If you think the photo looks like a WA road train - it is! Photo upload is busted at the mo.

This entry comes from the dining car on our Amtrak Train to Niagara Falls. Free wireless, but only in the dining car. 6 hours down, 3 to go.

The day started early - 5AM rise, 5:30 say goodbye to the apartment. Quite sad to go as it was a perfect base (Walking distance to everything we needed, a nice area, and a real home - since it is one. We were very lucky to have found that little gem!). The Subway ride and finding the right platform at Penn station had a few minor hiccups, but it only took us 30 minutes to get there - then an hours delay while they got the train set working.

The train experience is great - big seats and space (just a tad too toasty in our carriage ) and good food in the dining car. Much more fun than the plane experience and the journey itself is relaxing and interesting.

Out the window right now we see rain and frozen puddles, but no snow yet. Trees are brown and leafless, and towns are brown and lifeless. We can't get over the level of decay along the way - and this started not far out of New York - sure there are cliff mounted mansions with boat houses, but there is so much junk everywhere. Crumbling factories, imploding houses, many miles of telegraph lines and poles derelict, caravans and cars just rotting away. I always thought the movies exaggerated it when someone suddenly comes across a crumbling bridge on a remote road, or tumbles into a crumbling stairwell in an abandoned house - but no - they are all here, dotting the towns and barren patches along the Niagara Railway. When you approach towns and see giant old-school factories looming, with broken windows and that abandoned look, you assume - a derelict building. As you get closer, you see lights on and cars around. They look like they were abandoned 20 years ago - but they are still in use. It's rather depressing, actually. I lost count of metal footbriges across the railway that were devoid of any steps towards the bottom - just a crumbling framework above our heads - which might explain why the train spends much of its time going rather slow.

Fantastic experience, and great fun. A real window into rural America - and a very surprising one at that.

We expect to arrrive on the Canada side of Niagara around nightfall (4:30 ish I think) so wont see anything. 80% chance of snow tomorrow, so crossing fingers.

We spend the whole day at Niagara tomorrow, then hop back on the train the following morning - back to New York, a New Apartment, New Years Eve and some New Travel buddies. (Good friends from Australia, who have relocated to Houston for a while). Still plenty of holiday to go!