Montreal to New York Part 1

So the Amtrak Website boasts that the Train from Montreal to New York was ranked by National Geographics top ten most scenic Train rides in the world. I have completely drawn blanks with my Google Foo to find any validity to these claims. For the benefit of both yours and my experience, I have attempted to live blog the events. Knock yourselves out.

Montreal – New York (Departs 9:30AM : Arrives 8:30 PM

9:10 Board Train, give guy my passport when he asked for my ticket. Get lipped for holding up the line. Spill eleven cents on the floor. Get further harassed. Board train in tears.

9:20 Some pretty cool cats in my cart, one guy is from Australia. He is okay, lent me a pen. One woman said she wanted to see Washington DC so I told her of the 1:30 AM bus I planned on taking to get there. She looked at me like I was an idiot for only spending 5 hours in New York and/or taking a 1:30 bus. We aren't talking anymore

9:30 Start Moving. Conductor is pretty funny. No wifi on the train. So the live blogging isn't exactly live. Work with it.

9:45 … This thing really doesn't go fast.

10:15 Ugly Farm lands. Muddyness. Industrial. Can only get better from here.

10:25 An hour in, not into the US yet. Feel like this apparent rating is dubious. 

10:26 We just passed a day care and all the kids came running and were jumping and celebrating for us. Perhaps they know just how beautiful this train ride will be? Maybe they are excited for me to see all this. Feeling much more optimistic than just a minute ago.

10:48 The train has stopped in the middle of the road with eager traffic on either side waiting to cross. I don't know why, I think he's just being and ass.

12:26 We just barely got out of the way of the cars before stopping for an hour and forty minutes for customs. That was a whole story on it's own. They kicked one guy off the train and didn't think my trip was very conceivable. Alas, we are off again.

12:28 “We are 22 minutes late because of the customs procedures but that is time we should be able to make up later in the ride” … so you mean usually the train can go faster … you just choose not to go at a higher speed? Good on ya.

1:03: Mr. Seat Checker, why are you wearing your sun glasses inside the train?

1:40 Time to take on my first bag of trail mix 

2:35 Okay so the view has started to pickup. We are now riding alongside what I think is the Hudson Bay with the beautiful view on one side and nothing but cliffs on the other. Guess what side I am on …

I did manage to snag a seat at the other end for a bit and grab a few photos.

3:52 The river and the mountains get repetitive after three hours. So I am watching the wire, only interrupting it to report on this awful smell that has overwhelmed the train. It's like Saint John but better. Perhaps a good place for this train to start making up some of it's lost time?

4:40 Eleven hours is a long train ride. Four left. We just passed a prison. Might have been Guantanamo Bay, not sure though.

4:40 Also, I have dug into my second bag of Trail Mix, fear not I didn't finish the first one, just time for a switchup. Okay, time for another episode of the Wire.

5:03 We are so far behind schedule it's disgusting, we were supposed to arrive here at 3:30. Good thing I wasn't planning anything extravagant in New York

[Pic 1]

6:01 I haven't seen one nice thing in an hour and a half. We are back on track though which is surprising. Very surprising. That being said the train is gunnin' er right now. I'm quite impressed.