Cabin Fever and our Cure.( non medical )

Cabin Fever and our Cure

We are now on a Mon/Wed/Fri schedule for blood draws, labs, and IV meds, so we have Tuesdays, Thursdays, and the weekends off, and we are getting a little stir crazy. Cabin Fever. The soles of my feet are starting to toughen up a bit, which makes walking more feasible.

From the little porch on our apartment here in Durham we hear that lonesome whistle blow several times a day. (Listen to it here Amtrak Whistle) It has been calling to us, so we started planning a round trip by rail to Greensboro.

A dear friend from Connecticut had sent us a check  with the caveat that we not use it for Medical bills, but to treat ourselves to something special.

My Hemogoblins were over 8, other counts pretty stable, so after mentioning it to the medicos and not being expressly forbidden so to do,  we bought Round Trip Tickets online, downloaded the pdf file onto a memory stick and had it printed at Staples on Tues at 11:00am.

At 12:17 we hopped on the Piedmont at the new station in Durham and  59 minutes later we were in the the Greensboro Depot.

Details of the excursion are below the jump.  We visited two museums, which was a bit ambitious, and  had lunch at a cool burger joint.  It was a challenge to pick a soundtrack for this post, as there are so many train songs.



Soundtrack
PEOPLE GET READY - THE IMPRESSIONS 1965

New Durham Station

Here She Comes

Clean, spacious Air Conditioned Club Car offering free bottled water.

Comfy Seats

Trying to see around the curve

Underway, mostly woods

Near the Haw River

Stop in Burlington

We arrived  at the Greensboro Depot at  1:16, 59 min later, right on time.

Unloading Checked Bags

The Depot is  a magnificent piece of Architecture, more pix later.

VERY COOL Google Earth Map of Greensboro on the floor of the information room.

We walked two blocks west, and one block North and just past this nifty blind

alley treatment, an artificial.waterfall , we came 

to 

Urban Spoon review of Fincastles  has menu

Carolina Epicurean :Coffee, Burgers & Cheesecake in Greensboro  scroll down past the Green Bean coffee to  some interior shots and a glowing review,

Anne diggin' in.

Fried O-rings, cut and battered to order in basket.

The Delta Burger with apple smoked bacon, fried green tomato, homemade pimento cheese, lettuce and their "come back " sauce.

I had the basic cheesesburger , through the garden w/velveeta.

No Non Alcohol Beer,  ( but a good selection of brews) so I had a root beer.

Then off to the International Civil Rights Center and Museum  .01 mile further up Elm Street.

The museum is the Woolworths where the color barrier was challenged by sit ins.

http://www.sitinmovement.org/
Check it out.Additional pix at this site 

Then on to the Greensboro Historical Museum about 1/2 mile away

Where we ran out of time. They close at 5.   Everything from

Conestoga Wagons
to

 A  Cadillac

So back to the Depot via Some Elm Street shops.

Auto Junkyard at 70 MPH

Quite a few Auto Junkyards. You really get to see some of the backside of our country  from the train,  spurs that go off to nowhere anymore, and abandoned sidings. 

We had to wait for abut 10 minutes for the train from NY that had been delayed by flash floods in NJ earlier in the day. 

Back in Durham

Deploying the manual wheelchair hoist.

This one is for you Bo...

When the train pulled out the station
It had two lights on behind...
The Blue light was my Baby
And the Red Light was my Mind...

Bonus Soundtrack: Robert Johnson - Love In Vain Blues (Takes 1&2) (1937)and
No, The Rolling Stones didn't write it, but a good cover is here.

 By now we were pretty hungry so we walked around the corner to Pop's Trattoria, located in an old Laundry.

Anne had the Arugula salad with fresh strawberries, almonds and a creamy goat cheese salad.
I had their Caesar with the chopped eggs ( for protein), and a bowl of Minestrone,
which we wound up sharing.

We split the Bay Scallops with spinach, spicy sausage, and tomato cream sauce  over angel hair pasta..

Glass of wine for Anne, O'Douls for me. No dessert.  

We were back home by 10:00 p.m. It was the first time we had been out after dark in 70+ days. and  it worked out  very well. Tuesday was a good choice, and we timed it so everything was off peak.  The train was about 1/4 full,, plenty of room, very clean,and fresh air AC not recycled. We got to Fincastles well after the noon rush. The Museums were not crowded  And we got to Pop's around  8:30 after the dinner rush and got a two-top by the window in the Bar. I wore gloves to open doors, but was never in close enough proximity to anyone to need a mask.

I  practiced the precautions I have learned in the almost three years of neutrapenia., including  Blue Q Hand Sanitizer

and

 The excursion was such a raging success, we are making plans to go to the Science Museum in Raleigh  on the Amtrak Carolinian next week.  25 minute ride, no parking hassles, cheaper than driving.

.Any suggestions on other tourist sites and clean places to eat?