My Life on the Railroad: Home Stretch - The Final Weeks in Wilmington

So here we are, the home stretch. I'm in my final two weeks of training at Amtrak's, Wilmington Training Facility. All preceding tests have been passed and am now approaching the final two that will send me home to see my family and continue into the next phase of the overall training process. I've made all my necessary checklist trips while out here on the East Coast and am ready to highball back to a more regular way of life.

I passed my most recent test in revenue with a 92%. I should have done a little bit better but I must get a little excited with those things because I typically answer one or two wrong on them even though I know the correct answer. I seem to get ahead of myself by reading the question and identifying the answer, yet I circle the wrong answer on tests. I did that twice. I even go back over each individual answer on the test to double check for mistakes or ones that I skip to answer later on. I passed nonetheless so ultimately that's all that matters. It still bothers me though that I regularly do that in test taking. With that said, the two most important ones remain: signals and operating rules. With signals, we need to know our respective territories signals by name and definition, word for word. With operating rules, we have a hundred question final that goes over everything from safety, movement, working limits, switching, restrictions and so forth. On the signals test we need to be able and pass it with 100%, the operating rules test requires us to pass with at least 88%. Up to this point, I'm feeling pretty confident that I will pass both of them. I've had my signals memorized pretty quickly since they were the same ones that I knew when I was working over with BNSF. I brushed up on them a couple weeks in and have occasionally gone over them just to stay on top of them. The operating rules that in learning are also the same ones that I trained with in Montana, so these two tests are very familiar to me as we go over all of the same information that I tested on over a year ago in Montana. I still understand its importance and am not overlooking it by any means. I'll browse over, have Siri read to me the rules as I ride the exercise bike. I'll test myself regularly when I'm on the train taking trips or if I'm in the car and even when I'm just lying in bed. I think I should be fine with it.

I have continued to take my off time very seriously as well. I've marked off my checklists on things to do and places to eat. So in my time here: I've gone to five different Major League Baseball parks, I've been to five of the oldest bars in America with the oldest one being built in 1674, I've eaten at eight different Philadelphia cheesesteak establishments for a future post on a review of "The Best Philly Chessesteak", I've been to the monuments, Smithsonian's, museums, observation towers, tourist points, historic grave sites, along with the most popular eating establishments that the major cities here have to offer. I've had a good time out here and have gotten to do a lot of neat things during this experience, I'll miss it a little bit. I think the luxury of being able to get on a train and have places like Philadelphia, DC, and New York at my disposal will be what I miss the most. It is definitely an experience in its own class in comparison to the training I took a year ago even though I've shared about the ironic similarities between the two. I definitely think about the experience in Montana a lot. The hands on work pops up a lot in my head during discussions. I miss it.

I am afraid of the next chapter, honestly. How does the next thirty years look like? Is this it? What will the dynamic of my family life look? An interesting road ahead for sure, I don't know how it looks or what is really driving me in this current moment other than its the road I've been traveling. I miss the fire department too. I really enjoyed everything about that work. One thing at a time, I suppose. One day at a time. Ten more of those until I get to see my kids. I look forward to that as I'm in this, the final countdown.