Forum / I would do this in a heartbeat-

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    Carol Reid
    Feb 22, 12:54am

    "Amtrak has begun offering "writers’ residencies" to, well, writers – long roundtrip rides aboard Amtrak trains dedicated solely for the purpose of writing"

    http://www.thewire.com/culture/2014/02/inside-amtraks-absolutely-awesome-plan-give-free-rides-writers/358332/

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    Sandy Ebner
    Feb 22, 01:09am

    Just saw this on FB. Sounds incredible

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    whatwouldbukowskido
    Feb 22, 01:14am

    I did that when I was 20.

    I really should write about it someday.

    ;-)

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    James Lloyd Davis
    Feb 22, 02:37am

    I crossed the country by Greyhound bus, coast to coast on northern and southern routes in the 60's. Didn't write a word, but the experience still counts for a lot of material. I can still remember being stuck during a blizzard in downtown Salt Lake City, finding a bar with the biggest elk head ever hanging over the mirror. Noticed there was nobody there but me and the bartender.

    Asked the barkeep, "Why's it was so empty?"
    He half-grinned, shook his head, said, "Mormons."

    Did the same thing a few years back in a Toyota alone. Criss-crossed the coutry about six times. Though the experience wasn't the same and nowhere near as cheap because of the price of gas and need to stay in a few motels, I have to say the experience was worth the cost.

    Travel is the greatest MFA program in the world, but when I write? I don't need the distraction that comes with travel. If I were to ride on the train, I'd rather be mining the people and scenery for stories. I don't like to talk much, but I definitely love to listen.

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    James Lloyd Davis
    Feb 22, 02:38am

    Sheesh...

    Asked the barkeep, "Why's it so empty?"

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    Carol Reid
    Feb 22, 02:49am

    I think it would be fun and possibly inspiring to take on the whole "mysterious writer on a mysterious train trip" persona. All very romantic, in a different way than a road trip or a bus ride.

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    James Lloyd Davis
    Feb 22, 02:52am

    Oh, those Greyhound trips could be very romantic, if romance is what you'd call it. It was the sixties, after all.

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    Carol Reid
    Feb 22, 03:07am

    Enough about the buses!! Sheesh. Trains, I say. Or pup tents. Now I'm going off on my own tangent.

    Back to trains. Just the action of drawing the curtains on the compartment door...there's half a story right there.

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    Sally Houtman
    Feb 22, 04:48am

    In my 20's I flew with a friend to Zurich, carrying only a backpack, a EuRail and britRail pass, a Youth Hostel guide, and a (very small)pile of traveler's cheques.

    We did the train thing across Europe, got caught in a rail strike in Belgium, during which we at least had a sleeping compartment in which we could wash out clothing and hang from bungy cords out the window to dry. Made our way across the channel to do the UK by train before returning home from London.

    There *is* something about the train experience that's magical. And often disturbing depending on who you're trapped in a compartment with!

    You've reminded me that I kept a journal throughout that journey.

    I must find it. I bet there are some stories there.

    Thanks for this, Carol.

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    Charlotte Hamrick
    Feb 22, 05:51am

    Been taking Amtrak from New Orleans up to my family's place in central MS for 30+ years. I love the train and it is conducive to writing, just seeing people's back yards and small town America alone is fascinating, not to mention the passing of the seasons, etc. I'll never forget my first train trip out of NOLA a few months after Katrina, seeing the devastation all the way up. Then, coming home to an almost pitch black city, couldn't even see when we passed the cemeteries. I cried. I guess being cloistered in my own neighborhood (curfew,limited store hours, etc) insulated me from the whole big picture. Might be a story there.
    Then, again, I took the train back & forth to Jackson when my mom was in ICU dying. Another story.
    Sorry, guess I'm feeling nostalgic.

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    Sally Houtman
    Feb 22, 06:23am

    I detect an anthology in the making.

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    Carol Reid
    Feb 22, 07:11am

    Yep, I would be interested in every story possibility mentioned here. I was just being cranky about the buses!

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    Nonnie Augustine
    Feb 22, 02:32pm

    This is one of the few things labelled "awesome" that I think is, truly, awesome. Shared it on FB for train-loving friends.

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    James Lloyd Davis
    Feb 22, 05:50pm

    The Greyhounds have fled their former glory, so trains would be a fine alternative.

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    whatwouldbukowskido
    Feb 23, 12:54am

    Carol--

    I am NOT getting on a bus in western Canada!

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/canada/9283963/Canada-cannibal-says-he-believed-victim-was-an-alien.html

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    James Lloyd Davis
    Feb 23, 01:46am

    As a young man, I had this idea that Canada was the sanest nation on the planet, that all Canadians looked like the Osmonds, forever smiling showing teeth like Chiclets, and that life there was every bit as peaceful and iddylic as Andy Griffith's Mayberry, only with snow.

    All that changed when I visited Vancouver, but the notion was pleasant while it lasted.

    They do have really great writers and a very nice flag.

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    whatwouldbukowskido
    Feb 23, 02:14am

    and a really funky music scene:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TNEg65rlnu4

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    Sally Houtman
    Feb 23, 02:38am

    And Justin Bieber...

    But *this* more than makes up for it -

    Canada + railroad = http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yzo6Otpgj-E&feature=kp

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    whatwouldbukowskido
    Feb 23, 02:53am

    back to trains...

    I remember opening the door between cars, standing on the connectors, leaning out, holding on with one hand and watching the tumbleweeds blow across the west Texas desert, riding past the California coastline, passing through the rain forests of Washington state, being stuck for 8 hours in the middle of Montana during a snowstorm, waking up from a wet dream in the glass-ceiling observation car with 20 people around me, pulling into Chicago, listening to people listening to people listening to people (though rarely speaking myself) being offered a piece of fried chicken by a sweet black lady because she saw I was hungry, being denied a drink at the bar because the man didn't believe I was 21 (I wasn't), watching the sun come up and the sun go down as the world flashed past and the rhythm and the rhythm and the rhythm of the wheels on tracks but what I most remember, besides how beautiful that one girl was as we headed into LA was HOW BIG and SERIOUS the train was when I first got on in Houston.

    I knew it was going to be something and it was.

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    Carol Reid
    Feb 23, 03:08am

    I rest my case. And you know what? That's exactly how I feel about however many years I have left in this world. I know it's going to be something. And it is.

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    whatwouldbukowskido
    Feb 23, 03:28am

    HELL YES!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvMS_ykiLiQ

    My train experience (along with working on a steamboat (Mississippi Queen) in new orleans, crawling out onto the end of the gangplank 30 feet above the water as it sped down the Mississippi on a beautiful star-lit night, KNOWING I was the only child in the universe at that moment watching those stars, that world, go past...

    (if I could find that lady who fed me on the train I'd give her all I have, because in the moment she loved me, and I will always love her for that.)

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    whatwouldbukowskido
    Feb 23, 03:53am

    But this is as personal as I can write...

    ;-)

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