God put me on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now I am so far behind that I will never die.
The last post hinted at the train stations of Amtrak, and I thought maybe post some pictures. Numerous stations are old from the mid 20th century, beautiful ornate buildings. Some are new but still beautiful. There are the small town ones, we did not have time to go in but looked beautiful on the outside.
And we shall see as we progress further west.
The true secret of happiness lies in taking a genuine interest in all the details of daily life
Williams morris
Not much to say about the “crescent “ train into New Orleans, except nice trip, although disappointed we slept through the appalachians. Arrive 40 minutes early and Jeanne’s friend Judy was waiting. Train station as usual is downtown and large and beautiful. Jeanne has known Judy for over 40 years beginning from their working together in Yosemite national park. They and several others developed a very tight bond that has endured over the years. (As noted in my earlier ramblings, last year, about turkey)
Along the way we have inquired with various people “why are you riding the train?” Of course everyone has their own answer, but a common theme is they just do not like to fly – not afraid to fly, but prefer being more relaxed. No getting there early, hassling with airport, ticketing, lines, security, crowds, cramped quarters, etc. and you do not get to see the country traveling over or through. All agree the train is relaxing, and you get to see the country.
One friend of mine said air travel is like a Time Machine – you go sit in a metal tube, tap your feet for a few hours, and arrive at a different place and time. But as Douglas Adams noted in “hitchhikers guide to the universe” time travel is very discombobulating on the body. (He recommended several beers and peanuts for the electrolytes, before travel)
Will Rogers, who died in 1935, apparently once said New Orleans and San Antonio had some of he best personalities of any cities in the United States. Certainly New Orleans is famous for its distinct personality. If you were blindfolded and dropped into a city, some places you would not know where you are, but New Orleans one would know.
In our research of doing this trip Jeanne was trying to figure out what to do in New Orleans. I said just walk around and that is what we did. Drove from Judy’s into the French quarter and rambled about. Immediately on arrival the stern wheeler Natchez is blasting out jazz tunes on its air horns, street bands are playing outside numerous restaurants. Lively and energetic. For me music is nice during the day. I could never be a musician with the late night hours.
Jeanne and Judy went to the old mint and jazz museum. I opted to just go sit out on street side drinking a “nutty Irish coffee”
Then on to the food. Numerous choices of a wide variety. In 2017, again with Jeanne’s Yosemite friends, we had gone to a seafood restaurant I had remembered as awesome. Thanks to the iPhone technology of geo location, I found where it was located and guided Jeanne and Judy to lunch.
Yet another delightful evening just sitting at Judy’s house reading, conversing, I got to fix some loose wiring on the roof eves, drinking wine and general enjoyment of life. A quick drive this am to train and off we go again. Judy insisted we get some beignets, (New Orleans doughnuts) for the ride. Square donuts without holes covered in powdered sugar, delivered in a paper sack overfilled with more powdered sugar.
This has been the nicest train yet. It has an observation car again and no toilet in room, hence a bit more room, although bunk is the very tight quarter one although not sleeping in it.
The Mississippi River delta was interesting with its almost swamp land. Someone said they did see an alligator. I might have seen one swimming but unsure. Arrived Houston on time and sat for an haour and half waiting for the built in fudge factor not necessary this trip. Went into the Houston station and the worst station yet. Apparently “they” tore down the beautiful union station in the 1970s, with the intention of building a better one but they forgot that part, and now have a bus terminal. We arrive San Antonio at midnight, apparently to a similar station, although they do have a very nice ornate train station to be rented out, but not for train use.
On to family in San Antonio.
Being an intellectual creates a lot of questions and no answers
Janis Joplin
A nice commuter train ride from New York cruising along, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and into Baltimore, Maryland. Delightful overnight visit with Dave and Twig in Baltimore. not a lot of time but sometimes that works best, always leaving something yet to do. They drove us through a variety of neighborhoods going for wondrous crabcakes at Koko’s bar, some state the best in Baltimore which is famous for its crab.
50 minutes to Washington DC and another Yotel hotel, 15 minute walk from union station. It turns out not only the cheapest place yet we have stayed but the best. Good coffee in the morning, just down the hall, 24/7! Room was larger than in New York, but still with the outlets and foldup, very comfortable bed. Again, not much time there as out and about.We came to explore not sit in a hotel room.
We had seen Washington D.C. a few years ago and we had seen much of what interests us, hence opted to just walk about. Have some friends here, but know they have been very busy with high end jobs, family visitors, and currently have more visitors plus 2 small child. We opted to let the young folks visit each other, and we would just walk about. Cutting through the capital grounds, headed to the Anacostia River thinking there would be a river walk along the edge. There was for part, but some parts did not, although easily wandered the streets nearby. Passed a large stadium getting ready for a soccer game. We tried tickets, but alas standing room only.
Looking for a beer after the Anacostia river joined the Potomac and entered the walkway along a slough of the Potomac, with lots of high end restaurants. Not our desire. Then a place up on second floor overlooking the slough, with boats heading in and out at sunset. The bouncer apologized as they only had beer and booze, no food. Perfect! Another block and a crab market where we got a cup of chowder each. Not very good chowder either. Shrimp chowder devoid of shrimp and the clam chowder OK, but nothing exciting, needing some spices. Then a walk back to hotel along the national mall and numerous office buildings, museums, and federal whatnots. In the end nearly 9 miles today of concrete walking.
Washingon is clean, with wide streets and as opposed to previous visits it is seemingly very quiet. But I noticed people did not seem as friendly. At our visit with Tom and Ilona in Chicago we had commented how Euopeans find America strange in that they like to say hello to each other – strangers. That would be me. Hence in New York I found people would make eye contact and acknowledge me. Here they look right through me. I am non existent. OK Jeanne finds it weird too.
Hard to say what the personality of Washington DC is. Like trying to determine the personality of Las Vegas while only going to the Las Vegas strip. But from what I saw, it is business, although whoever designed the place made wide roads, sidewalks, bike lanes. Lots of monuments, museums, and more offices. It is the capital of the United States and a lot of fascinating history.
The big museum we had not visited prior was the African American history, and Jeanne had obtained us tickets. Amazing history throughout. A couple of items struck me. Sugar and rice were big crops which helped develop our modern world with an influx of forced labor. Seems people, realized slavery was bad, but making money was more important and cheap labor was available. Whiteness was not a thing until the 1500’s when tribalism was very present but it was more religious. In Spain if you did not convert to Catholicism from Jewish or Islam, they basically killed you. Other future countries had their own tribes and cultures, often denigrating those outside their tribe, in their own way for whatever reason. Then the idea of whiteness developed. Humanity???
As with most museums , no matter how good or how much information there is my brain starts filling up at about 2 hours, and it was true for this museum. We managed three hours but in the end sort of rushed the years of 1950s to present. A very significant part of American history.
There was a section on “The Green Book”. That was a book published telling of places blacks could get fuel, spend the night, and eat in the south while driving through. During that time it apparently was very difficult, if you did not have the green book. It was published from apparently the late 1920’s until 1966. I had already had 2 trips into the south by then. One, with my uncle and cousin driving across the deep south from Georgia to California seeing the segregation in 1962 and bigotry. It left a big impression on me. The second trip was the 1965 bicycle trip starting in Philadelphia, riding through lower Pennsylvannia, into Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia and ending in Washington D.C. That trip did not have the overt segregation and discrepancy but definitely visible. Again weird. I still wonder why, and why is that celebrated as a great way of life.
Not sure about humanity?
After the museum it was again time for a beer, but definitely not New York where multitudes of storefronts offering all sorts of things. Here there were food trucks on the mall, but no beer. Stopped in at the White House visitor center to inquire where to get a beer. A block up off the constitution and Pennsylvania Avenue thoroughfares she said would be some restaurants. Yes there were restaurants, almost all high end, but we persevered as it was enroute back to our bags and union station.
Now just over half way through the trip. Twig had asked us which is best part and we could not answer. Most interesting just seeing the country. Would have been nice to see more but slept through a lot. Colombia Gorge, the Appalachians, more of the Great Lakes, but, we came to circumnavigate not stop and enjoy each locale, hence the train. Very glad we have some stops along the way. the train would be difficult just going straight through.
We ask people on the train- “Why the train?” Most we have talked to just want the experience of the train, or to see the country. One stated they like the train as do not have the patience for the troubles of flying. Each to their own reasons, all valid, all different. But as I was talking with 2 couples this morning the train is not for the weak hearted. Contorting into the bedrooms requires some finesse. The empire builder from Portland to Chicago was the only one with a lounge observation car. All have had a dining car, (food is included with sleeper accomadations), but it is busy and one can’t really hang out there. There is a cafe car, but not with the large windows. the lounge was a wonderful place to watch and talk with others, we miss it, spending more time in our roomette, feeling a bit like bad kids sent to our room. We are realizing this is a very expensive trip, why I am not sure, although half the expense is the sleeping horizontal and not in coach class. But then airline first class is also very expensive. Maybe I have gotten soft?
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No day shall erase you from the memory of time
Virgil (Seen at the 9/11 World Trade Center Memorial)
Arrived downtown Manhatten right on time at 6:30 pm and yes we knew immediately we were in New York City. Streets busy with variety of traffic, large sidewalks busy with people and seems everyone walks at least short distances, like 20 blocks to Yotel Hotel near times square.
Traffic in town has been interesting, reminds me of riding bikes in Kathmandu, Mendoza, Salta, and LaPaz. The riders I was with there, taught me it can be fun with the right attitude. Like road riding or mountain bike riding different strategies. Here there are lots of bike riders I suspect 90% are electric, due to the speeds they travel. A few pedicabs as in Chicago with music blaring. But lots of vehicles trucks, cars, buses all vying for space. As in city bike riding one must be aggressive. Generally follow the rules but stand your ground. And that includes pedestrians, which have wide sidewalks, and dedicated walk paths on the streets. It seems if you are a driver honking your horn magically makes the traffic disappear in front of you. From our pedestrian viewpoint I saw no disappearances and magic movement, but the honking went on.
People are nice, smiling and returning waves and such. Last time we were here in 2018, Jeanne exclaimed to a New Yorker ” I thought people would be more rude”. The response was ” Oh you have to go to Boston for that”. Everyone on the streets from business men in suits, to delivery people to school kids, obviously from a variety of backgrounds. I ascertained that because of the variety of clothing worn.
And an incredible diversity of people. I cannot count the number of languages I have heard and not only tourists but apparent locals. The diversity is really nice. Halloween is coming up in 2 weeks and it is obvious it is a big deal here as already people out and about in costume. Willy Wonka, captain jack sparrow, dinosaurs, witches, skeletons, plus a variety of who knows what, some of which I do not think are costumes but everyday dress. Most fascinating.
We arrived at the Yotel Hotel, where we stayed last visit because it is one of cheaper hotels in town at $400/night. And it is a techno hotel which helps with the most important aspect of life in New York City – real estate. Maybe 12 feet by 16 feet (4 meters x 5meters about), the bed is a futon and one hits the button to turn it into an incredibly comfortable bed. Lots of plugins, both electrical and devices. Check in is person less with electronic and if you have big bags a robot will store them as not much room in the “cabin”. But it is very nice.
Chose to eat at Halal food food truck outside hotel on sidewalk. They are everywhere and very good. We each had a lamb gyro to eat in room and managed to make a mess. It was so good we ate the same next day after returning from all day at the 9/11 memorial.
Subway to 9/11 memorial much easier to figure out than Chicago, although perhaps I did not give Chicago a good enough try. I checked the maps for directions and driving would take 35 minutes, walking 28 minutes, and subway 20 minutes. arrived for our tour and spent the day at the memorial including the observation deck of the new freedom tower built to replace one of the twin towers. A tour explaining a lot, and 3 hours in the museum. A defining moment in USA history. The museum and tours were rudimentary in 2018 as still ongoing development. Museum was good, large and had a large number of artifacts, and personal stories from recording made at time, Smashed fire trucks, ambulances, building and airplane pieces. The actual memorial of descending waterfall where you cannot see the bottom made from the footprint of the original twin towers.
Did a great Broadway show “Hells Kitchen” by Alicia Keys. Awesome
And today was reserved for walking the high line trail, but never made it. That is a park made from an abandoned elevated rail. 100 feet wide and 4 miles long. We had done it before and great, but alas never made it today. A day of relaxation. I got out and walked a bit marveling at how just because a store door front is small does not mean the store is small. Vertical is a dimension here. This hotel has an entry on the street level but actually is floors 4-25. Target store covered 3 stories.
One cannot say ” this is how we do it back home”, because it often will not work here. As my father used to say. ” Be careful out there, they sometimes do things different, not better not worse, just different”
A delightful dinner with the son of one of Jeanne’s cousins, and his girlfriend. Finally figuring out directions, as I am used to north, south, east, west. that seems to mean nothing here, but downtown and uptown are the directions. Times Square where we are is uptown and dinner last night downtown. A good Italian dinner although they had to interpret the Italian for us. Fried artichoke hearts, sea bass, roasted beets, amazing stuff.
He sun rises in the east
And now on to Baltimore.
I saw that my life was a vast glowing empty page and I could do anything I wanted
Jack Kerouac
Arrived just over 6 hours late into Chicago at 10:30 pm. Apparently Amtrak is getting us a voucher for another trip of some sort, although have not seen it yet. Then the hotel was 2.3 miles away not the original 2 blocks I had thought, as originally looked at. Difficult to find a place as turns out this weekend is the Chicago Marathon as well as a big convention. Seems the world in the United States at least, has figured out how to gouge the tourist again with demand pricing. Normal rate is $180, but we are paying $450. Gouge the tourist. Sometimes I hate capitalism. we caught a Lyft cab for $5.50 and arrived. I had chosen a room on the 21st floor and amazing views out to a taller building across the street with condominiums. Apparently Chicago has become a desirable place and people want to live in town. It shows.
Always interesting to come to a new city. One has to figure out the mass transit – how to pay, where to pay, where to go and how to get there. In Portland my phone as soon as we were in airport came on (unasked for) saying Portland mass transit accepted apple cash and phone could be used for payment, just walk on. Here one gets an app and purchases access, but you have to know which mode you want. Some cities accept cash, some do not. We will see, have not tried it yet. I am sure once one does it, it is easy.
Seems every city in the world has a particular vibe, and always interesting to see what that is. New York, Washington D.C., London, Paris, Kathmandu each has an individual feel. And Chicago is the same. There is a particular vibrancy here, although currently it might be skewed due to the marathon. 50,000 people does have an affect.
My cousin drove into town from their home just outside town about an hour, and we had a delightful day. We walked about city central, found a sandwich place for lunch and yammered on. Jeanne had been here before and raved about the boat tour of architecture of the city. We had signed up for that. Tom and Ilona used to live in the city and certainly had visitors and had done tours but had never done that tour.
Seems after the recession of 2008-2010 money began to flow again and there was building boom here. There were certainly skyscrapers here before, but now a lot more. I had been up the Sears tower maybe 20 years ago, once the tallest building in the United States, now the 26th tallest in the world.
The tour was amazing, with the guide being a former history teacher and was passionate about Chicago and its history. I love it when people show passion in what they do. He covered not only the architecture ranging back to the 1850’s, the environmental aspects, the river, the geography, separation by a hill near here dividing the continent between the Atlantic ocean and gulf of Mexico, batman movies made here, and a myriad of other subjects.
Some factoids – learned where one building used the river water for cooling the building, but when it returned to the river it was warmer and affected the life in river.
Chicago is known as the windy city, and it is windy, people assuming it is named that because of the wind, but actually it is the history here of corrupt politicians and windbags, giving it the windy city name.
Michigan Avenue used to be the edge of the lake but after the great fire of 1876 (?) and other stuff, the residue was pushed out into the edge extending the land out. And the city elevation was raised by 10 feet so that the sewage from homes and buildings and the animal processing facilities could drain into the river easier. The clean water act of 1972 changed a lot for the river.
After the tour we found a small bakery shop and stepped in, continuing our yammering visit. Turns out Chicago does not do coffee very well , that I have found, and I am not particular. Weak cold coffee does not do it for me. Jeanne got sludge from her coffee pot.
Tom and Ilona returned home, Jeanne and I deciding to walk the 2.5 miles back to hotel. Turns out a great walk. The sidewalks were energetic with people. The police were out getting barriers set up for the marathon on Sunday. It was like setting up for a party. The pedicabs with music blasting, sirens, signs, barriers, people busy on the streets. One fellow we had seen in the morning near our hotel, who had asked for help getting some bottled water came up and said he wished to apologize to us for what he thought scared us. We had a nice conversation and he asked again for help getting some bottled water. Again we turned him down.
Stopped in randomly at a restaurant for dinner and it was incredible food. As the the waitress said, we would not tell the difference between the calamari and the pasta, and we could not. It was delicious. I had a mediterranean bass over a bed of green olives and carmelized fennel. Delicious.
I thought we were on the same train of thought.
Graffiti on train car Minneapolis
Hour 46 and running 8 hours late. Scheduled arrival Chicago was 4:45, now scheduled for 9:32. Seems the train people are trying to make it work, but the infrastructure is not there.(according to me) Freight trains take precedence, and we often have to stop at a siding and wait. Apparently when we left Portland late that drops our priority to the bottom of queue. Alas. It is what it is. We just left Minneapolis-St.Paul and cruising at 78 mph.
Yesterday afternoon and today have just been sitting back and watch the scenery go by. Lots of reading materials and movies, but scenery is best. We left the mountains and were in miles and miles of wheat fields, already harvested. Today it is miles and miles of corn, although there are deciduous forests here. The colors though have not been coordinated and are a mishmash of green, red, yellow, orange. Jeanne is calling it paisley fall colors. Some are past prime some have not even started to turn colors. I noted in the forests often in relatively remote areas there were tree houses. Perhaps deer hunting sights.
One of the people we wanted to stop and visit was my sister. Unfortunately she and husband Steve are doing a driving trip visiting relatives, and were in Wisconsin when we passed through whitefish, Montana. But they were driving home and we would pass. We tracked each other and they stopped in Glasgow, Montana last night. Turns out a stop on our train, but a drop and go stop, no getting off for us and only seconds there. They came to the station, and I told them where we were-the lounge car. I looked but did not see them so decided to run for the door and wave. Unfortunately they saw us, while going down the stairs the train left, but I missed them.
We texted back and forth and the aurora was supposed to be out even down here. We returned to our roomette, blocking the light as well as possible, but minimal. Did get a picture on the phone which showed more than we saw, but something about taking a picture in the dark of a moving object while going 60mph did not work.
One thing I have distinctly noted since leaving the mountains is that this area is flat. North Dakota even more so. Definitely no mountains to block the view here. Miles and miles of miles and miles.
I have also started taking picture of us, not because we are vain or whatever, but the windows are so dirty it is difficult to get a decent picture. We still sit here in the lounge car enjoying the passing scenery.
This is pretty amazing! What an amazing country. On to Chicago and the city.
Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep balanced you need to keep moving.
-Albert Einstein
Boarded the “Empire Builder” train in Portland, Oregon an hour and half late, after a delightful overnight visit with our friends Sheila and Steve. We talked and went on a delightful walk through the Oregon foliage and along the Columbia River.
Supposed 4:45 pm departure but train only arrived then and needed cleaning and fixing up, and it was 6:15 when we finally departed. But, with a “roomette” we have access to business, first class lounge and Steve and Sheila joined us and we continued our visit.
We chose Portland over Seattle for first part thinking we would have a couple hours daylight to view the Columbia gorge, a beautiful section of river. Alas, our late departure and consequential darkness moved us into our room to explore. I knew the room was tiny but this is tiny. I thought beds on boats were small, there because one does not want room to get thrown around. This room is about 1 meter by 2 meters, 3ft6 inches by 6 feet 6 inches. In that space are two comfortable chairs which can recline, a closet, a trash can, two bunks, a large picture window (only in front of lower bunk) 1 electrical outlet, a table,arm rests, cup holders, 2 bedside lights (both for lower bunk only) , 2 coat hangers, arm rests, and curtains for windows on both sides (outside view and train aisle). Not all the aforementioned items are usable at same time. There is a shared toilet down the hall, and an attendant to place the bunks into sleeping position, although we decided we could do that ourselves. Because the dinner car was not available until Spokane in the middle of the night our attendant brought us meals in our room. Not bad shrimp salad and chicken salad.
By 8:40 I was done and figured just go to bed. An hour and half later I sort of fell asleep. A comedy with much laughter as two people occupying the same space was difficult. I managed to get the upper bunk lowered into position and climbed in, realizing one can’t come even close to sitting up, so all clothes changing was done supine. More laughter and realization needed something out of my pack stored under the seat which was now reclined into a bed for Jeanne. Start over, climbing down, undo bed ,retrieve pack , retrieve whatever important item it was, replace bed, climb back up and start over.
Glad to have the webbing around my bed as a couple times thrown about. The bunk is just over shoulder width and actually rather comfortable once one situates, with rocking and generally gentle motion.
A somewhat fitful night but not unreasonable. Up at 6 am barely first light, but in the Kootenai River drainage and absolutely gorgeous just cruising alongside the river noting leaf colors seeming to just explode with color.
My niece lives a couple blocks from the railroad tracks and was going to come wave, but alas we are 3 1/2 hours late now and she had to go to work.
Talking with various people seems nearly all are on the train to experience the train. Fun to just talk and discover the stories of how and why they end up on this train. Several getting off and on taking a day to explore places, some using it as transportation, as not much else available.
Lunch and through the mountains now, out onto the plains and flatlands. New adventures
