On September 20th we headed toward Cincinnati around midnight so that we could have plenty of time to catch the train a little after 3:15 AM. It gave us some extra time incase there was a wreck or some construction along the way that might slow us down. When we got to Cincinnati we were in the wrong lane and we missed the turn we needed to get to the station. Lucky for us, the dome on the station is pretty tall and you can see it from all over that area. We got to the station, unloaded the luggage and went into the station to find out about our tickets and the parking arrangements. The station master printed our tickets for us. For $4.00 a day you get to park in the museum parking lot. You fill out some information on an envelope and give it to the station master and he turns it over to the museum. I parked the van and we waited about an hour for the train to arrive.

The train was about 5 minutes late arriving and there were quite a few people boarding and departing. The normal 15 minutes of time built into the schedule at Cincinnati should allow them to make up the 5 minutes but with all the people getting on, off, and the handling of luggage, we were 5 minutes late leaving. It was a busy stop. I think the station master said he had 33 people getting on that night. Some were going to sleepers, others had to get on other coaches since Amtrak tries to group people together that are all going to the same destination. It’s easier to sort them properly when they get on than it is to go through a train and pick them out, scattered through 5 or 6 coaches.

We watched the lights go by as we went through parts of Cincinnati and northern Kentucky. Eventually we dozed off, waking up every now and then but basically sleeping pretty well. We watched the trees and the river roll past as we went through Virginia and West Virginia. Later we enjoyed the hills and grass lands and small town along the way. We had breakfast in the diner and just sort of snacked the rest of the day. Breakfast was great. We sat across the table from a couple that were celebrating the wedding anniversary with a trip without the kids. We eventually arrived at DC and we were pretty close to on time, maybe a few minutes late. We checked our bags in and had enough time to eat, walk out in front of the station, and explore the station. The station in Washington was refurbished about 20 years ago and is a real show place. It had fallen into disrepair during the ’60 and ’70 when everyone was taking the planes.

We boarded Regional train 66 for New York and Boston. About 20 or 30 minutes out of DC, I noticed that we were moving along at a pretty good clip. I ask Pat how fast he thought we were going. “About 80,” he guessed. I told him I thought we were doing a bit more than that because there were no cars on the road that were keeping up with us. I pulled the GPS out and it said 113MPH. We fell asleep somewhere before we got to Baltimore and didn’t wake up until we had stopped at New York “Pennsylvania Station.”

We woke up the next morning to a foggy coast line with sail boats and coastal homes. It was like a picture you might see in a travel advertisement. We eventually arrived in Boston. After a breakfast in the station we headed out on the Freedom Trail. We spent most of the day touring places we had heard about in a history class, a bunch of years ago. We eventually went to the Boston Navy Yard. We toured the USS Constitution, it’s museum, and the USS Cassin Young, a WWII destroyer. That part was interesting to me because it had been a part of the invasion forces at Okinawa where I spent two years while in the Army.

We were pretty tired after all of that and about 2 miles from the station. Pat had never been on a subway so we got a couple of “Charlie Tickets” and rode the BMTA, or “the M” back to the station. (Google the “Charlie MTA song” and listen to the Kingston Trio version. Then read the story about the song.) It was an interesting ride. Someone got on with some really stinky fish and the ride was rather “breath taking.”

At the station we ask someone about some places to eat. We had Applebees or O’Charlies, or something in that range. They sent us to Chinatown and some real dives. After searching through the streets that zig-zag around and never go straight for over 100 feet, we got back to the station and settled on something from the golden arches. About an hour later we boarded train 67 for DC. The business class coach was much nicer then the regular coaches. It was roomy and the seats were arranges 2 on one side and 1 on the other side. People tried to sneak in but the attendant would quickly check the tickets and send them to another coach. No one was using cell phones and it was quieter… at least until we go close to New York. One of the passenger had too much “lubricant” and he treated us to a version of “Amazing Grace” that I had never heard. The coach attendant tried to keep him out of the business class section but he made his way in there anyway. When we arrived at Penn Station there was a 5 man welcome crew waiting for him. We didn’t have any other problems.

Shortly after daybreak we arrived in DC, checked our bags, and headed for the subway. Pat agreed that the DC subway is much nicer than the “M” is in Boston. We took a train a few miles, debarked and went to the Vietnam Memorial. I found the 4 names that I knew on the wall. We then went to the WWII memorial. I had never been there before and wanted to see it. After a quick visit we headed back to the subway (METRO) and back to Union Station. We got something to eat and it was about time to catch the train back to Cincinnati.

Another nice trip. There were two or three places I thought the train had taken a dirt road but most of it was fairly smooth. We had departed Washington about 10 minutes late due to another train being late getting out of DC but we were able to make up the time and most of the trip was pretty much on time. We arrived in Cincinnati on time, and headed to the van where I thought we were in trouble. I couldn’t find my keys. I always put them in my right pocket but when we went through security at the Boston Navy Yard, I hastily put them in the left pocket. What a relief when I found them.

Overall, it was a great trip. Pat got to take a 2108 mile trip on Amtrak. He got to ride two subway systems, and we saw some nice scenery along the way. I ran into a conductor that I had met on the Kentucky Cardinal a few years before. The weather was nice and we were tired by the time we got home.

I tell all of my friends how much I’ve enjoyed my trips on Amtrak and tell them they should try it some time. Frances and I were visiting our friends, Pat and Penny when the subject came up again. Pat said he’d like to take a trip sometime. We talked a few minutes and Pat said he could take off four days for a trip and wondered where we could go in that time frame. I told him that I would have to look at some schedules / timetables to see what we could do. I guess we could drive to Cincinnati and take the train to Chicago. That’s not a very exciting trip since most of it is during the night. I was thinking about Cincinnati (trains 50/51) to Chicago and then to Whitefish Mt. (trains 7/8) or Salt Lake City (trains 5/6). After a quick scan of the timetables I found that they were out of the question. If we were not going to be able to go through the Rockies, then we would be missing the best parts of those trips. Also, I didn’t want to go somewhere, get off the train, wait 90 minutes in the middle of downtown nowhere, and then catch the train back towards home. What other options did we have. Maybe a trip on the City of New Orleans (trains 58/59) might work. Too much time lost between trains in Chicago and poor timing in New Orleans to make that work well. How about going east? I knew we could go to Washington, D.C. (trains 50/51.) New York was possible but the train arrives around midnight and departs for the return trip around 8:00AM. That wasn’t very desirable. Oh, one other thing. Train 50/51 only runs 3 days a week and we would have to spend two nights in New York. What if we went to Boston? How would those connections work? A quick trip to www.amtrak.com and “WOW,” I think we could do that. Lets see….

Leave CIN on Friday morning around 3:00AM (train 50)
Arrive WAS (DC) Friday evening, around 6:00 PM
Depart WAS at 10:00PM. (train 66)
Arrive BOS 8:00AM Saturday
Spend the day touring Boston
Depart BOS at 9:45PM Saturday evening (train 67)
Arrive WAS at 7:00AM Sunday morning, layover for a few hours
Depart WAS around 11:00AM (train 51)
Arrive CIN 1:00AM Monday morning.
Drive back to Louisville and still have time to rest.

And the cost??? $161.00 per person. Since I wanted to get the most miles for the bucks this looked like a good option. Over 2100 miles round trip, actually 2108 miles.

I sent this info home with Penny the next day and talked to Pat a day or two later. He liked the idea but wanted to wait until the fall. He was going to have some eye surgery and wanted to get through that before making a commitment. Besides, the colors might be nice in the fall and the weather should be a little cooler.

Stay tuned for updates.

Did we have any problems? Yes. Would I do it again? Yes. Would I recommend it to someone else? Yes, but… Let me expand each of these.

Did we have problems? It seems that in today’s world, “intercity travel” and “trouble” are almost interchangeable. If you drive you have to contend with construction delays, wrecks, poor road conditions due to weather, and 38 miles to the next restrooms. If you fly you have delayed flights, take your shoes off (not to relax but for security), the 311 rule (containers three ounces or less, in a one quart zip-top bag, one per passenger), arrive two hours early, cramped seating with no legroom, weather delays, rerouting due to weather, and canceled flights. If you take the bus you have most of the problems associated with driving, tight seating with no legroom, and probably some passengers that you might not like to be close to. If you take the train (Amtrak) you often run late, trains usually only run once a day or once every other day along a particular route, additional delays are encountered due to accidents along the route or mechanical breakdowns.

So, would I do it again? You bet! The problems we encountered along the way are common to the other form of commercial intercity travel.
• We traveled over 7100 miles on 7 different trains (turned out to be 6 trains, 1 bus) with planned stops in 6 cities (Chicago twice, once going and once returning). The total cost for transportation was $771.75 and that was for two people (not $771.75 each.) Transportation by air to two or more cities starts getting expensive real quick.
• Cab rides between the stations and the hotels were less than $8.00 most places, $12.00 minimum in New Orleans. Public transportation (some free) was available around the hotels or we could walk to the places of interest. Compare that with airlines. A taxi from the airport to hotels near attractions can easily cost $30 or more in some cities. An alternative is a rental car.
• Amtrak recommends that you arrive 30 minutes before departure times, not 2 hours like the airlines.
• The scenery was great. We traveled along the Pacific coastline in California, through the Rockies and Glacier National Park, and the Pacific Northwest.
• Even riding coach, the ride was comfortable. Someone once said it was like doing 79 mph in your Lazy Boy. (79 mph is the normal speed limit.) We had plenty of legroom. Neither of us had any problems sleeping. The seats recline and they have foot and leg rests. We brought light fleece blankets and Amtrak supplied the pillows. If we got tired of our seats we could go to the observation car in most cases for a different view of the passing countryside. If we wanted to eat we could go to the diner, or to the café area in the lower level of the observation car.

Would I recommend it to someone else? Yes, but… I know. What’s this “but” part all about. Well, you need to know a few things and I have a few suggestions.

First, a little planning info. All of the official stuff you need can be found at www.amtrak.com. You can download system maps, route maps, route guides, and timetables. You can obtain station information (location and services), information for first time riders, hot deals, and train status. You can plan your trip and order your tickets also. Amtrak offers several fare options and often you qualify for one and will receive it without knowing it. Some fares are based on zones. IE: Cincinnati and Chicago are in the same zone. Travel to the west coast from either location and the fare may be the same.

Take a look at the system map and decide where you want to travel to. If you plan right you can easily stop at three locations and return to the point of origin and the extra stops won’t cost anything extra. If you get real creative you can get even more stops but they would often be limited to less than 24 hours.

Now that you have some idea of where you want to go, go to the reservations section of the Amtrak web site. Choose either the Round Trip or the Multi-city option. Enter the stations, the dates, and let Amtrak perform their magic. Don’t worry. You can do all of this without login in or giving any credit card info. Often Amtrak’s web site will offer you several options for travel between cities. For example, Chicago to Seattle.
• Train 7 Chicago to Seattle
• Train 27 Chicago to Spokane, Train 7 Spokane to Seattle (all the same train)
• Train 27 Chicago to Portland, Train 506 or 516 Portland to Seattle
• Train 3 Chicago to Los Angeles, Train 14 LA to Seattle

In this example, all of these options cost the same. Some times one option may cost more than others. Some of the offerings are just the same thing but ticketed differently. The second option of train 27 and then train 7 is actually the same train as the first option. If you just want to enjoy the ride, the forth option would give you the grand tour. Often the default provided on the web site is not the best option, and sometimes not the least expensive. One more warning. If your trip involves a train that is less than daily, the web site may route you on a longer route so that you don’t arrive until the day your connecting train is scheduled to depart. For example, Seattle to Cincinnati involves riding the Cardinal and it leaves Chicago on Tuesday, Thursday, or Saturday. If you leave on a day that would normally put you in Chicago on a day when the Cardinal does not run, Amtrak might route you from Seattle to Sacramento to Chicago to Cincinnati, about 20 hours longer than the direct route. You would spend the extra day on the train touring these United States.

That’s the official stuff. If you really want some additional information you can Google the trains you are interested in. (IE: Amtrak empire builder). Trainweb.com has travelogues that riders have submitted with highlights and places of interest. Trainorders.com is another place to look. You can read some of the articles and comments for free but be aware that some people on that sight like to complain.

A few more things that you should know about. Food on the train is a little expensive but you don’t have a lot of choice. The good thing is that you’re not using a lot of energy and you probably won’t want to eat three good meals a day. We packed a bunch of snacks and picked up a few things (mostly soft drinks because they were much cheaper) at some of the vending machines at some of the station stops. Just don’t expect to stop somewhere and run down the street to McDonalds.

Learn to use the “Train Status” function on the Amtrak web site. Get an idea of the typical arrival time of your selected train at your destination. Like in the financial world, “Past performance is no guarantee of future results.”

Earlier I mentioned derailments. Most derailments are of freight equipment. It can take hours to get equipment in place to correct a small derailment or it may take days to clear a major derailment and repair the tracks. Amtrak is about the safest way to travel. The coaches are heavy and very strong. The couplers between coaches lock together in such a way that if a coach derails and starts to tip over, the couplers usually prevent it from happening. Collisions with motor vehicles or pedestrians, while not usually damaging the train, will cause several hours of delay for police reports and investigations.

Now for that, “Yes, but…” If you need to be somewhere at a particular time, plan carefully. You should expect the trains to be late. They don’t always run late but expect them to be late anyway. Amtrak is at the mercy of the host railroads. Federal law requires these host railroads to expedite the Amtrak trains. Sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn’t. The summer of 2006 was a terrible year for Amtrak. On my 2005 trip we were on time or close to on time most of the time. We encountered some storm damage in Iowa but that could not be avoided. The 2006 trip was late most of the time, once due to Amtrak and three times due to the host railroad. Some trains that were over 80% on time in 2005 often ran 5% or less on time in 2006.

Our trip this year took us through Texas, Arizona, Southern California, and New Mexico. The scenery was mostly dirt, sand, cactus, and weeds. As a rail fan, I wanted to ride the City of New Orleans (trains 58, 59) and the Sunset Limited (trains 1, 2.) If you wanted to take a similar trip I would suggest going from Chicago to Los Angeles on the Southwest Chief (trains 3, 4.) It’s a more northern route going through Kansas City, Albuquerque, and Flagstaff and I’ve been told that the scenery is much nicer. Other nice routes are on the Empire Builder (trains 7, 8, 27, 28) going across the northern states, The California Zephyr (trains 5, 6) through the Sierra Nevada range and the Colorado Rockies, or the Coast Starlight (trains 11, 14) going through the Pacific Northwest, Klamath Falls, and along the Pacific coast line.

When planning an Amtrak trip, plan to enjoy the destination and the transportation.

Amtrak put two agents on the train a La Cross, Wisconsin. They didn’t make any announcement of their presence for several hours. The agents worked with the first class passengers first. That took several hours. I found out about them when as I was talking to Miss Oliver, our coach attendant. I just ask her how would we find out what our options would be when we reached Chicago and she told me that the agents were in the lounge car taking care of passengers right now. This was around 11:00PM. I walked back to where they were and there were a few people in line waiting for service. Some were pretty upset. I didn’t have my tickets with me so I wasn’t completely prepared to talk to them but since there were only a few people there I thought I’d just wait a few minutes and see what they had to offer. The only guy behind me in the line was just wanting to vent on someone so I let him go ahead of me. After all, a few minute didn’t really matter. It would still be two hours or more before we arrived in Chicago. When I talked to the agent he offered me a few options. He knew that Greyhound had a bus departing at 3:00AM that could get me to Cincinnati around 11:00AM. He also mentioned a 7:00AM departure and another one around 11:00AM. He said they would put us up in a hotel for the night with a shuttle to and from the hotel if we wanted to rest for the night.

I went back and checked with Frances. I had a hunch that she just wanted to get home as soon as possible. I was right. I located the tickets for the trip back to Cincinnati and went back to make the arrangements. Amtrak gave me a voucher that I could cash in at the ticket counter at the Chicago station. They gave me $6.00 for cab fair to the Greyhound station. Then they gave me $36.00 for an evening meal for both of us and $104.00 for greyhound tickets. When I got to the station it took me less than five minutes to get through the line and get my money.

Amtrak did the best they could to make a bad situation better. I talked to several passengers that boarded along the way. Amtrak brought food into many of the station where there were large numbers of passengers waiting like at Spokane, Whitefish, and a few others.

I had looked at the timetable when we departed Portage Wisconsin and estimated our arrival in Chicago at 1:30AM. Amtrak had done everything they could to make up time. They announced stations well in advance and ask the passenger that would be departing to move to the door and be ready to detrain before the train arrived at the station. We made a few stops in under a minute. When only one or two people boarded, they put them on the train, closed the door and “highballed.” After the train started moving they found seats for them. The timetable has some buffer time built into it to allow for four or five minutes at a station for boarding and detraining but every time we made up five minutes, it seemed like we lost seven or eight minutes at the next station. We got to one station and one passenger was supposed to detrain. No one got off. The conductor called the passenger by name and after about six minutes they located the guy and put him off the train. He was supposed to be in one coach and had moved to another coach. Amtrak puts all passengers for some stations all in the same coach so that when they stop they only have to let passengers off one coach. They also do it because the platforms at some stations will not accommodate the entire length of the train. When we departed Milwaukee I revised my estimated arrival time to 1:34AM. My time was twenty minutes faster than what the timetable showed. I knew we should be able to make up that much time. I was right. It was 1:34AM plus a few seconds when we stopped at Chicago Union Terminal.

After cashing in the vouchers we made the short walk to the street to wait for a cab. Amtrak had called the cab companies to advise them that there would be several people needing cabs. The cab drivers were trying to pick up the larger groups first. They get an extra dollar per person so were able to pick and choose who got to ride first. Eventually they started picking up couples and singles..

The Greyhound stations seem to be a magnet for homeless, drunks, and bums, especially after dark and this morning was no exception. There were probably ten to fifteen people hanging out in front of the place and another dozen or so scattered around inside the place. I got into line to purchase a ticket. Serge was the only agent on duty and “he no speak too good American.” I ask for two tickets to Cincinnati. He processed everything and said $51.00. I ask, “Is that for two tickets?” After all, Amtrak gave me $104.00 for tickets. He said it was. Then he weighed the “checked” baggage, put a tag on them, and handed them back to me.

Checked baggage on Greyhound means that you carry your bag and sit it beside the bus for the driver to slide or throw into the storage area under the bus. Then when you get to your destination or transfer location, you claim your bags beside the bus and if you are transferring to another bus, you carry your bags to that bus and go through the process again.

Now, back to the tickets. I had two tickets. One ticket for Chicago to Indianapolis and one for Indianapolis to Cincinnati. I looked all over the tickets to see if it said anything about two passengers and I didn’t see anything to indicate the number of passengers. I went back to ask Serge, “Is this one or two passengers?” He assured me that I had tickets for only one passenger. After waiting on the lady in front of me (with a family off to the side) to decide if she wanted to check five bags or eight bags or maybe six bags, no lets make it seven bags, I finally got to purchase another ticket. By the time I got the second ticket the bus was about to board passengers.

The bus was nice and it was clean but it was quite a change from what we were accustomed to on Amtrak. The carry on that fit easily on Amtrak’s overhead rack was a very snug fit on the bus. That wasn’t the only thing that was snug. Sitting upright in my seat placed my knees about one inch from the back of the seat in front of me. A slight slouch to get comfortable and my knees were pushing against the back of that seat. The guy in front of me was going to lay his seat back but decided against it when he looked up and notice that he must have had his head in my lap while he was looking at me. Compare this to the space on Amtrak’s Superliner coaches. When we boarded the first Amtrak Superliner coach in Chicago, Frances had trouble reaching the footrest. If the person in front of you has their seatback as far back as it will go, you have no trouble getting out of your seat. You can even get out with the seatback table down. I thought about trying to type this on the bus but decided I didn’t really have room to open the laptop up enough to read the screen.

The bus was suppose to leave at 3:00AM. At about five minutes after that hour, the driver announced that they were waiting for the State Police to bring six people into the station that were delayed by a wreck somewhere. In about ten minutes we saw a State Police car pull up in front of the terminal and a wrecker behind it. They both let people out that walked over to our bus and got on. Well, fifteen minutes late. Not too bad. We have an hour and twenty minutes layover in Indianapolis before catching our Indianapolis to Cincinnati bus so we should still be OK. The bus is full. The driver ask a few people that were traveling alone to move to let families or couples sit together. People were pretty cooperative and a few quickly volunteered to move. Most were women that probably preferred sitting next to another woman rather that some man they didn’t know. It was nearing 3:30AM By this time everyone was seated and we were ready to go. The guy across the aisle from me had boarded the train in Whitefish, Montana and sat across the aisle from me on the train. I said something to him about not being as late as the train.

A few minutes later the driver boarded, sat in his seat, revved the engine two or three times and got off the bus. “I wonder what that’s all about?” I thought.

A few minutes later the driver boarded again and made an announcement. He said, “There is a problem with the bus and we’re going to see if we can fix it quickly and get on the road.”

I didn’t see any signs of anyone working on anything. They may have been on the other side of the bus or in the rear. I said to the guy across the aisle, “This is how it all started in Seattle. It was supposed to be a two hour fix and it ended up taking nine hours to resolve the problem.” Then I ask him, ”Do you suppose that if we miss our next connection they will reroute us on Amtrak?”

Around 4:00AM the driver announced that, “You aint going to like this but we’re going to have to change busses.” He gave us instructions to check our seat number and to take the same seats on the new bus.

The new bus arrived around 4:15AM. We left Chicago at 4:33AM.

Frances and I sat around mid-bus. Behind us was a group of African-American males, all probably around twenty years old. They were loud and their conversations were “MF this” and “MF that.” One was talking about just getting out of jail accused of auto theft. Another was talking about dealing drugs. Fortunately the driver announced as we left the downtown area that this was a night trip. He ask the passengers to keep the noise down and he turned the lights off. A few minutes after that the conversations stopped.

We arrived in Indianapolis after the departure time of the Cincinnati bus but Greyhound knew there were several connecting passengers coming in on the Chicago bus so they held up several connecting busses, including ours. We got off the bus, picked up our “checked” baggage. We walked into the terminal and got in line for the bus that was right beside our bus. Carried our “checked” baggage to that bus and boarded.

The Indy to Cincy bus was another exciting ride. It wasn’t quite as full. There was some guy several seats behind us that ran his mouth the whole time. He was on the bus from Chicago also but only because that bus left late. He was too drunk to ride at 3:00AM. The delay allowed him to sober up enough for Greyhound to let him ride. He was loud and obnoxious and the entire conversation was suitable only for a bar room.

Finally we arrived in Cincinnati. Jarred and Melissa had called about two minutes before and said they were having trouble finding the station. I saw my friend that boarded in Whitefish and said good-by to him and wished him luck with the rest of the trip. We both agreed that the accommodations and the people were much better aboard the train. He was going to Virginia and had six or eight more hours on the bus.

As we walked out of the station, Melissa and Jarred were pulling into of the lot. We loaded up our baggage and after about ten or fifteen minutes we were at their apartment. We were for the most part “Home again.”

We had lunch with Jarred and Melissa and went back to their apartment. I took a nice long nap. A storm came through late that afternoon and woke me up. "After the rain quit we loaded the truck up and drove home. We arrived at the house at 12:10AM

The restrooms in the coach behind us are working now. A mechanic boarded in St Paul and did some magic. Still having troubles with the ones on our coach and I don’t know about the air conditioner on the sleeper.

There are RUMORS going around about what’s going to happen when we get to Chicago. All connecting trains will be long gone. There’s word that they will put us all up in hotels and let us catch our connections tomorrow. That will work for most people but the train we have to catch doesn’t run again until Saturday. We are going to arrive in Chicago on Friday. They may put us on busses.

Mid morning today the vacuum system that make the restroom facilities work failed on our coach. That’s not a major problem. There are four or five other coaches on the train and we just have to walk to the next coach to take care of business. Things got a little worse this afternoon. The restrooms in the coach behind us broke down also. The good news for us is they shut the restrooms in our coach as soon as there was a problem. In the coach behind us they apparently didn’t catch the problem so quickly. The coach smells like a restroom. Most of the people have evacuated the area. So, now we have to go through that coach, through the observation car, through a sleeper, and then to the restroom. Oh, by the way, that sleeper has a problem also. The air conditioner on one end has broken down. I guess the old saying “When it rains, it pours” is true for this train..

We are about to pull into the Minneapolis-St. Paul station. They are supposed to have a maintenance crew meet the train to try and resolve the restroom problem in the coach behind us. They are also picking up another sleeper. I don’t know if they are going to move passengers from the sleeper with the air conditioning problem to that sleeper or if that sleeper was full of passengers boarding in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

7/20 5:30

The adventure continues.....

Here’s something else to think about in this situation. Train 7 was a few minutes ahead of schedule. It had time to make the reverse move after we cleared the station and it still would have been on time.

Right now I’m wondering what we’re going to do when we arrive in Chicago. The train could make up another hour or so between now and then but even if it does, we still arrive there after midnight. Our connecting train to Cincinnati is scheduled to depart at 7:45PM. Often that train is held up to wait for connecting trains from the west. I know that it has been held over two hours on occasions but I don’t know how long they will hold it. Amtrak schedules all of its western trains to arrive in Chicago in the afternoon and the eastern trains depart between 5:00 and 8:00PM. If we miss the connections, our train does not run again for two days. There is a bus service that Amtrak provides on days when that train does not run. On those days Amtrak does run the train to Indianapolis. We will have another crew change before we get to Chicago and that crew should be able to give us some idea of what our options are.

We arrived in Spokane at 10:00AM. It’s a stop where they service the train and connect to train 28 that came in from Portland. I’m sure those passengers were surprised to arrive at 12:28AM and find that they were going to have to wait for our part of the train to catch up. Spokane is a forty-three minute scheduled stop. We got rolling after thirty-five minutes this time.

This is a rare treat for some people that ride this train often. They are going through areas in the daylight that they normal pass through in the dark. Looking ahead at the schedule, we should have daylight for the most scenic part of the trip through the western parts of Montana.

We got back to the hotel and when we went to pick up our luggage, they couldn’t find it. It took them several minutes but eventually they came up with it. The room they normally use to store luggage was full and our stuff went to the overflow room. We were ready to go and we got the hotel shuttle to take us to the station. We arrived about 90 minutes early. We didn’t have anything else to do anyway. The train was scheduled to depart at 4:45PM. I was a bit surprised to find that it wasn’t at the station when we got there but, sometimes they keep a track clear for other trains to pass through the station. The King Street Station serves several “Amtrak Cascades” trains and the “Sounder” trains. Well, around 4:00PM I saw the locomotive come around a curve about four or five hundred yards from the station and stop. Again, nothing unusual here. It may have been waiting for another train to come through the station or it could have been waiting for warrants (track usage authorization) from the dispatcher. It’s 9:15PM and we’re still in the station.

It’s hard to get exact details on the problem but as they announced, there was a problem with one of the wheels and they had to replace it. They didn’t have any extra coaches in Seattle and the train was booked almost to capacity so they had to fix the problem. First estimates were three hours delay. Then we got word that while they were moving it through the yard to the rip track (track where they performed the repairs) the thing derailed and they drug it a couple hundred feet before they realized the wheel was off the track. Those locomotives have so much power that they don’t even notice a wheel or two off the rails. In the process, they bent some other stuff on the truck (the assembly with the wheels, springs, breaks, etc...) Now they are telling us we might be able to leave around 10:30PM, if nothing else goes wrong.

On the positive side, the weather was somewhat warmer today. It was a little cool in the shade when there was a strong breeze. Temperatures today were in the mid 70’s. The forecast is for 90’s by the weekend.

Frances has a book to read on the train. She read some last night and has been reading it while we wait. She’s about half way through it now.

Check back later for updates.

We went to the Pike Place Market. It’s one of the places you often see in pictures of Seattle. They sell lots of fresh fruits and veggies there along with fresh fish. Just follow your nose and you can find the fish vendors. One fish shop puts on a show for the visitors. They let people hold the fish while friends or family take pictures. Then when someone chooses a fish to buy, they toss it to they guys behind the counter to fillet and wrap it. We walked through the place and then went into the retail center of town to find something warm. Later we decided to go to the Seattle Aquarium. We figured that it would be inside and warm. Parts of it were outside and they were doing some construction on another part and had some large doors open. It wasn’t but a few degrees warmer than outside but at least the wind wasn’t quite as bad.

We headed back to the hotel, ready to crash. See you tomorrow when we board the Empire Builder.

Frances and I had a breakfast from the café car. She started reading and I started typing this. She didn’t read for too long before her head started bobbing, her eyelids got heavy, and her bookmark was sliding all over the page.

We are north of Dunsmuir California, near Mt. Shasta. We just passed through a section of pine forest that looks like it has recently seen some harvesting. A lot of trees have been cut down but they left a lot still standing. You could smell the pine as we went through that area. Earlier we passed an area where a forest fire had damaged several trees. The undergrowth and the lower portions of most trees were black. The fire had not reached the crown of the trees.

I put the laptop away for awhile. We had a scheduled stop at Klamath Falls. We had an unscheduled stop for 25 minutes about a mile before Klamath Falls. Klamath falls is a crew change location for both Union Pacific and Amtrak. The Union Pacific had a freight at the station on the track we were to be on. They were making their crew change and they were in no hurry to get out of the way. When we finally got to the station, Frances and I got off to stretch our legs a bit, use a land based restroom, and buy a softdrink. We departed Klamath Falls either three hours late or three hours and forty-five minutes late, depending on whether you use the old printed timetable or the unprinted temporary “everything is forty-five minutes earlier” timetable. At this time, the old timetable makes things look slightly better.

Before and after Klamath Falls we went through a flat valley with some agriculture but it was nothing like what we saw in California between L.A. and San Francisco. We rode along the shore of Upper Klamath Lake for about fifteen minutes. There was a snow capped mountain in the background, I think it was Mount Harriman.

We left the shores of the lake and began to climb into the mountains. There were some more pine forest. Again we could tell where there had been a small fire in one area and a small area where some trees had been harvested. The harvesting had probably taken place several months ago. The undergrowth had grown to three or four feet all over that area. Further up the mountain we came along side a creek or river with some rafters and several fishermen. As we climbed further up the mountain we could look down on that river and see a few small waterfalls down in the rocky canyon below.

Frances and I went to the observation car for a few hours. The best view was on the east side of the train but all the seats on that side were taken. We sat on the other side and mostly watched a hillside go buy. We kept an eye open for two seats together to free up on the other side and eventually we were able to move to that side, but by the time that happened we had passed the best views.

I heard on the scanner that the conductor had a problem passenger onboard. Actually there were three of them. The lady and her two children were supposed to detrain at Chemult, Oregon but they watched over forty other passengers detrain while they just stayed on the train. The conductor didn’t find them at their seats and assumed that they were off the train. I heard her talking to someone in the observation car later. Her husband was supposed to meet her at the station. She had no way to call him. The train was nearly four hours late at that station to begin with. The next stop would be three hours and one hundred twenty-nine miles later at Eugene Oregon. The fortunate thing for this lady was that the southbound train would be coming through that station just a few minutes after we departed. She was already seven hours late and she was going to be another three hours before she could meet her husband and that poor guy hasn’t heard a thing from the lady. He watched her train come into the station and depart and she never got off the train. Tonight might be the time when the “Till death do us part” clause goes into effect.

We arrived in Portland at 7:55PM for a thirty-five minute scheduled stop. We departed eleven minutes later. We were still four hours late but at least we had made up some time. It didn’t really help much. Our next stop was Vancouver, twenty-three minutes away. It took us forty-three minutes to get to Vancouver. There was a freight train blocking our path to the station. When we got there the actual detraining and boarding process took about two minutes and then we had to wait another twenty-three minutes before the dispatcher allowed us to depart. We lost all the time we made up in Portland and then some. We just left the Kelso-Longview station and we are again about four and three-quarters hours late. Our 8:30 PM scheduled arrival in Seattle is looking more like 1:00AM. Bad, but not unexpected and not as late some of the arrivals in the last month.

We started our journey for the day by walking across the street and catching the “Emery-Go-Round.” It’s a free shuttle that will take us to the BART terminal. A trip to the ticket vending machine and about a five minute wait and we were on our way to San Francisco. When we arrived at the surface at San Francisco we walked around for a few minutes to get our bearings. Frances spotted a bookstore and wanted to pickup something to read if the scenery turns bad on the rest of our trip. We made our way to Grant Street and headed toward Chinatown.

Melissa wanted us to look for a knockoff purse while we were in Chinatown. It didn’t take long to find some. The second place we went to had one of the brands she was wanting. We tried to call her to see exactly what she wanted but she was on the phone. We walked down the street while waiting for her to call back and found a place that had both of the brands. Called her back and talked about what they had and we picked out something. Hope she likes it. We strolled through the rest of Chinatown and then about a half mile to “Fisherman’s Warf.” We looked at all of the tourist things. I was surprised to see that most of the sea lions were “gone for the season.” Last year we saw a hundred or more and this year we saw one swimming and three on the floating docks. There was a sign saying that they leave in early June for their mating season and only a few non-mating or male sea lions stay during this time of the year.

We saw some of the same street performers that we saw last year and most of them in the same places. The “Bushman” was still there, hiding behind his bushes and scaring folks as they walk past. We picked up a few souvenirs and got in line for the cable cars. The line was a little over an hour long. Seemed like the temperature dropped several degrees while we were waiting in line. It’s nothing real exciting but if you go to San Francisco you probably ought to take the ride. The cost went up from $3.00 last year to $5.00 this year. We were able to ride the rear platform and we got some really great views from that vantage point.

The cable car terminated a half block from the BART station. We were about ready to head back. We were a little tired and Frances wanted to get somewhere out of the cold and the wind.

I’m sitting in the Amtrak station at Emeryville now. We got here about an hour before the scheduled arrival of our train but we knew it was running late. I had checked it’s ETA on my phone. It always runs late. The questions is “How late?” Right now it’s 1 hour and 9 minutes and it may become even later before it arrives here. I’m looking forward to a scenic trip tomorrow but I’m really concerned about our arrival time in Seattle. Three or four hours late won’t bother us too much since it’s supposed to arrive at 8:30PM anyway, too late to do anything when you get there. I just hope it’s not eight or ten hours late like it has been on some trips. Since we’re traveling on the weekend, maybe the Union Pacific won’t be blocking the tracks for track work. Then again, they might be doing the really heavy stuff since the number of freights going through the area on a weekend are less.

You always see some characters when traveling. While waiting for our train a lady walks in guiding her male friend. He is blindfolded, and later I found that he had earplugs. He had a sign hanging on the front of his jacket that said something like:

Shhhh! It’s my birthday. I don’t know where I am or where I’m going.”

His wife said that he was from Seattle but they were going to Portland for a few days. Hi had figured out that they were at a train station but didn’t know where they were going. He was assuming they would be catching a CalTrain to somewhere else in California. She finally let him take off the blindfold and the ear plugs since the wait was so long but he didn’t know where they were going until they boarded the train.

It’s 10:42PM and things just got worse. The train is at the Jack London station in Oakland. That’s the good news. That puts the train just eight minutes from our station. The bad news is the host railroad has had an accident and a HazMat team has to be called out to access the situation to determine if it’s safe for our train, or any train for that matter, to go through the area. After about 45 minutes we get word that HazMat has determined it safe for passage.

The station agent announces that another train, the California Zephyr is about fifteen minutes from arriving. The Zephyr, which usually operates pretty close to schedule, is running over six hours late this day. They may bring the Zephyr in first and let those passengers detrain before they bring our train into the station or they may bring our train in first. There are two tracks at this station but when they use track two, passengers have to cross track one. It becomes an unsafe condition when 2 trains are involved. The Zephyr arrives on track two first but stops so that the passenger coaches are short of the platform. The Red Caps can start unloading the baggage car but the passengers must stay on board. About five minutes later our train pulls in on track one, the near track, and slightly past the station. As our train stops, the Zephyr pulls ahead so that it’s passengers can detrain and walk behind our train to get to the station.

11:056PM and we are on the road, one hour and forty-four minutes behind the original schedule, or two hours and twenty-nine minutes behind the modified schedule. The conductor said they had made pretty good time until the last hundred miles or so.

Boarding a train in L.A. is more like boarding an airplane than any other place we’ve been. They actually wanted to see a photo ID. We didn’t have to go through metal detectors or take off our shoes or anything like that. One thing that really surprised me was the steps we had to go up to get to our train. Everyone had to go up about 30 steps with their luggage in tow, just to get to the train. There was a ramp you could take but it was out of the way and put you about 50 yards or more from where you needed to be to board your coach.

As soon as the coach attendant had taken our tickets, we moved to the observation car. We were luck to find two seats together on the left side of the train. The left side was the ocean side of the train. After a few stops, a group of guides from the “Rails to Trails” program boarded. Those guys were great. They really made the trip interesting. It was a beautiful ride and Frances said that this was much better than the other train (The Sunset Limited.) The train goes along the coast for a few hours. We saw beaches, kelp farms, oil drilling rigs, sea birds, and some expensive property. We went through Vandenberg Air Force Base and saw an Atlas missile sites, a Nike missile site, and other parts of the base that most people don’t have access to unless they ride through here on a train. There was a stretch of over 35 miles that has no other public access to view the beach other than on train.

As we continued northward we went through miles of farm land. The only excitement along the way was when the train went into emergency. The conductor announced that someone had put a bike on the track and the train hit it. While we were stopped a wine-o walked along side the train, drinking something from a paper bag (Rule G in railroad terms) and waved at us. I listened on the scanner while we were stopped. The engineer reported to the dispatcher that he had hit “A pile of metal stuff.” As the “stuff” bounced around under the train it broke the brake line in three places. The conductors walked the train and reconnected them. While they were doing that the engineer reported to the dispatcher that there was a bunch of hobo’s on the side of the track where the junk was piled up and he ask that the police be dispatched to clear them out.

As evening arrived the observation coach became the movie theater. This evening “The Pink Panther” was showing. We watched most of it but we had to get ready to detrain before the end of the movie.

We arrived in Emeryville about an hour late, not too bad for this train if you look at it’s recent record. A two block walk to our hotel and we’re ready for a night of ZZZZZ’s

We’re staying the Millennium Biltmore in downtown Los Angeles. It’s an older hotel but it’s very nice. Frances ask me what I paid for this place. She was surprised when I told her it was $103 per night. She thought it was quite a bit more. I think they have 5 restaurants in the place.

We sort of had a choice of taking a bus tour of the area or taking a tour on our own. We chose the latter. The Concierge suggested we walk to the Metro station about a block away, get a $3.00 day pass, and take the red line to Hollywood. He also gave us directions to take a bus to Beverly Hills and then get back to the hotel.

We were sort of disappointed in Hollywood. There is an area of about 2 blocks that are nice but the rest of the “Hollywood Entertainment District” is mostly tourist traps. You can buy maps to see where all of the stars live or you can walk a block further and find some ladies’ undergarments. It was interesting to walk the walk and look at the names on the stars. Britney Spears and other “pop” artist have theirs but I enjoyed seeing some or the really classic names. Names like Red Skelton, Bob Hope, and others.

Our next stop was Beverly Hills. No sleaze there. Nothing in our price range either. A few places had visible security in the front of the store. Several limos, lots of expensive cars, and the occasional lady with her dog and the diamond collar.

Back to the hotel but first a short trip to the Macy’s Center. It was a few blocks from our hotel. Frances wanted a book to read on the train. Then, something cold to drink and back to the room. Tomorrow we head up the coast to Emeryville (Oakland.)