Charlotte and I caught a mid-morning train in Providence, heading down along the coast to Maryland. The sky was lead-gray, light drizzle against the Amtrak windows. The train was full with folks getting an early start on Thanksgiving, with businessmen on their cell phones "I meeting next week with the European head of Coke in London and I need those reports by noon....", with students working their laptops.
The train runs close to the shore along the Sound. Wetlands stretch out to the flat, gray sea. Houses line some of the coves. Towns come into view where rivers run down to the sea. And, moving west, the towns come closer together, converge, and factories, warehouses, offices, apartments move upwards, towards each other and towards the gray sky. We ride to, through, and down under the City, stop briefly at Pennsylvania Station and then are out onto the Jersey meadowlands, moving south toward Thanksgiving.
