Riding the Rails- NYC 2025

Buds and I are headed to NYC for a midwinter adventure. We were awake at 3 a.m., though we didn't leave the house until 5:10. Ample time to read, shower, walk Mocha, and pack up any last forgotten items.

Monkey was still up. We stumbled through Buster's dark room to hug him, and Yessa blinked her way down the stairs to drive us to the train station.

This was our first visit to the Louise M. Slaughter train station and we were impressed. Bright and clean, plus there were a lot of people there for the 5:40 train to NYC. We later learned about 30 of the people were a high school track team headed to compete.

Now we're settled in our comfy leather seats, facing forward on the right side of the train, as our friend Pete told us to be sure to be. We're in the front passenger car, in the very front seats.

Unless you upgrade to business class, no seats are assigned, but there was plenty of space and there are at least 7 rows of seats between us and the track team. I wouldn't mind sitting close to them, but this train car is literally 82° and I can barely survive sitting next to Buds. We both wore leggings under our jeans and I had on a turtle neck and fleecy. After all, it was 12° when we left Rochester.

Luckily, we are sitting right by the bathroom because I have swapped out and stripped down. Just a T-shirt and jeans for the rest of the balmy trip.

We've just made our first stop in Syracuse and hopefully these new passengers will bring the winter cold in with them.

Many adventures ahead...