A Living Magazine - Day 314 - Homecoming - Wilmington to Poughkeepsie

I'd never been so happy to board a train--train 150, Northeast Regional. And that's really saying something, because I love to ride trains. The trip to New York City wouldn't be long enough to sleep, but long enough to sit back in a comfy seat...

I had an hour and a half layover at Penn Station in Madison Square Garden. And, buying a coffee, then stepping out to take some pictures and a video, I remembered speedily why I had not wanted to wallk here. At the top of the escalator, I was met by a mentally disabled guy who kept walking in and out of the station mumbling to himself about "...the Arabs...the Irish..." the this, the that...

Three other guys, in quick succession, begged me for money on the street. It was New York, what did I expect? I'd been there before a few times, with money and a place to stay, but as a traveling vagabond, it was just way too much. Still, it offered me a chance to snap a few shots of the downtown. I was going to walk the four blocks to the Empire State building and take more pictures, but I was just too tired...

Yep, this pretty much sums it up.

Connecting at 8:15 a.m. with Train 69, the Adirondack, I boarded and sat back down in comfort. It was tease. It was only an hour and a half ride to Poughkeepsie. The sky was getting brighter and the forecast called for a dry morning in the central part of the state, with showers rolling back in that night.

When I arrived at the Poughkeepsie station, the air was warm, and I took off my blue button down (now-"traveling" shirt). I sat on a bench inside and tried to get online. But alas, there was no Wi-Fi there. Great! I hadn't done all of my prepping well enough, probably due to a lack of sleep. I had one screenshot that showed a Starbucks south of town on Route 9. The problem was getting to 9. My shot was too far up to see road names, so I decided to play it by ear and just keep walking south. I knew that 9 ran along the Hudson, so I meandered through a bunch of streets until I reached the highway.

I loved this house.

Unlike the South, at least the cities and towns of the Mid Atlantic (mostly) have shoulders along the roads, and tend to have sidewalks as well. I appreciated this as I made my way about 4 miles to the area I'd found online. There, I discovered a small area of mostly-new strip malls. And, there were plenty of fast food places to jump from hotspot to hotspot, in the next couple of days, while I planned the march to Massachusetts...

Looked like a great mural, but was actually just the generic side of a TGI Friday's.

I went to Starbucks first, having seen online that they were starting "Frappuccino Happy Hour" from 3:00 to 6:00 each afternoon--half priced drinks. I waited quite a long time in line and then ordered my Caramel Frappuccino. The cashier told me it was only for Starbucks preferred customers (people with cards). I had a card but with no funds on it, so I asked her if she could load it from my debit card, which she did. Then she put two cups together and pushed them down the line to be made. 

Seeing the two cups I asked her if I was getting two drinks. She said, yes. The deal was (according to her): buy one get one free. I told her that I was under the impression it was 50% off of ONE drink--like a happy hour. Another barista seconded my assertion, and the first woman got all uppity, saying it would have been nice if someone had told her about it. The manager stepped over and looked at the register. She was not pleased with her associate, who had charged me full price. Because of the convoluted process of whether to refund my Starbucks card or my credit card, the first woman got all confused and flustered. She essentially blamed me for mixing her up--NOT a Starbucks way of acting. The manager got more and more impatient with the first woman and took over. 

People in line - and there were quite a few - started tapping their feet, checking their watches, etc. And, I didn't know what the hell was going on. The first woman kept saying, presumably to herself, "Good thing this day is over soon, good thing..."

I'd had a bit of a long day too, and didn't need to be standing there in front of a bunch of people, being treated as if I'd screwed everything up by outing this woman's lack of training. Eventually, the cards were organized, the drink was made and I went to sip it at my table, with the sour taste of the situation being the primary sensation. Then, I realized that I didn't have a receipt for the refund, in case it wasn't done correctly. So, I crept up to the counter and asked the manager if I could get my refund receipt. 

She was very apologetic and said that she'd grab it from the drawer. I was quite distraught about how I'd been treated by the first woman, and when the manager returned with my receipt, I calmly let her know that I'd been to a hundred Starbucks all across the country, and had never seen an employee behave in anything less than a professional way. I know how completely they are trained (having seen people trained on numerous occasions). I basically told her that I really liked Starbucks, and that she was doing a great job but the other woman needed to lose her attitude. The manager agreed, and reached behind the counter, handing me a gift certificate card, and apologizing again.

I worked for the rest of the afternoon, but had a hard time concentrating. It had been almost 48 hours without sleep, and I still had to find a campsite. I saw on Google Maps that there was a possibility about 1,000 feet away, along the driveway leading into an IBM complex. When I could not keep my mind on anything anymore, I packed up and left to find it...

It looked like it was going to work fine--at least well enough for that night. I was there before sundown, and the rain clouds had not yet rolled in. So, I took out the tarps and dried them. That would be the last time - even up to the moment that I am writing this - that they would be dry...

I got set up and paced around a bit, like an overtired child who refuses to go to bed. Finally, though, I just had no other choice. My body was screaming at me and my mind was so fuzzy that I couldn't think anymore. I climbed in and fell asleep...

Poughkeepsie Sleep Spot.