Planes, Trains and Automobiles -- Day 4 (MT to WA and some reflections)

Our arrival into Pasco, WA was uneventful. We were more or less on time. We were awake well in advance because I'd turned off my cell phone data so the Fitbit was convinced we were an hour behind. [sigh] But Danny was, as always, a Starr, and even though coffee was supposed to be available in the car from 6-11 AM, he managed to have it ready at 5:15 AM so we could take a cup with us as we stepped off in Pasco. So sweet. 

The lounge car visible while in Pasco

We made it to Pasco!

I was delighted to find that Lyft worked in Pasco at such an early morning and was able to, within 12 minutes, pick us up and then take us to our hotel. Now, the reason for the hotel was not to sleep but to allow us to get a shower and wait in a holding pattern (and, let's be honest, a WiFi zone) until the rental car facilities at the airport opened. The hotel had a free shuttle to the airport, but I realized looking out our window that I could simply walk there in about seven minutes. The plan worked surprisingly well.

Back at that long stop in Shelby, MT, I had service on my phone, so I had confirmed with the (very nice and responsive) Courtyard by Marriott staff that we would be a late/early arrival and all was in order when we arrived. (While I'm not sure when I might ever need to stay close to the Pasco airport, this was a GREAT property.) So anyway, we picked up a rental car, enjoyed a scenic drive alongside the Columbia River Gorge, met up with my Mom's friend at a travel plaza in Biggs Junction and they went their separate way, leaving me for about a day on my own before my wife arrived in Pasco. 

Nice outdoor area at the Courtyard

What I did during those 24 hours is a separate story, but it did give me time to reflect on my Amtrak long haul experience. And here are some of the takeaways I had. 

Lack of WiFi is a feature, not a flaw. When I booked the trip and saw that there was no WiFi on the train, I freaked out a little bit. But I quickly realized that might be exactly what I needed to truly disconnect. I packed an old digital camera to take pictures (it's faster than whipping out my phone since the latter can't do facial recognition while I'm wearing a mask) and decided to just turn my phone off. I realized, of course, that it would be easier to upload pictures from my phone to this blog or other sites, so I just turned data and cellular service off. And once I'd made that decision, I didn't have to fight the temptation. There was probably service at most stops along the way, but it was just nice not even needing to think about it -- and especially to not have to check e-mail for work and let my amazing colleagues back me up so I could take some time off. I look forward to helping them in the same way on their own vacations.

You can figure things out if you try. Logistics were challenging on this trip not because of the logistics themselves, but because I had a pre-set way of how things would and should go and wasn't willing to spend more. But with a little bit of research, everything worked out well. Too often, it's just easy to dig in deeper rather than thinking of other options.

The ability to be amazed or curious is not dependent on one's age, race, religion or status. I think I saw pretty much every demographic flavor on the train. Families with children, solo travelers, retired couples, young people, multiple religions, every skin color on the rainbow. Everyone got along fine as we just enjoyed the views unfolding in our own ways. For a brief slice in time in this often-divided country, I felt a sense of community and shared experience that I rarely do these days. And I felt comfortable just being me -- even when that meant wearing a ratty -- I mean, "classic" -- 2005 Shamrock Shuffle race t-shirt that I had slept in overnight most of the day because we couldn't get to our suitcases until Danny was able to restore our room to the daytime setting. 

Yet there are always classes. Despite what I just wrote above, there were classes on the train based on whether you were in a sleeper car or not. As Amtrak is transitioning back to full menu service, for some reason only those in sleeper cars are allowed to eat in the dining car. So it felt really awkward to be passing through the other cars en route to the dining car. 

So many workers need our support. The whole train (before it split in Spokane) included four sleeping cars (which held about 120 people) and three coach cars (which held about 180 people), plus  the sightseeing lounge car, the dining car, and the two engines. Since only the lucky sleeping car passengers could eat in the dining car, that left the other 180 to either bring their own food (I don't recall seeing any food for sale near the train stops we made where there was time to get off) or to go to the cafe in the lower level of the sightseeing lounge car. In that cafe, there was only one person (Cindy) working. One. For the entire train and entire trip. Whenever she needed to take a break, there was an announcement made on the train that the cafe would be closed. I ventured down there once to get some water and I was the only person there at the time and I could just sense how tired she was and we started up a conversation. She was totally exhausted and stressed. She's just one of many people working under difficult conditions not only on Amtrak but in retail, restaurants and other places of work that have become much more difficult with changes brought by COVID. I need to do a better job of honoring their contributions and thanking them.

Keep looking out the window. It might seem like one wheat field is the same as another, but things change and pop up when you least expect them. And it is those surprises that really make the trip. I'm sure there are things that maybe only one or two of us may have seen from the train -- like a really interesting art thing near a field that appeared to be a giant metal hamburger followed by a wagon that contained gigantic metal French fries.  But it was gone before I could even reach for a camera. Same in life, though. If we're not paying attention to what's going on around us and are in our own little bubble, we'll miss the little gifts of serendipity and joy that life serves up.

Your life and way of life are not the only ones. I'm sure that most of us think that our way of living is the best way. Not that we might not want to change, but we have things figured out. When you look out the window, it can help you realize there are other ways of living that we hadn't considered before. I saw so many rusting hulks of farm equipment just sitting on farm grounds and wondered why that was and why they didn't just clean things up. But then I thought about it and realized A) it would be really difficult to load up a non-functional piece of equipment like a combine, B) you'd probably have to rent equipment to just move the things, C) if you're in the middle of rural America, there may not be a place to rent said equipment and there's likely also not a county dump where you could take the broken equipment. And so it sits. Or perhaps there's another reason. But the more we travel and take ourselves out of our comfort zones, the more our minds can be opened up to new ideas and ways of life and doing things and hopefully that will also be accompanied by kindness, compassion and acceptance of others who live a different way. 

This beautiful country is only the beginning. This trip reminded me of how much there is to see of just the United States and how I have barely scratched the surface even though I have technically been to most of the states. But then you think about the views out of a train in China or from a boat on the Amazon or even out the window of an airplane and realize there is sooooo much more to explore. So I can't wait for the next adventure. I'm looking forward to COVID being wrestled under control throughout the entire world so we can travel more freely again. But for now, I'll keep reminiscing about the rumble of the train rocking me almost to sleep, the beautiful images flashing by outside, and the community we had inside for just a few days.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles -- Day 3 (MN - MT)

It wasn't exactly clear to us that first night how the roomette was to be converted to bunks so we had to wait until the train car attendant could prepare the cabin for us. (I realized the next day that there were instructions on the back of the tray table.) It was a relatively simple process. First, unlatch and fold down the top bunk. That top bunk already had a mattress on it that fit into a cutout in the bunk and it also contained the mattress to be used for the lower bunk and blankets for both. Pillows had been in the seats when we arrived. There was a lever at the bottom of the seats similar to a lever on a car seat to move the seat forward or back and when it was pushed and pressure applied to the seat, it folded flat and the two came together to be one bed. Just throw that mattress on it (which already had sheets on it), grab a blanket and pillow and you're good to go. Well, if you're on the bottom bunk, that is.

Life was a bit more complicated on the top bunk. You also had to connect a sort of cargo net made of seat belt type material to the ceiling so that one couldn't fall out of bed in the middle of the night. Um, yeah... To access the top bunk, you had to climb up the narrow stairs and then kind of slither around the corner on the top to get into place. And then figure out how to get the blanket over your bed when you can't sit up fully in bed and thus move down to straight it out (and it was too full of static electricity to just be flipped down).

Here's some footage from that first night up top as I tried to figure things out.

I survived the night, though my various fitness trackers claimed that I basically got no sleep -- likely because the constant rumbling and motion of the train probably made said trackers think I was the one moving around.  Party on all night long, Amtrak! (I'm now thinking of a dance party in the sightseer lounge and it makes me smile -- but we had enough young'uns on the train that it could have been a thing. Or maybe it WAS a thing that I slept through?)

I woke up early and headed to the sightseer lounge car to watch the sun rise. It was quite pretty. Even though one could argue that the plains all look alike, I beg to differ. Perhaps it is the latent farm girl in me. But I loved looking at the different styles of farms and, of course, all of the animals. Mom joined me just in time for breakfast in the diner car (first come, first served) which was less fancy than the night before, though the omelette I had was quite tasty. Not long after breakfast, we stopped for a little bit in Minot, ND and I recorded a few more observations.

The rest of the day was similar to the previous day. We had breakfast and lunch in the diner car and watched the scenery go by. There were a few places where we had some time to get outside and my favorite was in Shelby, Montana. The signage for one of the bars and the ambient 80s music from a car parked in the area were something, well, special. Hope this video captures at least part of the ambiance.

(Factoid brought to you by my friend Deanna -- the Port of Shelby is a rail port and is, according to its website, the "northernmost inland port authority serving the U.S., Mexico and Canada." Who knew?)

Our train car attendant, Danny

One of the high points of the experience was our sleeping car attendant, Danny Starr. While apparently a lot of the Amtrak employees are dedicated to a particular route and know it inside out, he is apparently a sort of floater, stepping into whatever position was required on whatever route. He was AMAZING. Such a wonderful personality and sense of humor and adventure and really added to the overall experience.

There were a few other stops, but it was mostly just endless wheat fields and pastures with cows and a few horses. And what appeared to be attempts at graffiti. Not surprisingly, because they were taken through the train window as we were racing along, they are not particularly crisp and have some reflections, but you'll get the idea. I am also having challenges with formatting in this blog format, so please forgive the odd layout of the pics below.

One of many sunflower fields

This was a long train....

Unclear what this was. Lime? Salt?

One of many seemingly endless wheat fields

Graffiti on the Great Plains

Because, cows....

The diner car attendant came by again but quite late in the day. I'm not sure if it was because we were literally the last sleeper car room in the entire train or not, but he had only two options left when he got to us. Would we like to have dinner in the dining car at 9 PM or have a sort of take out/room service in our car before then (which time could not be precisely guaranteed). Given that we were on schedule for our final destination and disembarkation at 5:25 AM, we chose room service. And it was just fine (though I missed the fresh flowers).

In-roomette dining

Around this time, we were nearing the Glacier National Park, so I headed to the sightseer lounge car to watch the sun set and to see the view through the mountains. It was quite pretty. And I ended up having some interesting conversations with younger passengers next to me. There was a young woman who would just say "Ooooh" or "Wow" as we went through the mountains, but she didn't lift a cell phone or camera to take a picture of what she was seeing. I finally asked her why. Answer? She'd dunked her phone in water (unintentionally) and then just put the SIM card into an old (non-smart) phone that she had. And she found that it was all she really needed. So she had fallen out of the habit of taking photos even though she now had a new phone. Interesting.

The other interesting conversation was from a young man from the Seattle area. He'd been visiting family in Minnesota. He was struggling to find a good construction job in Seattle because of the union requirements and some timing issues. But he found that he could get a job easily in Minnesota and not having to go through a long period of apprenticeship and could start making good money in less time and with a lower cost of living. So he was heading back home to Seattle to pack up and move to the midwest. I particularly enjoyed that he had a heavy duty water bottle from a drywall manufacturer.

I finally shuffled back down the narrow corridor to our roomette where Mom was fast asleep and attempted to settle myself for another sleepless night, wondering when/whether the time zone would change and how I should set my alarm to wake me/us in time to exit at 5:25 AM in Pasco just in case the train car attendant didn't do so.

In case you'd wondered about the bathrooms....

Planes, Trains and Automobiles - Day 2 (Chicago to Minnesota)

Another eerily empty space

As noted in the previous entry, my plans to drive a rental car from the suburbs (exurbs, really) to Union Station were thwarted by lack of availability of rental cars and the use of car service was dismissed because, well, I'm a tight-fisted accountant. And because there was another excellent alternative. Mom lives not to far from the last stop on a Metra commute rail line that happens to terminate at Union Station, as opposed to some of the other Metra lines that terminate at Ogilvie Transportation Center which is a few blocks from Union Station. So instead of paying $220-285 for car service, one of Mom's neighbors kindly offered to drive us to the train where we paid a whopping $16 for both of us to ride in air conditioned comfort. It took about 90 minutes as it made all stops since it was in the middle of the day, but was a convenient alternative. And it ended up dropping us off two tracks from the one where we would depart later on the Empire Builder.

Mom relaxing in the lounge

Our sleeping car tickets granted us access to the Metropolitan Lounge. While it doesn't have as many features as an airline lounge, it did have a few snacks, free wifi, and, most importantly, comfortable places to sit and clean bathrooms (always key). We found a quiet place on the second floor that was nearly empty (funny how everyone crams into places as soon as they get in the lounge and don't bother looking for more space) and camped there for about 90 minutes until it was time to board.

The Great Hall at Union Station

The boarding process was a bit chaotic. Initially, everyone queued in one rather long line and then a rather loud employee started pulling some people into a smaller line, but it wasn't clear to all what that was about. It turns out it was for those in sleeper cars, but it seemed odd that there weren't stanchions, ropes and signs indicating which line people should be in. But nevertheless we made it on board. Quite a few people had paper tickets but hadn't printed out the part with the bar code that was to be scanned in boarding, which slowed the process down. We had checked in on the app and so it had the bar code but, oddly, did not indicate which compartment was ours. She directed us to our car (there was only one sleeping car on the section of the train that went to Portland) where we experienced a rather old school process that somehow reminded me of summer camp -- the train car attendant looking us up on a printout on his clipboard. Car 2710, Roomette 9 it was!

The narrow hallway of our sleeper car

We lugged our suitcases up the stairs and onto the second level of the car and found our roomette. Um, it was smaller than expected. The Amtrak website is pretty bad in terms of showing videos of what to expect and so I had looked at various videos on YouTube to try and get a better sense of them. Well, many of them showed that the roomette had a small sink as well as a toilet that was, when the wooden lid was down, the lower of the two steps to the upper bunk. Now, query how awkward this might be if you're traveling with someone else and also whether the room might start to smell like a porta potty. But the convenience factor was undeniable. But our room did not have that. We had two very narrow stairs that somewhat doubled as storage/shelves during the day, but that was about it. There was not much legroom between the two seats facing each other, either, and neither of us are at all tall. There was a very narrow (maybe four inches) closet to hang things, but no room to store suitcases, so I had to lug them downstairs again. (We realized later that a normal size rollaboard could juuuuust squeeze underneath the seat, though it obviously would not be accessible when those seats were converted to a bed.) BUT with the door closed, we were allowed to take our masks off and breathe freely, so there was that.

Some first impressions of the cabin can be found in this video:

Our room was at the tail end of the car, which was also the last car on the train. When we walked out into the hallway, we could look at the rails behind us out the back window, which was both cool and a bit dizzying when the train was under full speed. Shortly after I stopped filming the video below, a train came whooshing by the other way on the other track and scared the daylights out of me. Wish I'd caught that, too.

Viewing Columbus out the back window

We passed through northern Illinois and into Wisconsin. When I lived in Milwaukee, I had taken the Hiawatha train from Milwaukee to Chicago many times, but I'd never been on the rails going west from Milwaukee, so that was a new experience. We went through Columbus, Wisconsin which was where my parents had lived when they were newlyweds, so she enjoyed seeing it from the rails. (My Dad was a huge train freak, so he would have really enjoyed this trip or even videos from it were he still alive. She recalls that he often went into Columbus just to watch the trains pass through.)

A couple hours after we departed Chicago, a dining car attendant came through to take dinner reservations. Like access to the Metropolitan Lounge, all meals were included in our fares, including a complimentary alcoholic beverage at dinner. I was very pleasantly surprised by the dining experience. I learned later that the entrees were frozen, but we both enjoyed our meals (I had the salmon, Mom the steak -- you can see the other options in the menu). They even had fresh flowers on the table and tablecloths, though the plates were plastic. We returned to our cabin more than full and with no real ability to work off that food in the next day, alas.

We stopped somewhere (can't recall) long enough to step off the train for a few minutes and to capture the sun setting. Nice end to the first day on the rails. Though a night in the top bunk was yet to come....

Planes, Trains and Automobiles -- Day 1: EWR-ORD

Of all the legs of the journey, one would think that getting to Chicago by air from New Jersey should be the easy one. But one must update one's assumptions when dealing with COVID and a bunch of other weird factors that have arisen because of it. Take, for example, the assumption that rental cars and car service are plentiful and cost-effective. That was, apparently, soooo 2019.

Kim and I were both flying out on the same day -- she to Arizona, me to Chicago -- but on flights separated by about five hours. It didn't really make sense to drive her to the airport, drive home, and then catch a car service later. I could just go early and work at the Admirals Club so we might as well both take car service (getting an Uber or Lyft in the early morning hours in greater metropolitan Bedminster is not a sure thing). So I opened the car service app and had a temporary loss of mandibular control when I saw that the estimate was $220. Um, excuse me? It's normally around $90. Tried another provider. "How does $285 sound?" Are you kidding me? 

And thus was triggered the first of several adjustments to my itinerary. (To all who know me and may have read other blog postings, it should be clear that I am a tight-fisted accountant, which may explain this and other modifications.) Since Kim's flight left at 7 AM, I decided that I would drive, drop her off, and then park in the [gasp] remote parking area. Yes, the one accessed via bus and not the AirTrain. But it was $15 less per day or a total of about $238 for the time we were away. Which would be enough for car service one way, apparently. (I'm sure there are other privately operated remote lots that would have been less, but I didn't have the time/desire to deal with that.) 

It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. First, the technology worked well. I had printed out the reservation that had a bar code as a backup, but it wasn't needed. The license plate was scanned, it found a match with my reservation, and the gate immediately lifted. I was impressed. I found an empty space within the lot near one of the bus stops without much difficulty and had no sooner found my face mask (required on the bus per bus stop signage) than the bus pulled up. It took 12:37 to get from that bus stop to my terminal (yes, of course I timed it). Assuming it takes the same amount of time for the return trip (it will probably be more because the bus will have to stop at two other terminals, but play along with me), that would be a savings of about $9.50 per minute on the bus. Not bad. Not to mention that often it may take that long to get an AirTrain from the terminal to the P4 parking garage for daily parking that was the alternative.

I quickly passed through TSA (so glad to have TSA Pre-Check as the regular line was crazy long) and made my way to the Admirals Club. It was, um, different than what I am used to, having been to that very club many times in the past. I rolled in around 7:15 AM, which is when there should have still been quite a few business travelers waiting for flights. Except that they weren't. Initially, I was one of a whopping two people in the business/work/desk area, and then the other guy left. I decided to get a cup of coffee and realized I was the only guest in the ENTIRE CLUB. It remained that way for at least 90 minutes. It was one of the most bizarre things I have experienced. Like some weird dream or scifi thing where you are the sole survivor of an apocalypse. But for the friendly and helpful staff that I eventually stumbled upon. 

Cuz everybody's crazy 'bout the sharp dressed man

The flight itself was uneventful, other than the weird excitement I got by a man sitting in my row who was actually dressed up. Nice tailored and pressed dress pants, tasseled loafers and a nice shirt. I had no idea how much I'd missed seeing a well-dressed man!

The last leg of the day's journey was different because of, once again, the car situation. My plan had been to pick up a rental car, drive it to my Mom's place in the suburbs, drive us both into Chicago the following day and drop Mom off at Union Station while I continued to return the rental at the Loop location and then reconnect with Mom at Union Station. A bit complicated, but a good plan in theory. Except there were zero rental cars available at O'Hare. Zero. At all of the major rental car companies. Um, what? So then I looked at the car service situation. How does $220 sound? $285? Literally the same estimates quoted for service in New Jersey. Hmmm.... So Mom picked me up at the airport and we made our way home.

And that was Day 1. 

Because ORD.... It doesn't get old....

Planes, Trains and Automobiles -- Overview

In this era of continuing COVID, I began to get restless. It was clear that planning a vacation to Europe was not a good idea quite yet, but I was getting restless. And then I saw an article about roomettes on Amtrak and the tumblers of my mind began to turn with possibilities. 

I finally came up with both a plan and an accomplice -- I mean, a traveling companion. Or two. In a nutshell, I would fly to Chicago, pick up my Mom and, together, board the Empire Builder train to Washington State. Once there, we would more or less go our separate ways. I would drive her to meet a childhood friend of hers and my wife would join me to spend time with a good friend in the tri-cities of eastern Washington.

While I have taken a long distance train before between southern California and Chicago via two different routes, it was quite a while ago. I was a student at the time and was most assuredly not in a sleeping car and didn't think I had enough money to go to even the cafe car for a bite, let alone the dining car. So I had used the remainder of the balance on my card at the cafeteria at college to stock up on crackers, granola bars, juice boxes and the like, packed them into my backpack and probably looked a bit like a vagrant as I munched away. 

The long haul trains are also much different than either the allegedly "high speed" Acela (nothing like real high speed trains in Europe and Japan, my other points of reference) or the regional trains. For example, the Acela has relatively comfortable seats that make working on one's laptop convenient, especially as there is free (albeit sometimes spotty) WiFi. The regional trains, on the other hand (based on trips to DC, Boston and Vermont using them) are pretty down-at-the heels, not nearly as comfortable (even in business class), though they do offer WiFi at times.

Anyway, enough people were curious about the train and sleeping car situation, that I thought I'd craft a few blog entries to cover the trip and embed some videos as it's hard to explain it all in a quick conversation.

The map below may be helpful to understand the train portion of the journey. Two trains leave from Chicago and split into two in Spokane. We were the lower branch.

Source: Road and Rail Pictures