Listen Intently

It’s nearly midnight, the Toledo train station is full of passengers ready to board the Capitol Limited eastbound towards Washington, DC.  I walk out the back of the station to rest my bag on the picnic table as is my habit.  It’s a bit chilly, but the fresh air beats sitting in the train station.  It’s an interesting thing, Amtrak travelers are generally a talkative bunch.  Randomly, another traveler proudly tells me that his bag contains a fold up bicycle, would you believe it?  And he longs for the return of the Florida Rail Pass.  I don’t ask him what he’s doing in Toledo, Ohio, instead of Florida.

I get in a few last minute texts to the guys as the train arrives.  (I hope you two had a good day.  I did miss our morning radiator time!) I am happy to be in a sleeper, as the coaches are full with many more boarding in Toledo.  The excitement of being on board takes me through to Port Clinton where I finally lay down and get some sleep.  Sleeping on the train, even in a sleeper room, is still not always super restful.  I woke up several times, but again managed to completely miss Cleveland.  Darn.

Somehow, I wake up just as we enter Pittsburgh.  Perfect timing!  I enjoy the scene of the incline railroad, hills, rivers, and bridges as we cross the river into the train station.  Every time in come into this station, I will think of the memories of a previous visit with Rollie on the way home from Philadelphia.  We did a lot of walking that night!  The sun is beginning to rise as we pull out of town, but I am quickly asleep again.

It is a pleasure to wake up in the mountains (well, these are really just big hills in the east!) when on the train.  The tracks generally follow a river and the Capitol Limited route is no exception.  The river is flowing westward and the vistas are white with a dusting of snow.  There is a calmness to it all.  An element of serenity that I do not find anywhere else.  No better way to enjoy my french toast in the dining car.

The rivers reverse direction as we pass through the tunnel underneath the Eastern Continental Divide.  After the tunnel, we follow a small stream flowing eastward with the train.  It is peaceful, relaxing, and I can picture myself living in such an environ.  The stream turns into a larger river, white water flowing around the rocks with force and recklessness.

This is the way to start a day.  We’re running about 45 minutes late, but that is not of any concern.  My friends are due in Washington, DC, much later than I, so I will enjoy my bonus minutes of train time.  We’re in Cumberland, MD, now.  Time to take a fresh air break.

The trip north from LA has been a blur.  I am closing in on Portland, OR, and it feels like I just left LA.  I slept much of yesterday, trying to get my body back up to par from the previous night’s escapade.   I was delighted to find that my cubicle, er, roomette, was on the ocean side of the train.  For a period of time in the Southern California, the train runs right next to the beach.  I mean, right next to the beach.  You could often step right off the train and into the Pacific Ocean.  Also, we saw several dolphins swimming along the coastline, and lots of people enjoying the sand and surf.

This train has a sleeping car only lounge called the “Pacific Parlour.”  I have really enjoyed having this car along for this journey.  The Parlour car, an original ATSF Hi-Level car built in the 60’s or so, has been delightfully restored and has some excellent cushioned chairs as well as meal service.  It’s been nice to have a calm relaxing meal in the Parlour rather than in the hustle and bustle of the normal dining car.

Before I knew it, we were passing through San Jose in the late evening, and I don’t remember anything past Oakland.  I awoke with the sun at 5:30ish right near Mt. Shasta in northern California.  I’m now in “familiar” territory.  I’ve ridden this part of the journey on the Amtrekkin’ trip in November, 2006.  Back then, the Coast Starlight was running about 3 hours late, and at dawn we were traveling around Lake Shasta.  Not to be seen this time, we were long past this lake this morning.

Before too long, we started climbing the Cascades, passing an area where a massive mud-slide closed the UP railroad for nearly 4 months back in January.  I had read much about it, as I was sure hoping that the repairs would be done before I left on my trip.  I didn’t appreciate the steepness of the terrain until passing through.  The train passes up and back down some significant mountain valleys and then into Eugene, OR, along Lookout Point Lake and a branch of the Willamette River.

The Sunset Limited and the Coast Starlight have been full-in fact, this Coast Starlight is completely sold out.  I think that it is great for Amtrak, but I have to admit that I really enjoyed the space available back in November, 2006, as it was a lot easier to move around and spread out.  The full coaches, I am sure, don’t allow for much R&R.  Thank goodness for sleeping cars!

On the Sunset, I had the wonderful chance to meet a professional photographer who was traveling with her son to LA and then onto Japan.  They live in rural Texas, away from most things, but were traveling to LA to meet up with family and then travel to Japan to be with their grandmother, who was performing over there.  While she was in LA, she was going to meet up with Diane Keaton, as she had just finished a coffee-table book on Southwestern architecture for her.  She did most of the photography for the work.  It was fascinating!  Her son discovered my GPS and laptop, and we spent a lot of time watching the maps go by and looking at how far we had to go.

I have also enjoyed the people of Amtrak on this trip.  I can say that I have met some wonderfully hard-working and dedicated employees that have really made it easier and much more fun to be on board.  On the Sunset, the lead service attendant (dining car manager), Keisha, did a fabulous job working dinner out of New Orleans all by herself, and handled a full train and other delays with a no-nonsense smile.  This is probably the hardest job to do on an Amtrak train, and she was doing it to the best level.  And I even found out that it was her first trip!  Way to go, Keisha!  On the Starlight, my car attendant Louie has kept everyone laughing, and the Parlour car attendant, Nanette, has made the experience delightful.  Thanks to all!

I am in Seattle now.  Two more days and I will be in Glacier National Park!

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!