Ahhhhh…. That was good coffee! Train coffee! Free coffee! Yes, friends, the train travel free-coffee-challenge took place this morning somewhere on the tracks in Pennsylvania.

Many, years ago I bought a souvenir Amtrak coffee mug. It wasn’t cheap, but the promise was free coffee, any train, as long as Amtrak is riding the rails. Since then my personal quest has been to get that free cup o’ coffee no matter who the cafe car attendant is. Today it was Robert and here’s how the whole encounter went down.

I walked up to the counter. Smiling, Robert said, “Can I help you?”

Smiling back I said, I’d like a yogurt (Always buy something to go with the free coffee.) and a cup of coffee. I slid my mug across the counter. “Have you ever seen one of these before?” I thought I’d try the indirect ‘small-talk’ approach.

“No, never saw one of those before,” Robert said. Then with a chuckle he said, “Those go way back before my time. Never even saw one in a display.” Grin. Grin.

“Yep,” I said, “This goes way back. It could probably be a museum piece.” I gave a little guffaw. 

Robert smiled, filled the cup, slid it back over the counter and said, “that’ll be $2.50… For the yogurt.” 

“Thanks,” I said, and lurched back to my seat, carrying my yogurt and coffee. Ahhh…. Good, free, train coffee.  Heh, heh…