May 20, 2016 - Day 1
8:22pm. The adventure begins.
The journey starts with my first Uber ride, at about 7:00. Met about 10 minutes after my request by app (super-easy to use, BTW) by a gentleman, looking to be in his late-50s to early-60, in an old-reliable white Toyota Camry. When he noticed my bags, he immediately opened the trunk and helped me with them - ahhhh, just like one of the more enterprising taxi drivers I used in the past. The conversation we had was actually quite stimulating, he and I saying a common love of travel. I told him about my grand scheme involving coast-to-coast by rail, he told me a bit about his trips to Italy and Europe. The topic of car rentals also came up - he prefers to drive, I prefer to take transit and hoof it whenever I can. We also shared a mutual admiration for European travel guru Rick Steves - with the great advice he gives about travel, packing, and how to get around Europe and not to be had by the tourist traps which all travelers ultimately fall into. He left me at the Starbucks next to the station, and I did not have to pay anything out of pocket for the trip - it was already handled by the app. I can see why Uber is so popular - convenient to use, available in my area, and the fare for the 15 mile trip between my home and the train station costing maybe 1/2 of the same trip one year ago.
So, score one for Uber.
My first leg of the trip will be the Coast Starlight, departing at 11:59 this evening and arriving in Portland at about 3:30pm the next day. Fifteen hours or so to sleep (I have a roomette), look at nature’s art while in the Observation Car, this taking the form of the Northern California ranges and the back areas of Oregon. I took the southern direction of this same route about two years ago, at about this same time of year, in fact, while leaving Portland’s Rose Festival.
So I’m sitting here in Sacramento Station, listening to the vocal and shuffling sounds of life echo like a church, a cathedral devoted to motion and a not-yet-obsolete form of travel which is firmly woven into our nations fabric. Even with the obvious signs of remodeling - the white dividers cordoning off the old ticket office, the scaffolding and fencing outside - the station is filled with reminders of the grandeur and flavor passenger rail travel possessed in the first part of the 20th century. The marble and granite flooring and hallway entrances, the long heated wood benches, the frescos on the ceiling, and the chandelier, all serve to create an atmosphere which tends to send one back in time to that bygone era. The stations I have traveled through (Portland, San Jose, Sacramento, Los Angeles) all have this “classic” vibe running through them. It’s good to see that there are still efforts to maintain them, as they are much more than a departure and arrival point between places on a map. They are departure and arrival points in places in time - functional museums, if you will.
There are 12 days of upcoming motley to describe, so stay tuned for stories and tips, photos, and perhaps, even a video or two.
7:50am. Onboard the Coast Starlight.
The train was about 90 minutes late - I never got the reason for it and didn’t really care. Given the distances these trains travel and how many things can possibly happen between point A and B, I felt that patience would be a virtue in this case. My patience was, for the most part, rewarded as you'll see below.
The roomette I have for this trip, when configured, consists of two seats facing each other which fold together into a bed. The upper bunk also folds out for an additional bed. It’s somewhat cramped, but sufficient for trips requiring a one-night sleepover. Plus, you get the benefits of having a sleeping car room: your meals are part of the fare, so no additional cash layout is necessary. Snacks and alcoholic drinks, on the other hand, are on you.
As soon as I played my head on the pillow and looked out the window, the show of scenery changes already began. Just as I started drifting into sleep (at about 1:30am - the train was late), I saw a full moon piercing through the clouds, breaking up from the earlier rains. Sitting up for a minute, I saw the skyline of Sacramento, lit up in gold hues and seeming to glow with an energy of its own. With the gentle drone and rumble of the train and the occasional shutting of compartment doors, I fell asleep.
I woke up to spectacular mountain scenery all around me as the sun rises. The varying shades of green in the vast expanses of trees and clearing. The cloud cover lower than the mountaintops and veiling them like brides, dressed in whisper-light snow cover. Streams that cut their way through the landscape and wind their way around like jewelry worn by those brides. A dreamscape all around you, in every window you look through.
This, more than anything else, provides the compelling relevance for
interstate passenger train travel. You can’t get these scenes on an
airplane, or driving.
Not to mention, you encounter the friendly company one meets when traveling. I met a gentleman, who I suspect was retired and traveling alone, who had a series of multi-day journeys planned - on the California Zephyr, the Southwest Chief, and the Empire Builder were but a few of the routes he named. A friendly conversation was had with someone who used to e a complete stranger - this is a phenomenon that I’ve been a party to on many a train trip.
So the good news: friendly service, a decent-if-small-portioned breakfast which is included in the fare, the smooth, quiet ride, and the scenery. Even with the inadvertent sideways dance one does while walking to various parts of the train (which is inevitable on any train you travel), the ride was comfortable.
Now for the constructive feedback news: the blankets provided on the train had a peculiar smell to them. At first, I thought it might be from the recirculated air, but when I woke up and took a whiff, my first though was: OK, were these used before, and were these cleaned prior to turning over this compartment? I asked the car attendant, who assured me that the blankets and sheets were wrapped in plastic and were clean. Clean - OK. But that wrapped-in-plastic part: can somebody say “fuming”, “leaching”, or other processes plastics go through when exposed to heat of any kind? Doesn’t sound too healthy to me - Amtrak, if you’re reading this, please look into this. Also, after I got to my compartment and headed to the rest room, I noticed that there was no water pressure to the faucets, and after I had put liquid soap into my hands. A few tissues took care of this minor issue, but my reaction to the lack of water pressure could be summed up in one non-word: “Hmmmmmm…”. This issue was rectified by the time I woke up.
Oh, and uh, one more thing: WHERE IS THE INTERNET?
(It's in the Parlor, Observation, and Dining Cars. In the sleepers, it's a dicier proposition.)
A word about pricing. If booked two weeks in advance, the Sacramento-to-Portland leg of this trip was listed at $447 one-way. The price includes the train fare, the roomette, and meals. Yes, it's steep - I was able to do it because I had accumulated enough points on an old Amtrak Rewards Credit Card from my days as a traveling consultant. I highly recommend that if you want to take a trip like this - a multi-day trip involving sleeping accommodations - that you consider getting the new Amtrak Rewards card and accumulate the requisite points. I used about 37,000 points in total for all of the train-based legs of the trip.
More to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment