Trains

AMTRAK Station, Providence

Monday, being the day that The Missus Herself and Little Bit return in triumph from their trip to our nation's capitol, I left work early to head to Providence. Capital of the fair state of Little Rhody (not its official name mind you, that is - drum roll please - The State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations. I kid you not. Seriously, it is written. Ask the Dothraki.)

So, I'm at the train station in Providence. I arrived with enough time in hand to actually get a parking spot in the garage under the station.

Sweet, right?

Um, yeah sure. The Missus Herself's train will, of course, be late.

15 minutes, no 20, check that...

25 minutes late.

I don't want to talk about how much parking costs here. Makes the airport seem like a sweet deal. Sigh...

(When we left the station I discovered that the posted parking rates are to scare the non-AMTRAK users away. Because The Missus Herself was in possession of an actual train ticket, the cost was a mere eight bucks. Which wasn't bad for the ninety minutes I was parked.)

But while I'm cooling my jets, I note a sign in the station "Free WiFi!"

Ooh, I can surf the web of world-wideness while biding my time in the splendor of the Providence AMTRAK station...

Okay, "splendor" is perhaps a stretch. But I've been in far less luxury before, believe you me. Why there was this one bar in Kunsan where the plumbing was not exactly up to code, if you know what I mean. Seems that there was a leak in the feed pipe running to the sink, which caused a small stream to run across the floor, continually.

Why yes, it was exactly like that picture above. Well, if you take the trees and shrubberies away. Oh, yeah, the rocks have to go as well. And it wasn't quite that wide, nor clear. And it was indoors in a rundown bar in Asia. But other than that, the picture does remind me of that place.

We were so used to that stream running across the floor that we were rather miffed with the owner when he got the pipe fixed.

"Mister Kim, where's our babbling brook? It was so nice."

"You shutup GI, you want brook, go outside, this is bar, not fishing resort! All GIs crazy and pain in my ass..." Usually Mr Kim would mutter that last bit as he headed towards the backroom. Mama-san always told him to calm down, the crazy GIs are what paid the bills, thank you very much.

So all-in-all, the train station in Providence isn't bad. If you head out the front, you can see the Rhode Island State House. Which I snapped a shot of today... (yup, just for you)

It's very nice...

Actually, the building is a local celebrity (if a building can have that distinction) having been in two films - it served as the United States Capitol exterior in the 1997 film Amistad and also served as the City Hall of Capital City in Disney's Underdog.

Amistad I've seen (an excellent film, I must say - channeling my inner Martin Short). Underdog I have not seen. In fact now I must find it, having watched the Underdog cartoon series as a young lad.

Such was the latter half of my day, a visit to the train station and then writing about the visit to the train station.

To tell the truth, I was trying to post all of this via my "smart" phone with a significant lack of success. (Harking back to the "Free WiFi" noted above.) But my rather sausage-like fingers and the wee virtual keys on said "smart" phone were producing some rather interesting misspellings and subsequent autocorrects. It was with a great deal of frustration that I shut it down. Went outside. Came back in and tried again.

Only to have my "smart" phone inform me, "Post, what post? I don't have any posts in storage..."

Grrr...

When I got home, there was the post. On the computer in draft form. Of course, the "smart" phone was now telling me, "Oh, that post! Yeah, got it right here, why?"

I guess I'll stick to the computer and the Surface 2 for posting. The "smart" phone, he's not so smart.