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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!)

A few random notes on leaving Seattle. One thing I forgot to mention which is unfortunate, was seeing Mount Shasta in California at dawn. It was most unusual, in that it was just hit by the rising sun and broke through the clouds with some stuck to it like cotton! Quite a sight for an early morning. The same could not be said for Mount St. Helen as it was shrouded in clouds and rain when we got near to it. I’m still coming to grips with some of the scenery that is out there. After awhile you get a bit blase’ about vistas but this stuff takes your breath away. There are no words that describe it sufficiently. So, in most cases, you fall back on trite phrases and platitudes and even then they cannot express what you are seeing. And I am anticipating that it will only be better in the Rocky Mountains, in fact I know it will because I have seen what it looks like on the other side of the border.

Oh, yes, although I have not mentioned food in all this carrying on, I would like to say that last night I had one very special Caesar Salad unlike any I have had before! Heck of Sunday dinner and a pretty weird place to have in, the hotel bar but, man, it was wonderful! In this hotel, the bar and restaurant are combined in such a way as to be indistinguishable from each other and just to confuse it more the business center is also included in the mix. But the food is good and there is plenty of it. Yes, and there is the business of a complimentary breakfast in LA, that hotel had breakfast and a buffet for the guests, you just showed up and chowed down and it was free! Now that is a perk! Did I mention, that when I Google Earthed that hotel and you went to street level  it was in the lobby of the Hotel!! Now that is research!
If you have been paying attention to these ramblings, you know I have been obsessing about my packing. Well, there is going to be some major re-thinking in that area before I take off again. First of all, the Rucksack, that seemed to be a solution to a second piece is a failure in many ways. One the material it was made of failed- ripped out by what ever I had in part of it. I like the pockets but it’s just too hard to get things in and out of them with ease. So we will see what we can do about that. But the prime problem and I guess I was aware of it before the trip is that it weighs too much and is too unbalanced when carried on the roll-around suitcase. I guess what is needed is a small duffle that can be bungyed to the collapsing handle. Also I had included some civilian MREs with me just in case- they worked out but I now see that I need to augment them with other items-( thank goodness a friend mentioned that the original MREs have too much stuff in them and need to be re-packaged for use in the field and he was so right!) And I found out that my first aid kit which was a fine idea needs more stuff in it too. More bandaides mostly!
One thing that was a disappointment was slippers, I had some nice lined moccasins that I thought would work and then they took up too much space and were not easy to get to, so it looks like they will be replaced with slipper socks that will collapse way down to a much smaller size.
Today will be disjointed as I have to check out of the hotel before noon and the train does not leave until later in the afternoon so I guess I will have to hang out at the train station. And I will miss lunch because of it. Not that that is a hard ship as all I have been doing is eating anyway! ( I found out that since the big remodel at the King street station they don’t even have vending machines or the usual fast food place.) Oh well, there is always a steak on the train to look forward to, I guess!

Coming into Seattle is an experience. Especially by train. You come down the shore of Puget sound with all the sights of a sea coast, old pilings, pieces of ships, fishing shacks and boat yards, the Boeing Air craft plant with its own airfield and in the distance, the Tacoma narrows bridge! Two of them now, as one was not enough for the present day traffic or as the speaker from “Rails to Trails” put it, ” Three, because “Galloping Gertie” the first bridge is under the water at the same place where it fell in November of 1940. And then into Seattle, where there are lots of new and seemingly expensive housing being built and sold. As you get closer to the old King street Station you notice a big building that looks like a monster ship from outer space, “Century Link Field.” Not sure what was on for the night but between the fence and the field a bunch of young men seemed to be concentrating on a lively game of football and it was in a pretty good mist of rain that had been threatening since we came out of the mountains. It seems out of place with the old Railroad station from another century and another power base, that of the the Great Northern Road. This was the power house railroad of the Northwest for the later half of the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries. The old station is in remarkable repair having gone through an extensive restoration. Hundreds of trains came and went at this station in the old days where only a few leave and come today.

I think I was surprised at the hills of Seattle even though I have been here before I did not remember how steep they were. Of course this is the original “skid row” where lumbermen skidded logs down to the mills. Which, I am sure is why almost every freight train we passed or passed us was loaded with many cars of cut lumber ready for building. Seattle is the home of the Weyerhaeuser Company that started back home and whose head quarters resembles Deere and Company’s grand building the only difference is it is made of wood rather than Cor-ten Steel. Out in the northwest lumber still has influence. And Weyerhaeuser still is cultivating and harvesting trees for lumber.

Tomorrow, wherein our intrepid traveler leaves his adventures in the Northwest and begins anew on another train, thrills, excitement and the romance of the rails!