Travel Post I: Northeast Decay

Christina's grandpa really like travelling by train. I kind of see why, if you're hurtling across vast prairies and such. I love watching the view from a train. It's like an amusement park ride that tries to give you the equivalent feel of a long car trip. I was not hurlting across vast prairies or deserts. I took a trip through the Northeast Corridor. The Murderer's Row of Northeastern cities: Baltimore, Wilmington, Philly, Trenton, Newark. Wow. I would wager that if you started off in DC, you would pass through the territory of the US that contains one-half of all homicides and violent crimes in the nation. It really was sobering to cut through Baltimore and see block after block after block of boarded up, falling apart townhouses. By the time you've cut through to Wilmington, the decay of Baltimore is long forgotten. However, Wilmington on...it's mile after mile of deserted warehouses, rundown homes, broken windows, desolate streets. It's every bit as fascinating and awful as driving on I-70 from Green River to the Rocky Mountains, except it's all manmade. One final note: As we were creeping along in the warehouse district of Newark, I noticed a large pothole in a nearby road which revealed cobblestones. It was interesting. They've paved over the cobblestones but the city infrastructure is in such disrepair that the cobblestones are visible again.