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On the way home: A sketchbook
Boston to Pittsburgh 7-17-08
Monday, July 28, 2008
By Elizabeth Perry

For practical ($4 gas?!!) as well as poetic reasons, we took the train home from our vacation this month. We enjoyed views of a landscape you don't see from the highway and got to know the quiet and reflective rhythm of train travel.

I had time -- 14 hours -- to look and draw and think as we went along.
Can just see the tops of a few old brownstones before we go underground at Back Bay Station. 6:10 a.m.
Sailboats at anchor near Kingston, R.I. Water very still. 7:12 a.m.
Commuter train cars across the platform from us in Stamford, Conn., are connected to the wires above with a sort of elbow. 9:25 a.m.
Thank goodness for the help of a redcap in NYC. We followed the cap as a bright beacon through the crowds. 10:38 a.m.
Zipper on my backpack. Our luggage included four suitcases, three backpacks, a picnic, one longboard and two scooters (tied together), a briefcase and a ukulele.
Lots of these distinctively shaped water towers as we approach Philadelphia. 11:58 a.m.
Metalwork ornaments at the Harrisburg station, where we pause long enough for me to sketch some details. (No other explanation. Crew change maybe?) 2:37 p.m.
Crossed the Susquehanna River (long bridge). 2:49 p.m.
Gravel yard seen for a moment between the trees -- looked like an amusement park crossed with an immense sandbox. Near Tyrone. 4:50 p.m.
By pressing the sides of our faces against the window, we see the engine on Horseshoe Curve. 5:28 p.m.
Large building almost blocks view of an incline when we stop in Johnstown. 6:30 p.m.
Elizabeth Perry lives in Friendship. She draws every day and publishes her work on her blog "Woolgathering" at www.elizabethperry.com.
First published on July 27, 2008 at 6:31 pm
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