The Amtrak Train to New York

Amtrak was a great way to get from Baltimore to New York! It was so comfortable and I loved watching the view as we went. While one doesn't expect to see nice neighbourhoods along the tracks, I must say that I was shocked by the expanse of run-down housing communities we saw from the train window. I knew we'd see some but I was so surprised by how huge those shabby communities are and how deep they appear to be! Maybe I'm wrong and it's a matter of ratios but my sense still is that in the United States there are more people living in poverty and also more people living with wealth while in Canada we have a larger middle class. I haven't done any research to support my sense of that but that's certainly how it seemed to me in general.

We arrived in New York at Penn Station and walked up steps out of the subway into the sunshine in downtown New York at Madison Square Garden - teeming with people!! New York was FABULOUS!!

But I'll have to tell you all about it tomorrow because now I must get to sleep. Tomorrow morning I get my carcinoma cut off my back! I can't wait to have it gone, though I don't look forward to the procedure, which is small potatoes after all I've been through. Still, it's a cancer. So much for that "cancer-free" business. Ha! I wonder if it's growing somewhere else, too? Don't go there, Heather. Don't go there. Think about New York!