Listen Intently

Greetings from somewhere in the middle of Texas!  (Actually, by the time I was able to get online to post this, I’m in LA.  I tried at a few station stops to get WiFi working long enough to post, but wasn’t successful).  In case you didn’t already know, this is one damn big state.  The Amtrak Sunset Limited is scheduled to eat up over 22 hours crossing the state of Texas.  And some of you think driving down I-75 through Georgia and Florida is bad.

It’s late afternoon on the Sunset Line, the Union Pacific single track main line from Lake Charles, LA, through to California.  We’re running just a few hours behind.  Four and a half, to be precise.  Now this is the Amtrak that we know and love.

We left New Orleans right on time, at 11:55 AM, Central Time.  Got right up and over the Huey P. Long Bridge (over the Mississippi), and then entered an area of BNSF track that is “dark territory.”  Use the force, Luke.  No, no, sorry, it’s an area of mainline that is not wired back to the dispatcher, so the dispatcher has to “fly blind”-using the reports of the conductors to mark where all of the trains are.  I don’t know about you, but I envision a scale model sitting on a table in the dispatcher’s office with little Monopoly train engines pushed around by a long stick.  Seriously.  Well, not about the Monopoly part.

Then it was into Texas and our meet up with the Texas Eagle in San Antonio.  The Sunset Limited picks up two cars from the Chicago-San Antonio Eagle and takes them through to LA.  We arrived at 4:00 AM, picked up two cars, and parked in the station, awaiting our departure time of 5:40 AM.  “Cool,” I remember thinking, laying there half-asleep, “two hours of sleep in a non-moving train; by the time I wake up, we’ll be well on our way.”

I guess that I am wrong from time to time.  I awoke and looked out the window to see exactly the same scene I saw when I last went to sleep.  Hmm, must be about 5:30.  Nope.  Try 6:30.  Perhaps we miraculously shifted time zones without moving?  Wrong again.  Turns out, the Texas Eagle was running so far behind, they turned it around in Fort Worth.  The poor through passengers were “bustituted” (an Amtrak slang term) to San Antonio.  We had to wait for them, and finally made it out of town at 8:15 AM.

Wow, these posts are longer when I am writing from my little moving cubicle.  I’ve got the GPS connected to the computer – it’s kinda’ fun to watch the real world go by alongside the virtual one.  By far, the real world is better, by the way.

Speaking of by the way, for those of you who think I’m crazy, how about a 27-day round-the-USA train vacation?  There are 19 Kiwi’s on board, nearly finished with their tour.  They flew into San Francisco and have traveled Amtrak through Denver, Chicago, New York City, Washington, New Orleans, and now into LA for their flight to New Zealand.  It’s been fun chatting with them and getting their take on American rail travel.  For the most part, they’ve been impressed.  I was glad to hear that they made it through Iowa before the flooding shut down the California Zephyr, and, as one said, after twenty-some odd days, they’re all still talking with each other.  Not bad.  I guess my 16-day journey isn’t quite so off the wall after all.

Apparently, they are called Kudzu vines. They were brought in from Japan to “control erosion.” But what happens when you bring in a non-native species into an ecosystem? Hmm, let’s see, in this case, it has taken over. Seemingly from dawn near Atlanta all the way through Mississippi, the Kudzu vines were everywhere. Yes, it seems that they are doing a pretty good job with erosion control. Too hell with every other living plant.

I had an memorable time in Washington. Walked and walked and walked some more. Google Pedometer says I walked 4.77 miles or so. Saw some sights that I felt I had so see, perceived a few more in the distance that I just couldn’t quite make it to. You see, Amtrak travel is finicky–no, it’s just plain luck. My train was on-time, giving me a full 4 hours in Washington. The train the day before and the day after were about 2 hours late. I guess luck was on my side Tuesday.

Knock on wood for me please…my Amtrak luck continued during the ride on The Crescent. I managed to get photos uploaded using the free WiFi in the Acela Lounge, then threw the laptop into the bag to catch my early boarding opportunity. This is an all-single level train, so there is not a Sightseer Lounge car. One thing that I’ve noticed, so far, is that many of the sleeping car passengers lock themselves in their compartments and come out only for meals. Hermits, if you will.

Meals are interesting, as they fill up the tables with strangers and you get to strike up some interesting conversations. Over lunch, I sat with a media-career-hopeful student returning from a CNN internship (he had a very nice personality; he could actually make it in TV news if he catches the right break), a retired 1st Grade teacher, and a 19-year-old women on her way to meet up with her finance in Baton Rouge. But that’s only the beginning–she didn’t know what he does for a living, she recently drove her car into the ditch, got arrested for DUI, and, there’s more, but you don’t really want to hear it. Ironically, both the young lady and gentlemen got sent to the train in Atlanta by Delta Airlines, because they both seemed (twice, each) to have trouble getting to the airport in time for their plane. So, rather than put them on the Clue Bus, Delta handed them off to Amtrak and said, “here, you deal with them.”

I got a lot more sleep on this train. Simply, I was tired. I slept through much of the night, only waking up a few times during various stops. We stopped at some unknown station in some unknown town at some unknown (but very early) time for a long period of time (we were EARLY! I’ve never had that happen on an Amtrak train before!). Unfortunately, we stopped right next to this really, REALLY, bright light. Right outside my window. Thank you very much.

We passed through some very nice countryside, and entered “new” territory for me…traveling through Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. I’m used to the train following rivers (like we did in Pennsylvania), but not this time. Just a long winding path through countryside, hills, trees, pastures, and kudzu vines. At times, things were very swampy & wet, especially as we got closer to New Orleans (wow, what a surprise). We crossed Lake Pontchartrain, passed City Park (with the Museum of Art) and pulled into the station right next to the (in)famous Superdome. I posted some photos of the lake crossing and a shot overlooking a New Orleans cemetary with downtown in the background. Saw some signs of Katrina damage, still, but in the areas we went by, not too bad. I’m told that parts of town still are a long way from being anything to speak of, though.

So, now, I’m back off to the French Quarter, going to find some frozen beverages and party hardy…well, not really. But I am going to go find some nice Jazz to listen to for a while before crashing back at the hotel. Join me…throw some Thelonious Monk on your iPod, or perhaps a Stanley Turrentine CD…

I took many of the “required tourist” shots in D.C. today.  Click on the photo on the right to see multiple photos.  Lot’s of walking — in three hours I walked from Union Station to the WWII memorial (past the Washington Monument) and back.  Probably about 2+ miles or so.  Uploading the photos now…

About to get on #19 The Crescent to go to the Big Easy.  All Aboard!

This is the way to start the day.  Way back when I was training to be a cabin counselor, our training director got us up at dawn one morning, and read us a story about how to start the day.  No, being on a train isn’t anything like being on a canoe on the middle of the lake at dawn, but…let me back up a bit…

I hopped on board Amtrak’s Capitol Limited in Toledo at about 12:20 AM for my first adventure in an Amtrak sleeping car.  I have to admit that I didn’t get much sleep.  Just a bit too excited about starting off my vacation.  I stayed awake as the train progressed east over Sandusky Bay, finally got a bit of sleep before Cleveland, but woke up to the bright lights of the station, parked right next to Brown’s Stadium.

Dawn woke me up around 5 AM as we approached Pittsburgh.  Jaded as I am by my previous Amtrak experience, I was quite surprised to be arriving fifteen minutes early.  Alas, our earliness was a good thing, as a medical emergency on board used up all of our layover time and then some.  The ride aboard the Capitol has been very pleasant, since losing time in Pittsburgh, we’ve been fifteen to fifty minutes behind schedule, but the padding will, as of now, allow us to arrive into Washington, DC, on time.

Since Pittsburgh, we’ve followed the Youghiogheny River all the way up the mountains, a winding railroad journey through quiet, green and beautiful countryside.  On the way down the other side, we picked up the Potomac River and, basically, are following it all the way into DC.

My first sleeper experience has been aboard Superliner #32109, the “South Dakota.”  Special thanks to Nathan, our car attendant, who’s helped to make this a comfortable ride.  It’s now time to explore DC for a few hours, then hop on the Crescent for the overnight journey into New Orleans.

All Aboard!