train travel is as close to getting out and walking as you can get without actually getting out and walking, unless you have the money and the vehicle to ride the old State Routes. Parts of SR 40 through West Virginia will make you question your notions of a paved road.



The best part of traveling with Amanda, besides the company, is that I get to experience the trip twice: through my own lens as well as through hers. And while the general tension of holiday travel amongst the others on a very full train limited her usual ability to make friends with just about anyone and a few salt shakers too, she did manage, on the return trip, to engage in one of her favorite hobbies: taking pictures for people who are trying to take selfies. And because she has a background in photography, every picture she takes has the rare quality of art that selfies, by their lack of context and composition, generally lack. But then, that’s her gift– an eye that sees and a heart that takes in the whole world.  We were in Charlottesville, waiting for the Cardinal westbound on our return home, when she spied a mother traveling along with a little girl of maybe 5 or 6. Her offer to take the picture was, as usual, happily accepted and I have no doubt that it will help cement the memory of the trip for both mother and daughter.



And that’s really what makes this a Christmas episode, if it is one. The real gifts we give and accept aren’t things. The real gifts are experiences and lens through which we take those experiences and make them our own.  And the things… the pictures, the mementos, the chachkis… are … or should be… mnemonics.



Thanks so much for listening to Episode 15 of a Record of a Pair of Well-Worn Traveling boots.  Please be sure to show some love by subscribing to this podcast on ITunes, Spotify, or whatever podcatcher you use. Check out the past episodes and look for Episode 16 in two weeks. If you really enjoy the podcast, please consider becoming a patron on our Patreon Page: www.patreon.com/wellwornboots. It’s only $5 a month and you will get a little extra for your patronage.



Thanks again for listening. May the road always rise to meet your feet.