So in typical me type fashion I’m back home and managed to leave the last week of my journal unfinished.  I’m determined that at some point I will get from beginning to the end of a trip having recorded all of my thoughts and what I did for the trip.  Not that everything would end up on here but at least I would have a record.  Still I guess I can at least record the highlights of the last week in the USA.

Wednesday 23 July 2008 - The Train from Niagara back to New York
That trip was mostly uneventful but long with customs being the major annoyance.  While I may have thought that clearing Customs and Immigration at the airport was a bit of a circus I can safely say the train is worse.  While they have less people to get though they certainly seem to take three times as long. 

For some reason they also lock down the dining car so we were sitting there for the better part of 2 hours plus without being able to get any food or drink.  That might have been ok except it was lunch time and there was no warning at all that we would be able to purchase so much as a cup of coffee while we all waited.  At least in the airport once you’ve cleared the checkpoints you can go and get food and something to drink while you wait.  You’re not forced to cool your heels while everyone else in the airport is cleared as well.  It was wet and miserable outside for most of the trip so in a lot of ways was the perfect travel day since we were sitting on a train anyway.