Completed the Planes, Trains and Automobile month of April

As I mentioned early this week, I was in Mystic, CT for the weekend. This makes four weekends in a row of adventures in states other than MA. I have flown to the west coast twice (planes), driven to RI for Easter (automobile) and took Amtrak to Mystic Connecticut (train(s)). Phew, boy am I spent both monetarily and physically... I have enjoyed all of the different modes of transportation I took --- well as much as you can enjoy a red eye from coast to coast. Hands down traveling by train was probably the most amusing.

Normally, I wouldn't classify the train as amusing. Because usually I am going to major stations - you know like traveling end to end of the commuter lines (like the Worcester-Boston or Boston-Providence) or to NYC Penn Station.

Going to the Mystic train station is a different kind of final destination.

The Mystic weekend was a JEM weekend. E and I took the train in together from Boston and J came from NYC, she was scheduled to get to the station first. When the conductor looked at our tickets he looked a slightly interested that we were going to Mystic, but I ignored the facial expression he made. An hour before we get there we received "On man, the mystic stop is super sketchy!" via text.

Awesome.

Our conductor was all about being a problem solver in regards to relocating families who were scattered throughout the cars into adjacent seats. A few stops into our trip we heard conversation between a conductor and the man in front of us about his family's seating arrangement. His girls had seats next to each other but he and his wife were split up and they all wanted to be together. The two people across from us were getting off at the Kingston Station and once the conductor noticed this he asked us to switch with the little girls so that the family could have a whole row to themselves. We agreed, made the switch, and life was good. A few stops later the conductor again was helping a family find seats together and when he looked at us he remember that we were getting off at the following stop and told the father that the "Mystic girls" would be getting off shortly and his kids could have our seats. The reason I tell these stories is to point out that this conductor clearly knows that there are two girls going to Mystic and that we were in the car after the cafe.

Now the train begins to slow and we look out the window to confirm that this is in fact our stop - you can't hear the announcement. And, hey, the last thing you want to do is get off the train at the wrong stop, it's not as if you can walk a few blocks and get to the next station. We grab our bags and go to walk down the aisle so that we can get out and all of a sudden a conductor comes blasting through the doorway walking toward us at speed-walking speed yelling "you the mystic girls?".

We say "yes....?".

He said, "follow me" sternly and brought us to the space between the cars, flipped down the stairs and let us out. We are a bit mystified as we had gotten up immediately, it wasn't as if we had fallen asleep or anything.

J was on the platform standing with the other conductors. She let us know that during that minute of our life all of them kept saying "where are the mystic girls?" "have you seen the two girls getting off?" "there are two girls getting off here"...

They made it sound like we went and hid, it was a apparently bit intense. Talking with J, we realized that no one must ever get off at this stop and so when there is a pick up or let off on the list it is a big deal. When she got there, the train missed the station platform and so they asked her jump out as they couldn't use the stairs or move the train over...

Yes, she JUMPED out of the train. At least it wasn't moving?

Our thoughts about this not being a very busy station was confirmed when we went to the station Sunday night to sit and wait only to find out that it was closed...for the day. But we got to hang out at a real townie bar because of this, which was kind of worth it.