Bent By The Prisms Of Glory

Well, Flip Me! I Missed My Gosh-darn Train!

Readers of this blog may know of my great love for and abiding interest in the Hell Gate Bridge, which is 100 years old this year.

My friend Rob suggested that rather than gaze up at the mighty crossing, as I've done many times, I should take a train trip that would go over the bridge.

So I went to the Amtrak web site: I've seen the Acela crossing the Hell Gate Bridge often, so I knew that the Boston-NYC service takes that route. At Amtrak.com I see that there is a helpful little bot, "Ask Julie | Your Virtual Assistant!"

I started talking to Julie, and aware that my railroad trip is not a simple NYC-Boston commute (and that I'm talking to a bot), I was trying to be as simple with my query as possible:

I would like to take a trip on Amtrak on the route that crosses the #%*! Gate Bridge.

Wait a minute. Didn't I just type Hell Gate Bridge?

Oh.