Frankly, I never thought I'd have this particular train of thought; but to avoid a long drive home in rush-hour traffic, my husband and I decided to travel by train to visit friends.

I heard there were first class cars. I'm not sure because John bought coach tickets. I wish he'd by Coach when I wanted a new purse.

Coach travel on a train is like traveling on Southwest Airlines - open seating. The good news is there were plenty of open seats. Of course, that's bad news for Amtrak.

As on planes, a voice gave us safety instructions. Actually, the voice said to read the safety instructions on the seat in front of me; but there weren't any. No problem. On a train you don't need oxygen masks or flotation devices. Your biggest concern is being on time.

There was no concern about cleanliness and the seats were comfortable. Being able to plug in my computer and not drain the battery compensated for not having a headset or a movie. I pulled down my tray and passed the time feeling...well trained.

Later I was relieved to discover the restrooms are a tiny bit bigger than on planes - or would be if they had paper towels instead of electric hand dryers; but gone are the days of bar cars and dining cars on short trips.

Instead there's a snack area. Considering Amtrak needs passengers, you'd think they'd sell healthy snacks to keep the passengers they have healthy.

Jeans, jerseys and sneakers seemed to be the outfit of choice for train travel. I, as usual, was dressed in black. I was the one in black who wasn't taking tickets.

Taking time to people watch, I could tell which passengers were tourists. They were the ones looking out the window. And it was fun to see the excitement of children on their first train trip. Unfortunately, the boy behind me was loudly unexcited.

The shakes and bumps of going 90 mph would have been cause for alarm on a plane. On a train they're almost lulling - except for the boy behind me. However, if he'd been old enough to drive, passing cars stuck on the freeway would have made him happy.

I was happy because we were on time coming home. Would I do it again? I think so. I think I've finally found a way to make time pass more slowly.