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Gordy
and Madelane's
Great Pilgrimage
Observations and Digressions
Day 2
April 21, 2004 — Wednesday
5:12am
Eastern Time (2:12am body time)
Through the miracle of modern time zones, I just lost three hours. Not
much sleep. We're descending into Detroit.
5:18am
I see the first lights on the ground. I hear mechanical noises,
5:28am
Flaps extended and gear down – we are on the final approach.
5:31am
We float over toy vehicles and then touch down-- the thrust reversers
are on we then we pull off the runway. We are in the Motor City.
6:35am
Aboard another aluminum tube.
The Detroit terminal
has horizontal escalators. I thought that must be for the lazy ones. Once
I discovered how far we would have to walk, those horizontal escalators
sure came in handy!
the Detroit terminal
We
didn't figure out that the red train was there so that we wouldn't
have to walk all the way to the end of the terminal, until we
get all the way to the end of the terminal.
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Madelane on the horizontal escalator
empty
chairs
One
of the advantages of taking a red-eye flight — no crowds.
The other advantage is lower cost. It helps if you do well with
little or no sleep.
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6:44am
The cockpit door is closed.
6:46am
We pull away from the terminal and we are on our way to Baltimore.
Both
my grandfather and my dad were born in Baltimore. In 1890 and 1917, respectively.
Apparently the Coales were prominent in Baltimore until one of those depressions
at the end of the 19th century. This will be my first time in Baltimore.
It will be a short stay, however, as we will be on to DC. I getting hungry.
I don't think I will be getting a meal to remember. It's a gray day in
Detroit.
6:57am
We turn on to the runway and the engines are spooling up. Here we go.
We rotate and are airborne. My watch says 7am but my body is still at
4am. The sky is getting brighter and I'm going to take a nap!
on the way to Baltimore
This
as an Airbus A319. It has noticeably more aisle room that the
757.
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7:24am
Orange juice and a fine Quaker Chewy Wholesome Favorites Oatmeal Raisin
Bar. Yum!
 .
chewy goodness
7:35am
It's definitely chewy. We are starting our descent.
The
first Coales in America weren't Coales. William Cole came across on the
Neptune, to Virginia, in 1620. William's son changed the spelling to Coale
after William's death. It's not clear why he did this.
7:54am
Down through the clouds and we can see green below.
8:02am
We are on the ground in Baltimore! The air trip is over. Now to look for
a good train.
10:00am
On the MARC train to New Carrolton, Maryland.
We
had a fine breakfast at the airport. Nothing like a good breakfast of
polyunsaturated and congealed fats to start the day.
fine eating
polyunsaturated and congealed fats
the plane we came in on
We
caught a free shuttle to the BWI rail station.
waiting for the shuttle
on the way to the train
the Amtrak station
From
the station, we walked over the tracks to get the southbound trains.
a high speed train picking up passengers heading
north
waiting
It's
like entering an alternate universe. You don't see a lot of commuter trains
on the West Coast, much less electric ones. One of the new high speed
trains came whooshing through the station. It was heading southbound towards
us. We kept thinking it was going to stop but it kept on coming and coming
and then we got the wind blast as it passed by us within 6 feet at around
60mph. We're not used to being that close to speeding trains. Cool!
a northbound local coming through
we would be in cars like this in 3 days heading
for New York
Madelane and Maryland
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