Path: ...!weretis.net!feeder9.news.weretis.net!panix!.POSTED.panix2.panix.com!not-for-mail From: "Keith F. Lynch" Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.fandom Subject: Re: Independence Day Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2024 03:19:51 -0000 (UTC) Organization: United Individualist Message-ID: References: <71ae8jdih7c3s6j4psqvm7jr9aumir7hl8@4ax.com> <5931310f-c7de-2ee1-b48b-e4977e0d852b@example.net> Injection-Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2024 03:19:51 -0000 (UTC) Injection-Info: reader1.panix.com; posting-host="panix2.panix.com:166.84.1.2"; logging-data="7866"; mail-complaints-to="abuse@panix.com" X-Newsreader: trn 4.0-test77 (Sep 1, 2010) Bytes: 9407 Lines: 153 Keith F. Lynch wrote: > Again, I just hope they will allow me to board at the "wrong" > Buffalo station, rather than the one the Amtrak website defaulted me > to without mentioning that there was another one that was actually > *in* the city rather than in an outer suburb. I left the con hotel on foot for the Exchange Street Station at 7:30 on Monday morning, arriving there at 7:50. A woman who was mopping the floor immediately asked me why I was there. She turned out to be the station attendant, and the only person present. When I told her I was catching the train to New York, she said I was extremely early. When I showed her my ticket, she pointed out that it says I would board at the Depew Station. I said I knew that, but that I thought I'd be allowed to board here instead. One of the employees when I got off the train there on Thursday told me I would. She then said that it wasn't a matter of permissions, but because that train doesn't pass though that station. The train I had taken there continued on to Toronto, but the train I was hoping to catch to return was coming from Chicago, and doesn't pass through that station. There would be no train to New York through that station until that afternoon, and I didn't have a ticket for that one, and of course I'd miss my connections. She said there's no way to get to Depew by public transit in time. She suggested I call an Uber. I asked her to do so for me. She said I needed to do it from my own cell phone. She offered to call a taxi for me. I agreed, and she did so. While I was waiting outside for the taxi, a woman approached me and asked if this was where she could catch the Flixbus, which I knew to be another intercity bus line. I said I didn't know, but suspected she needed to catch it at the bus terminal. (Coincidentally, I had walked a different woman from the con to the bus terminal the previous day, to catch a CoachUSA bus.) But I suggested she ask the station attendant. She did so, and came out and said I was right, and started rapidly walking in the correct direction. The taxi arrived and got me to Depew with five minutes to spare. It cost $50 including tip. The train arrived at Penn Station at 6:45, having taken nearly ten hours for a trip that never left the state of New York. Since it was still daylight and I had plenty of time before my next train, I walked to Times Square. On the way, I noticed a Macy's. I checked what street it's on. Sure enough it was on 34th Street, just like in the 77 year old movie. I went inside and looked around, but it didn't seem to sell anything but clothing. Times Square felt like I had walked into a website without using an ad blocker. I was able to confirm that it's a myth that that narrow building with all the advertising screens is otherwise empty. I don't know what may be upstairs, but the ground floor has an Olive Garden restaurant. There were lots of people there taking lots of photos. At first I tried to stay out of their photos, until I realized that showing how crowded it was was the whole *point* of those photos. I wore my mask, which I seldom still do outdoors. I got back to Penn Station before dark. It couldn't have been more different from the Exchange Street station. It filled at least two large city blocks, and is several levels tall, with Madison Square Garden on top. There appears to be just one drinking fountain in the whole place, but there was surprisingly no line for it. I guess nobody but me still drinks tap water. Like DC's Union Station, there were lots of stores in it, and the layout is non-intuitive. It would make a good backdrop for a video game. As with countless con hotels and convention centers, Fairfax Hospital (where I visited my mother and Marilee Layman, sometimes on the same visit), and Toronto's PATH, I quickly learned my way around. Perhaps I was a rat in a previous life. I bought the day's New York Times for $4. The next train I took went to Philadelphia, where everyone continuing south had to transfer to a bus. The ticket had indeed said that. What it didn't say was that it would be impossible to either read or sleep on the bus. The driver told us that the bathroom light was out and we should use our cell phones to light our way. I of course don't have a cell phone. I correctly figured I could hold out for long enough. Especially since there was also a strong unpleasant chemical odor in the back of the bus, presumably from the bathroom. The bus pulled into DC's Union Station at 3:30 am Monday, as scheduled. Surprisingly, it didn't enter the bus bay at the top of the station, but just dropped everyone off by the front door. I and at least a dozen other people approached the guard by the only unlocked door. He asked to see my ticket. I showed it to him. He said it didn't count, since my trip was over. I told him that my trip continued with a ride on Metrorail. He said that nobody could enter unless they had a ticket for an Amtrak train that leaves within two hours. I told him I urgently needed to use the toilet. He told me I could urinate against the building. I told him I needed to do more than that. He said it wasn't his problem. Fortunately, I am very familiar with the layout of that station. I walked up the bus ramp, which was out of the guard's field of view. That put me in the intercity bus station at the top of Union Station. Several passengers were waiting for buses there. I tried to use the bathroom, but it was locked. A guard kept me from entering the station proper until I told him that I urgently needed to use a toilet and that one in the bus area was locked. So he let me in. I promptly went to the nearest toilet, then to a drinking fountain, then to the well-lit waiting area. As I remembered, a sign said it was only for ticketed Amtrak, MARC, and VRE passengers, and that there was a two-hour limit. That was why I was willing to accept a bus that would get me there at 3:30 am -- because I know Metro starts running at 5:15 am, less than two hours later. (MARC and VRE are regional "commuter" rail lines. Amtrak is nationwide in the US.) So I sat there and read the New York Times like a civilized human being. There were maybe a dozen passengers there, and they were spread out enough that I didn't bother to wear my mask. (I wore it on every bus and train, and wherever it was crowded, except at the con where I didn't wear it at all.) There were guards there, but they only asked one person for his ticket, and that was because he was sleeping. Or maybe because he was Sleeping While Black. He had a ticket, so they reluctantly left him alone. I then told him (the passenger, not the guard) how I had been treated and how I had to sneak in. He suggested I write to Eleanor Holmes Norton. I recognized that as the name of DC's non-voting congressional representative, so I told him I'm not a DC resident. He suggested I write to her anyway. He told me she was his aunt. As an aside, my ticket, for which I asked for and received the senior rate, said I have to show a current government-issued ID. Fortunately, nobody anywhere on my trip demanded that. Not in the stations, not in the trains, not when registering for the con, not when registering for a (shared) room at the con hotel. When the hotel person asked to see it, I showed her my con badge. She asked if I had anything else. I told her I would show her my Medicare card, but only if she agreed to give me a senior discount. She just laughed, and gave me the room key. (I did have ID, but it's long expired. But my birthday hasn't changed since it was issued.) I got home at 6:35 am by Metro followed by a half-hour walk on the new I-66 parallel trail, which I had to myself. That was early enough that I didn't need to wear my hat. I then stripped, showered, shaved, and slept. As an aside, the reason Union Station had that name has nothing to do with the winning side of the Civil War or with the labor movement. It's because it's a place for multiple railroads, and later also multiple bus routes, to meet, and for passengers of all of them to be treated equally. Any suggestions who I should complain to about the door guard not letting me in, and what I should ask them for? Or does anyone think I was treated reasonably? Thanks. -- Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/ Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.