2023 is history. Not that I will look back upon it fondly. Too many scary things reared their ugly heads during the year gone by. I fear though, that 2024 will disappoint us even more. November 2024 will be a water shed moment for the US. And I am not hopeful.
But enough of these dark thoughts.
It has been quite a while since the last blog appeared here. I just never seemed to find the time and inspiration to do so, with the visits of friends, travel, working in the garden and trying to get my model train layouts going. As an aside: you never realize how many friends you have, until you move to the beach!
So, here are a couple of highlights from 2023. Starting with February:
Brad and I did a short trip to New York City in February. It was rather on short notice. You see, we had put down a deposit for a Rivian EV just about two years earlier to eventually replace the Jaguar I-Pace. Then rather suddenly early that same month we were asked by Rivian whether or not we wanted to take a test drive. Well, duh…Of course we would. We are really not in the habit of making major purchasing decisions without having a look at the merchandise. The company gave us two location choices for the test drive. One was the Richmond, Virginia Service Center, the other was at the New York City (Brooklyn) Service Center. Having not been to New York City in over 15 years we choose NYC, taking the opportunity to make a short vacation out of this. Thus in late February we drove up to Wilmington, parked the car in the train station garage and hopped on an Amtrak Acela train to New York City.
The train ride was uneventful, if busy. I hadn’t been on a train in the US for quite some years. Not that it was a bad experience. However it drove home the point to me once again, how far behind this country is in regards to Intercity rail services. The track is bad, the rolling stock is ancient and for some reason every single train was late without there being any obvious reason for it. Amtrak’s reservation system is not particularly reliable either: We had specific seats assigned by Amtrak when we booked our trip. However, for some unknown reason, the reservation system decided to change our seat assignments, neglecting to tell us about it. Of course confusion ensued and it took some sleuthing on the part of the conductor to figure out what happened and where we were to sit.
Anyone who has taken a train on the Northeast Corridor to New York City in the past would be familiar with Penn Station. Controversial from the very beginning due to it’s horrible architecture and design, it is no more. The dingy, dirty and claustrophobic atrocity that was Penn Station has been replaced by the Moynihan Train Hall. The former US Postal Service facility was converted into a train station befitting New York City. Full of light, airy, with shops and eateries galore it is indeed a pleasure to visit.
Moynihan Train Hall seen from 8th Avenue and 31st Street
Moynihan Train Hall Concourse
We did pay a visit to the much ballyhooed new Hudson Yards Development Project. It is on the west side of mid-Manhattan along the Hudson River on top of a MTA rail yard.
Metropolitan Transit Authority’s Hudson Yard as seen from the Observation Deck. The rail cars are rolling stock for the Long Island Railroad.
Hudson Yards as seen from New Jersey (Wikimedia Commons)
“The Vessel”. The center piece of the public square at Hudson Yards. Opinions about this piece of public art vary widely:
The Vessel. The controversial center piece of the Hudson Yards Public Square
Apparently this whole development is not doing all that well. Not really surprising given the over priced retail stores, expensive restaurants and outrageous monthly rents. In any case, Brad and I did decide to go up to the observation platform. This is called “The Edge” and juts out of the building on the 100th floor. Reportedly it is the highest observation platform in the western hemisphere. The platform has a glass floor, so it is not something for the faint of heart. Admittedly the view from there is spectacular.
“The Edge” platform on the 100th floor level.
All this fun will set you back $54 per person. Oh, well.
We also wanted to take a look at the “High Line”. It is a rather interesting transformation of an elevated railway line into a linear urban park. Not quite 2 miles in length, this park stretches from Hudson Yards southwards to Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District, ending right next to the Whitney Museum. Here is a link to the relevant history: High Line Park.
A section of the High Line Urban Park. Remnants of the railroad tracks remain in several parts.
First sign of spring amongst the sleepers on the High Line.
One of the things on the NYC trip to do list was a visit to the Whitney Museum. I had found out that the Whitney had a special exhibition of Edward Hopper’s paintings. I have always admired his work and this seemed to be a great way of finally seeing some of his paintings up close and personal. Tickets for the exhibition were available on the internet and timed, albeit availability was limited. A lot of the days/time slots had already sold out. However I did manage to get two tickets for an 11 o’clock slot on Wednesday. Glad that I did purchase the tickets beforehand: the line to get into the museum stretched down the block. Patrons with already purchased, timed tickets were ushered to the front of the line.
A few of Hopper’s paintings:
Unfortunately Hopper’s most famous painting was not on display at the Whitney:
“Nighthawk” by Edward Hopper. (Art Institute of Chicago, Public Domain)
Thursday was the appointment with Rivian for our test drive. In late morning we took the 25 minute ride on the A and L subway lines to Brooklyn. We met with our assigned “guide” at the Service Center and started right into the “show and tell” and test drive.
Waiting for some paperwork to be done at the Rivian Service Center.
Then the first look at an actual Rivian vehicle:
The whole experience left us less than impressed. It wasn’t so much the vehicle, but the “guide’s” lack of some basic knowledge regarding the automobile. Questions like: what does this button do, how does one turn on this or that and what is the maximum rate of charging were all met with a “I’ll have to find out.” Not an ideal situation when your customers know more about the vehicle you’re trying to sell than you do. Suffice it to say that Brad and I had a discussion about just cancelling the whole affair while riding the subway back to the hotel. In the end we decided to give it a few more days and then decide on a way forward.
The following day we headed back home on Amtrak’s Acela. It was an uneventful ride save for the fact when going through Philadelphia I finally got to see some of the new Acela Avelia Liberty trains Amtrak ordered form Alstom. Apparently those sets were parked in Philadelphia for testing on the Northeast Corridor.
A new Acela II passes through Halethorpe, MD on its way to Washington DC during testing. Photo: Amtrak Press Office
Back home the discussion regarding the Rivian continued. Brad was a bit more reticent about it, whereas I was more gung ho, ready to go. We both liked our current ride, the Jaguar I-Pace, but I had a hard time getting in and out of that vehicle so I needed something larger. However the whole discussion was sort of short circuited the next day when Rivian sent an email telling me that they had our vehicle ready for delivery, if we wanted it. Crunch time!
In the end we did go for it. The first week in March Rivian delivered our canyon red (where do they get these names for colors?) R1S to the house.
Stay tuned for more 2023 reminiscing.
All photos by Ralf Meier/Brad Wing unless otherwise noted. (Sony a7c and iPhone 15 Plus)