After dropping a bag of wedding accoutrements with my bridesmaid for return home, we headed to Penn station to catch the Pennsylvanian to Pittsburgh. This was our first US regional trip in coach and once we got on the train it was fine – plenty of space in the cargo rack for our bags and power in the seats. Unlike European trains, in the US, you have to wait in the main hall of the train station until they announce that you can get on the train. And the coach seats aren’t numbered, just reserved so you can sit anywhere. It was a rainy day – in New York and along the route so it was an optimal time to be on a train. We made the quick hop to Philadelphia and then soared across the Pennsylvania plains, dotted with farmhouses and evidence of the coexistence on the Amish population around Lancaster. We then wound our way through the Appalachian mountains in their late autumnal glory, peppered with simple mountain homes, and closer to the track, caravans (or mobile homes as the Americans call them). The food on the train was better than what you encounter on Australian railways – quite good sandwiches – there were these sandwiches from a place called Boar’s head which were quite good – marbled rye bread – sort of a marbled mixture of light and dark rye bread is a bit of a thing – and the bread (like sourdough) stands up better if it’s not extremely fresh so a good choice for train travel. These sandwiches were fresh though, including the salad on them.

We climbed higher into the Appalachians as the sun set and the late autumn sky was dotted with some from fireplaces – it was rainy and quite cold. When we arrived in the dark – about an hour and a half late (not unusual for Amtrak apparently) we realised just how cold – it had been snowing earlier in the day and there was still some evidence of a light dusting on the rail platform. We zipped up our coats grabbed our bags and got our bearings. I had particularly booked a hotel close to the train station so we could safely walk there on arrival. It was about 7pm on a Friday night – the streets were busy so it was perfectly safe. We checked into our hotel. After New York, the room seemed ridiculously large. Like a lot of American hotels (and those in regional tourist destinations in much of Australia, it looked like it had been built/ refurbished in the late 80s or early 90s. The beds were comfortable and the staff were helpful. They had this weird little shop behind the desk where you could buy drinks and snacks from reception. A little bit like the shops you often find at reception in a caravan park but not something I had encountered in a hotel before. And they had ice machines, the location id each on every floor was well marked. What is it with Americans and ice. Practically every hotel has an ice machine. Why is there such a desperate need for ice in American hotels? Is it because they don’t have a freezer to store the bodies? [Motorpsycho Nitemare – Bob Dylan – you just have to listen to Bob Dylan when travelling around America and this is one of his lesser known but in my opinion, best tunes.]

After check in, we wandered to a pub across the road to get some dinner – released from the confines of New York, with a cheaper menu and some more traditional American comfort food, we decided to go a bit nuts. They had one of my all time favourites – seafood chowder on the menu so I had to have a cup of that (except it was more a bowl than your traditional continental chicken noodle cup size). Dan saw buffalo wings so had to give them a go. The best part about wings in the US is that in most places you can order them boneless which makes them much less messy to eat. (Important when you have a beard. Dan chose a boar’s head burger which he thoroughly enjoyed. I chose the boar’s head meatloaf, which I did not – it was very gamey and the taste was way too strong for me. I did eat the green salad though (which was also huge).

After dinner, it was time to do some laundry. One of the great things about America is that many of the hotels have a laundry room and rather than needing silver dollars, the majority of the machines take quarters (and not very many of them). Tide appears to be the dominant washing powder and was what the hotel offered. They also sold me dryer sheets. These go in the dryer with your washing and are meant to make them smell fresh, like they were dried outside. It is understandably difficult to dry clothes outside if you live in an apartment or in the winter in the north but I get the impression that it never occurs to Americans to dry clothes in the open air. And yes, I used the dryer sheets and no, they didn’t make my clothes smell like they had been dried outside.

US states – 2, t-shirts – 0, fridge magnets – 0