Month: May 2016

There is always a bit of a let down when you come back from a trip. Mainly, you are faced with all the loose ends you left as you tried to get going and now are still there to haunt you. Projects undone, people not contacted, e-mails not answered, like that! In this case there is the business of saying, “well I am back and no more train stories for the near future.” In some sense that is what I am saying but as I have some more stuff to add to all this carrying on I will just say, “Stay tuned for new developements!” As there will be new stuff added shortly but I need to retrench, get my act together and do some work before I continue. But up til now, thanks for reading this stuff.

Riding the rails was an experience I knew I would enjoy and now that I am decompressing from the fun, I am now trying to evaluate what I saw, did and generally accomplished. Originally, my plan was to illustrate what I was seeing and doing with drawings, I was so sure that I could make it work. I was very disappointed to find out that I could not draw, even a little bit on the train, it was just too rough. Also, I could not focus and see the stuff I might draw as the panorama moved too quickly to take it in. Now I am not abandoning the idea just rethinking the execution of it. Just now I am beginning the process of printing out the blogs so I can see what I have said so far and where I want to terminate this thread. There are unused photos still in the file and things I did not address on the trip that need to be talked about. One thing about the experience, you had a chance to see how other people did with the same stuff. Observation is a good teacher, it also brings on the “What were they thinking” process too! For a visual person just one hour in a waiting room or depot gives material for years of images to work on and I suppose is one of the other innumerable experiences that one will get from traveling.
The next thing in the process is to plan for the second part of the trip. But now I have done one I can see what I did right, wrong and totally missed the mark. It will be fun to see how I can adapt the process as I go along. In retrospect, all the planning, working on a calendar, dummy input of information into the Amtrak site, all panned out quite nicely. Each of the legs of the trip worked well, including the stops in each of the cities. The original idea was so that I could make good connections but what it turned out to be was a good time to rest, recoup and get my bearings even if it was just over night. It seems this might be a plan to continue along with booking into the same chain of hotels for the various perks and customer points that will lead to sometime down the line a free night or nights. Although pricey, booking a room rather than a roomette or coach was a good and valid idea. ( I might add even though it was mostly serendipity, the roomette on the lower part of the car was also a good thing.)
The planning for the next trip, the dummy input into the website, and spacing on the calendar is well on its way and has even been tentively scheduled. Again, I am faced with a problem of the beginning of the trip. This time it’s getting from Moline to Chicago, in the original plan formulated when it looked as if Moline would be getting Amtrak service it would have been a piece of cake and a nice trip. But since that is at a stand-still I will have to work out transport to Chicago in time to catch the train on the day that I leave. Right now this trip will be shorter than the first as there is no planned layovers except in Chicago again since the connection is off by several hours and Amtrak will not make the booking.
At this point in time( 2 days after getting back from the first trip) I might have solved the luggage problem, some of the clothing problems and maybe some of the organizational packing problems but we will see when the orders get here.

Now we see how our hero wraps up this adventure and tries to pull in all the loose ends.

In one of the other blogs I was having fun with the folks who took the train and rode in coach. Today, I was one of them, if only for about two hours. And my friends there lies a tale. First, let me address Union Depot in Chicago. Nice place, if you ever get to see it, but I have been through the place twice and have not seen much more than the platfom, long hallways, an up and down escalator and the taxi stand! Not that I did not have the intent to look around I just could not! Coming into the station the mad rush to get off the train and into the station was irresistible, the passengers getting off the Empire Builder were driven and so I had to be since I was near the front of the crowd. And I was up the platform, down the hallway, up the escalator and bam, out on the street just like that! So all I saw was the underbelly of the station. Now this was not all bad but I did want to look around but I was directed across the street and hustled into a cab and since the driver spoke in a few words of English I had got engage in sign language and diagrams to get to the hotel. So I thought I will just go early in the morning and look around, there will be time and I can see the place. Same thing, escorted into the station from the cab stand and I go down the escalator and now I am back in the bowels of the station and I am directed to the waiting area for my train. No looking, no seeing, nothing!
As mentioned I had a bit of fun with the difference between the Sleeping car people and the coach people- today I found out I was not wrong! they are different, unruly, undisciplined and most likely to break every rule put to them. First there are two assembly areas, one, the loose and clearly a first come first gets the seats and if you don’t just sit on the floor. Oh, yes and try to lug the biggest, baddest, and ugliest containers of clothes you can. Never mind that once every 7 minutes there is an announcement about the size, number and what happens when you break the rule. If it can be carried, wheeled, drug and has rudimentary handles they bring it. And every 2 or 3 minutes a late comer will wheel up the the entrance to the second holding area and wonder what’s going on. The first comers tell them that Babe Ruth has not shown his face yet and be patient! ( obviously, nobody is going to be of help!)And, two, finally, an announcement from the Dixie cup speakers is made telling us who should be first in line to go into the second holding area ; the lame, the halt , small children, and. . . .folks over 65! ( I am sorry, but in this bunch, that is about everyone!) So now we all Line up and pass single file into the next holding area, but first we must show our tickets to prove we are one of the “special classes.” Now in this step we are pretty well behaved. ( unlike the scene in LA where they lost control immediately and it was herding cats and not doing a good job of it!) then we are allowed to sit down again until we are called. Now unbeknownst to us the Sleeping Car people have been brought down from some high special place, blessed with coffee, snacks and Bon-bons and allowed to get on the train before the unleashing of the peasants! ( rumor had it that they also partook of cinnamon rolls too- a pox on all their houses!)
First they load all the people who need help into Red cap vehicles and roll them safely to the train. Then people with kids. Now there were not many of those today but there were several families of Amish or Mennonites and they had KIDS!Then the rest of us. It was made plain that it was single file and no cuts or twofers. Dutifully we all marched down the platform, single file, dragging our wheely suit cases behind us like obedient little dogs! At this point I did not see anyone taken out of line because they had too much luggage, if they could carry, drag or other wise convey it then it went aboard. Outside the middle of the last car was a conductor with a little list of where each person should be headed depending on his destination! For our group it was a march of five cars, past the sleepers, past the cafe car, past the dining car and finally our car, the peasants car, I firmly believed that it was going to be a box car, able to hold 41 men or 7 horses! But it wasn’t, bags were hoisted into the storage area and then up stairs to seats. The party began, now I know that we who have been in the sleepers are a staid bunch, separated by our various compartments we tend to be quiet and reserved, but right off the the bat, the conductors, the car assistants, and the coach people start a repartee, fast jokes and generally started an up roar and then the observation car opened and immediately the party moved there. Then some one said they smelled cigarette smoke! And a search was begun to find the offending person and his or her forbidden treasure! For the whole two hours, the car I was in was in a constant state of chaos, people in and out of their seats, up and down the aisles , as I said the crowd in the coaches are a very disorderly group, no wonder they keep us separated!

 

Wherein our traveling hero recounts his adventures along the way and other ruminations.

I still cannot get over the physical presence of a Railroad train and just how complex it is. It is something that for a causal observer would take for granted. ” Oh a train, how nice!” But in reality it is a compilation of so many moving parts all in concert with each other that you have to understand that it is no accident that it is here and functioning as well as it does. During lunch yesterday I was sitting with a son and mother and one of the men from the “rails to Trails” program in cooperation with Amtrak and the Nation Park Service and the young man asked if the wheels ( the complex of the wheels, springs and brakes ) are attached or held in place by the sheer weight of the car. It was a legitimate question and the answer was the sheer weight. Back in the history of the railroad the opposite was true and it was not a success so it was re-thought. The same with the complex system of the passenger cars. They may seem to be just a vehicle but they are made up of many systems which make it possible to transport passengers in comfort and safety unknown to their ancestors. One car, air conditioned, self contained sanitary plumbing, safe drinking water, lighting and other interlocked concepts all able to operate seven days aweek, 365 days a year with only bare maintainance is truly an engineering miracle. ( And we expect that to continue when we are passengers on that vehicle and are very upset when one system fails- it is truly interesting that the thing continues to work as well as it does.)
When you see the old photos of the cars of the past with their kerosene lamps and over stuffed chairs and elegant carpets and marvel at the elegance, then realize the best they could manage for air conditioning was to open the windows and hope that not much smoke and ash from the engine would get into the car, on your clothes and in your hair. ( which, I might add, was never to be and when you arrived at your destination, there would be considerable “freshening up” to be had.) Of course, to travel in those days required a fortune and most people could not have afforded the cost, nor for that matter the time.
It would take a week to cross the entire continent, but you had to stop for meals at designated railroad hotels where not only the passengers ate but also the crew. No meals on wheels back then. The greasy spoon ruled and you had better like biscuits and gravy or a buffalo steak and fixings because the menu was limited and so were the portions. Make it fast” you have a half hour to eat!”
Finally, to convince the traveling public that it was worth their while to travel and have a good experience the Santa Fe Railroad hired Fred Harvey to serve meals to their passengers and through his efforts food improved greatly for the travelers on the rail road. ( not to mention his idea of having young women serve the food known as the “Harvey Girls!” )

 

Wherein the the traveling Bobster leaves the Second city on his way back to his digs!

Had a good night in Chicago, slept well ( “well” is a relative term as there are the “nocturnal wanderings”) but well enough to say I am rested and ready for the rest of the trip. Not much in light of the length ( both space and time) that has gone before but enough. To Galesburg and hope the train is on time and then hope that the bus is there so I can make it to Moline. So what have I done on this trip? Well, I have eaten what the folks on Amtrak served up and (I should say since the menu is limited and the same on each train I had pretty much gone through it several times!)Stayed at some nice hotels of my choosing and seen a lot of scenery- if any one says that the US of A is boring have them take the train and see what wonders are out there. Not only are the vistas enormous but various to the point of not having enough words to describe them. It’s a big country and it takes time to see every thing and after the trip I just took its hard to believe I have seen just about 1/2 of it.
Then again I just came back from breakfast which was in the window of the bar/restaurant of the hotel. Breakfast wasn’t the attraction it was the Chicagoians passing the window. Everyone was “plugged in” not a surprise just an observation and from what I could deduce, in a big rush to get somewhere. What ever they were carrying in their backpacks must have been important because they sure were packed for “bear!” On thing I have known for a long time, I am a small town boy and the big city takes too much energy to survive. I would last maybe 5 or 10 minutes and the place would eat me alive! Just to visit a whole new persona must be devised and it’s just too much trouble to maintain.
Now I have to begin the next part of the trip and see if I can pull that off. One thing as I have mentioned to the point of tedium, I have to rethink what I am taking and how it’s packed, this time it barely worked and that was because I made it so. The concept of layers worked but I still need a way to sleep in my clothes and not look like I slept in my clothes! It is almost impossible to change on the train so you have to make do with what you are wearing and either put on something or take off something. And be prepared for the HVAC system to go haywire. The idea of “exercise clothes” comes as close to anything I can think of. No wonder the age of elegance in traveling has gone by the board. You just cannot change out of your tuxedo into your dressing gown on the train! Besides it would take too much luggage and you cannot pay a fare for a servant to come along to haul all your stuff! Besides he would have stuff too. It’s not “Around the world in 80 days” any longer.

Where the the Bob makes the Windy City and is suitably impressed!

So, the trip had led me to the “second city!” It’s nice to know that some things don’t change in the universe. Like traffic, it’s awful, like construction- it’s all over the place and mostly interfering with traffic, pedestrians who care not about whether the light is green, or yellow of even if there is a light at all. And taxi drivers who are all suicidal and you pay for it too! I had intended to look around Union station but the crowd was bent on getting off the train, getting in the depot and then having to cross a busy street to get to the cab stand. So I just toughed it out and went with the flow! Union station will not be trifled with. Nor will the people who are hell bent in getting out of there and to their next destination! And for some reason it’s in the middle of some construction project that has been under way for years and has years to complete. It was the same in Milwaukee, were the passengers were discharged into a blank concrete wall where a tattered hand printed sign pointed them in the right direction.
The down side of this is I will be going back again tomorrow- and this time I will be dealing with the roiling masses as I am just a coach passenger this time. No special deals, no special lounge area with snacks and free coffee, no this time I will be in the trenches and pushing and shoving like my life depended on it and may! There will be no nice SCA to show me the correct path, help me with my luggage- just a lot of the unwashed masses trying to get on the train and get the heck out of “Dodge!” I suppose it couldn’t be too bad since it’s only two hours. ( of course the train was late today! But it did give 10 minutes to spare to when the bus leaves for Moline!)
What a readjustment this evening, for most of the last several days I have been having meals communally with a lot of nice people and there have been lively conversations, but tonight I had supper alone, I was not alone in a sense there were other folks in the room just not talking to me. Gave me time for reflection and meditation. Just not a lot as I was too busy shoving food in my pie -hole! The place was packed with slightly wet ( thunderstorm in progress and I guess it’s pretty wet out there on the mean streets!) people who were interested in booze and food and it didn’t matter in which order they dosed themselves. So here I am in my room finishing up another blog before bed. It is an adventuresome life for us travelers, full of romance, danger and excitement but in very small doses, some times so small as to be unnoticeable. “Rounded with a little sleep!”

 

Back from supper. It seems that much of my time has been devoted to eating. Well, that and trying to walk in a dignified manner on the train. Which is like walking drunk without the liquor! We are now on the track that the coal and oil trains run on and it’s not at all smooth and most of the time it catches you by surprise! It’s a rock and roll adventure that is for sure. Now we are on the flats and moving fast! I gather that the HVAC system is not up to snuff, but then I always thought all the systems were set to freeze my hoofies off any way. These cars are a bit long in the tooth, I think they replaced the “legacy cars” of the old Railroads when they were taken off the the various runs, they are comfortable but are a bit shabby and need more than their share of attention. ” Ridden hard, put away wet!” Further information says it’s the toilets and showers on the fritz but they were repaired- And from what I heard it sounded like it was “a penny in the fuse box” process- I did not know that Mc Giver worked for Amtrak! ( just a further note, the problem just got worse after we got to Wisconsin at least in my car, or my end of the car- the AC just went out completely and that was that! So we ( me) just put up with it)
Now we are in St. Paul and we are so early that we just sitting in the station biding our time until it will be time to go. We are about an hour early! On the Empire Builder this is a unique situation in that this was train that was famously late for the past few years. But the situations that caused it have been solved more or less. ( Price of oil bottomed out, coal trains now use another track and most of the work on the tracks through North Dakota has been finished.)
From here on out the rail trip is in familiar territory, as I have done parts of this trip a couple of times including the part through the village at Wauwatosa! The Empire Builder follows the old Milwaukee Road through that part of Milwaukee and brings back memories of visits to see relatives.
We passed Ft. McCoy famous in stories of the National Guard and two weeks training that some people did for eight years, your humble self not included but I I did hear about it and was amazed and it is in the middle of nowhere which is the idea ! One thing we can say, Wisconsin is a handsome State lots of farming going on, why they even raise Cranberries up here! And Cheese, well, they don’t raise cheese but cows that make the milk that is made into cheese, just to be a bit clearer!

 

Okay,it just got weird! I just had lunch with a couple from . . . ( wait for it) MOLINE! On the train coming from Seattle! How is that for coinsidence? It is truly a small, small world. We are now somewhere in the middle of Montana. The sun is gone and it’s cloudy and the mountains in the distance are only a suggestion. What ever they farm in Montana is still being planted in neat rows and there is a lot of it. Since I only know corn or beans I haven’t a clue to what it might be but they seem to have it well under way. Occasionally you will see a horse standing in a field, which brings up an idea that I have considered for awhile what if they are not horses at all. But alien life forms studying us from those fields? They are always alone, they are fairly patient, but they do eat our grass, drink our water and breathe our air. If this is true what kind of intelligence are they gathering about us and this planet? What’s more, where is the mothership? Maybe it’s those big red barns! If it is, I’ll bet the cows are surprised when it blasts off! Then again, what if the cows are in league with the horses? Especially those big black and white ones!
As time passes, we now are on the eastern side of Montana and the landscape has changed from flat and no trees to more trees and more variation to the land scape. And this would mean we are in the high plains For all practical purposes, this is a desert but since it gets its share of rain and snow the land scape is green but the dirt under it is sandy. There are shallow ponds around, in the old days these might have been “Buffalo wallows,” now they are just depressions in the ground where water collects. Off in the distance there are the shadows of mountains, gray and purple.
The trip is sort of winding down! We are coming back the Central time zone! Oh my! this adventure has been going fast but then again that is what makes it work is a couple of days, a bit of transport, a couple of nice hotels and you are back in your own bed, just like that. Modern conveniences. I have the distinct feeling that I am not the first nor the last to do this kind of thing or enjoy the challenge of it. The closer we get towards North Dakota the more the land begins to shift to what one might call “Midwest.” The dirt is just a bit darker, the trees are more plentiful. Although I still don’t recognize what is being planted and grown.

I was going to say it was a glorious Spring day in the Rockies and for a bit it was but now it’s cloudy and windy. I guess that is expected here where weather must hang out- this is the country of extremes. Hot and cold seem to be a suggestion rather than a norm around here. I was also going to say that the tallest things , besides the mountains of course, was the grain elevators but not any longer, now it’s wind turbines and they march across the landscape like machines from Mars. Like in “War of the Worlds!“
Right now the land is benign, signs of planting and low grass growing but we all know come the opposite side of the seasons this is wild and terrible country that takes special people to survive it. Some say on both sides of the international border that the line dividing Canada and the US runs the wrong way. That the farmers and ranchers of both countries have more in common with each other and have the same out look, concerns and realize that neither Ottawa or Washington understands them or their problems. Out here it’s every one for themselves because no one except your neighbor can be of help.
Trees are a luxury, you can go for miles and not see one and then when you do it’s a suggestion of what a tree should be. There are not enough resources to lavish on trees. Maybe in some of the small towns there are a few but that is it, and there are not many of them.
Shelby Montana, short stop for stretch, moving around on solid ground and as one lady said using bathrooms that don’t move. Oh yes, and for those obligatory smokes! This place cannot all be bad since it has a Chinese restaurant! No Cowboys, at least none on the street. But then again if Shelby has Cowboys and this is Tuesday, they would be out wrangling the cows rather than running around in town hoorahing and having a fine old time getting their feathers wet! Now I can say I have not only seen Montana but stepped upon its earth and smelt its air.

Good bye Seattle and hello the rest of the Midwest ( again!) Why it seems only yesterday that I left you chilling the the breeze and now I hear that you are sweating in midsummer’s heat! What is going on there? And can I be part of it, because I have froze my little hoofies off out in the west where it was supposed to nice and toasty!         ( and I notice that the forecasters were right about today at least in Edmonds Washington- it’s raining! Blah!)
One good thing in all this weather blather is it will be light when we get to the good stuff in Montana! You know, Mountains, glaciers, scenic stuff! That’s what I am talking about! And there will be pictures!

One note about Seattle’s King street station, just before I left I found out that they did have vending machines, one pop machine and one munchies machine, not much to assuage the hungry traveler but enough I guess, although I did notice on ravenous young man made numerous trips back and forth for more munchies and seemed not satisfied. They also have the boarding process down pretty well, unlike the Los Angeles cat herding technique. First they tell you what they want you to do, then they line you up in designated areas, one for passengers who need help, passengers who are sleeping car bound and finally the coach passengers. Then, in single file, they examine your ticket and tell you which car you need to get on, it is all very orderly and efficencent. We didn’t lose a passenger and we left on time. ( of course it helped that the train was at the platform!)