the last time i travelled first class on a train (aside, maybe, from when i was a kid which i don't remember), was in europe. i was forced, when purchasing my euro-rail pass, to go first class because i was over 25. everyone knows that you've got enough money to travel first class when you're over 25, right? i tried it for a while, but ended up riding in the regular class trains, around europe, the young travelling companions i met along the way.
it feels wierd now, as it did in europe, to be one of the chosen few --- sleeping on a bed rather than curled up on the floor or, if you're lucky, stretched out on an empty seat beside your own. it feels weird walking through all the coaches to the dining car, and then back to my little cubbie with my own personal electrical outlet and a door to shut.
these little sleeping rooms add significantly to the travel budget .... but i learned, last year, that this train goes from austin to san antonio in the evening, then sits at the station overnight, and then there's another entire overnight as we traverse the great desert to los angeles. it was worth cashing in my visa points for this little bit of privacy, an opportunity to get some much needed grant writing completed, and especially of course the chance to sleep both nights in a horizonal position.
when i called amtrak to reserve, they told me meals would be included. i said not to worry, i'm vegan, there's probably nothing there i'd call food anyways. the friendly woman amtrak employee (as so many of them seem to be) told me, over the phone, that it'd be no problem making vegan food and asked me specifically what i'd like for each meal - vegan veal, vegan chicken, vegan beef. i didn't try to tell her that vegans don't focus their food descriptions around a fake dead animal, just a stir fry or rice and beans would suffice .... i just made my choices from what she offered up. and, in austin, i shopped at the wheatsville co-op the afternoon prior to departing ... just in case.
th first morning i skipped the call for breakfast and ate granola and soymilk in my little abode, but i decided to give lunch a try. none of these amtrak employees had any idea about the food conversation i'd had while booking my ticket, and the only vegan option was an amy's veggie burger, so i opted for that (without the unknown sourced bread). i was told the cook wanted to speak to me about dinner options, and i'll be paged around 2 pm for that. very thoughtful of them.
but wait .... on my way out of the dining car i stopped to ask for hot water in my mug, for tea. and i noticed big garbage bins filling up with the plastic 'amtrak' stamped plates. you're not really throwing those out, i said, can't they be reused or recycled? oh they can be recycled, i was told, but not if they've had food on them.
and again i was prompted to wonder .... just how close to the brink of global catastrophe do we have to get, i wonder, before we stop killing for oil, then using untold amounts of energy and resources to turn oil into little plastic plates and cups that are used once prior to being piled up on an otherwise functional piece of earth somewhere?
i love travelling, but i do despair that i create more trash than i do when i'm at home. and that's not actually difficult - i don't create any trash at home. none. i shop very carefully so i don't buy stuff with excessive packaging and, where i live, everything can be recycled. if i do happen to collect it, i can take styrofoam, plastic, waxed potato chip bags, everything, to the recycle depot .... everything except the occasional q-tips and old socks worn thread bare or other strange little bits that i'm not sure what to do with. but when i travel i live a bit differently -- i buy those little tetra packs of soy milk, or little plastic containers with tabouli salad .... and i'm sorry, but i don't carry them around until i find a recycling facility. i've got enough to contend with between my portable technology office, the yoga mat, sleeping bag ... not to mention the feed bag. so i'm making my confession to the gods and goddesses of trash --- i'm sorry!
but i do draw the line at eating off plastic plates, printed especially for amtrak, that are immediately thrown onto someone's landfill. we all have our limits.
