Planes, Trains and Automobiles

originally published July 2, 2008

So, you’ve never heard your daughter’s band play, and you’ve been wanting to go to Austin to hear them, but it hasn’t worked out so far. Then she mentions that they’re playing Saturday night, and it’ll be the last time for a while, since they’re going to be doing some studio work.

You’ve already been sort of keeping an eye on Austin fares but seeing nothing under $500. Now you start searching in earnest, but anything under a 14-day advance ticket is prohibitive. Being a reasonable person, you sigh and hope for a better fare when they do start playing out again.

Me, I still have an unreasonable urge to go hear them. Then Betsy Inglesby, visiting from Alabama, happens to mention that the Crescent runs through Birmingham. Amtrak. The train. I’ve fantasized that trip to New Orleans on the Crescent, a day trip both ways, but I had no idea it went over to Birmingham before dropping south.

Hmmm. Back to Travelocity. Let’s look at Birmingham. Eureka! Delta has a $174 plus tax and fees fare from Birmingham to Austin—three-day advance purchase. Whoa! Let’s look at Amtrak. Sho’ nuff: the Crescent leaves Gainesville, GA at 6:58 a.m. and arrives in Bombingham at 11:44 a.m. Central Time—$35 with the discount granted my age bracket.

Back to Delta. The only flight time from Birmingham to Austin after the train arrives is at 4:40 p.m., getting into Austin at 9 p.m.

Text message to Molly: What time NBD play Sat?

Answer: 10:30.

Text message: Spose I come?

She’s honest enough to call and say she’s not sure she wants the added stress of a visiting father on top of work and getting ready for the show, but I assure her I’ll be staying at a motel and will be low maintenance. Pretty soon, she warms to the idea, but thinks I’m crazy. So does her mother.

So, it will work if the train is on time. The last time I took it—to North Carolina to buy a used Volvo—it was five hours late, sitting on sidings, giving priority to freights. If that happens this time, I’ll be spending the weekend in Birmingham.

I commit anyway. I make the Amtrak reservation, then Delta. The Birmingham-to-Austin flight makes only one stop. Where? Atlanta. I ride the train all the way to B’Ham and then fly back to Atlanta. Why not just get on in ATL? It’s $1158; that’s why. The same flight I jump on in BHM for $174+ is $1158+ if I board in ATL. Coming back, the flight goes from Austin to Atlanta and then on to Birmingham, without me, of course. I will deplane in ATL.

The only flaw in the whole arrangement is that my car will be in Gainesville, and I will be in Atlanta. I can take the shuttle back home, but then I’ve got to go get my car or Gay has to get up at 5 a.m. and drive me to Gainesville to catch the train. But wait, AAA has a shuttle to Gainesville. I get back to ATL at 7 p.m., and the shuttle leaves at 8:30. Just right.

It all works. The train is on time. All the flights are right on schedule; I get to the party an hour early (“Mercado,” an indoor/outdoor house art show); NBD is fantastic—worth the trip; I hang out with Molly and her friends the next day, and they take me to the airport Monday. A beautiful flight back through the clouds, crossing the swollen Mississippi, the Alabama, the Tombigbee, the Tennessee (I think) in the distance. Back to ATL in time to catch an earlier shuttle to Gainesville and home by 10 p.m., missing only a day of work.

The train is a great short-trip option when you can work it in. This one stops only in Atlanta and Anniston before Birmingham. I speed through the woods and the back yards of small towns, reading and napping. The lounge car is always closed when I go for a snack, but taking along a couple of sandwiches can solve that problem. The temperature is just above freezing, but fortunately I have a jacket. In downtown Birmingham I discover the delightful Reed Books, a used-book, antique, curio and collectibles shop, whose owner, Jim Reed, sells me his book of short essays (Dad’s Tweed Coat) and gets me a cab to the airport. My companion on the whole trip is Walker Percy’s The Last Gentleman, filled with meditations on living, especially in the South.

If you have more time than money, getting there and back can be an enjoyable adventure.

Pete McCommons

editor@flagpole.com