AUNTIE C's ADVENTURE JUNE 2015
(these first bits will appear in each post -- scoll down to get to the new stuff)
ORL to WAS = Orlando, Fla., to Washington, D.C., on Silver Meteor 98; sleeper car roomette -- "Auntie C "begins her grand tour
WAS to CHI = Washington to Chicago, Ill., on Capitol Limited 29; sleeper car roomette -- "Auntie C gains perspective"
CHI to PDX = Chicago to Portland, Ore., on Empire Builder 27; sleeper car roomette -- "Auntie C beholds the Empire"
PDX to EUG = Portland to Eugene, Ore, on Coast Starlight 11 coach seat -- "Auntie C arrives at her destination"
return trip
EUG to SAC = Eugene to Sacramento, Calif., on Coast Starlight 11; sleeper car roomettte
SAC to CHI = Sacramento to Chicago on California Zaphyr 6; sleeper car roomette
CHI to WAS = Chicago to Washington on Capitol Limited 30; sleeper car bedroom
WAS to ORL = Washington to Orlando on Silver Meteor 97; sleeper car roomette
I'll not mention cars or rooms until after I've completed that leg of the trip. Nor do I intend to give the full names of Amtrak crew members -- the nametags state first initial and last name, but they tend to introduce themselves by first name.
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
I picked these up from other trip reports, and will post atop each of mine to remind myself what terms I should use, adding as I learn more. (Then I'll forget and fail to use them.)
LSA-D lead service attendant - diner
TA-SC train attendant - sleeper car
TA-C train atendant - coach
waiter - other service attendants in diner car, as I'm not sure what the official name might be (I will probably end up calling most all diner staff something else, as I did not notice nametags on either attendant during the first leg of my trip -- likely under the aprons.) Non-gender specific.
Red Cap staff member at stations who helps travelers get to and from trains, the club lounges and, I assume, the outside world. Non-gender specific.
INTRODUCTION
I am a 45-year-old Floridian visiting relatives in Oregon after about five years with little contact and no other big vacations. I'm introverted, so comments about struggling to chat with other passengers should be viewed as my own hangup, not any character flaws on their parts.
I've taken two-plus weeks off work for this, my first Amtrak rail journey, to attend a life event for my niece -- hence my chosen moniker for this forum.
I trust the more knowledgeable members of Amtrak Unlimited will correct any errors I make in describing particuars of the trains, stations or other aspects of rail travel. Thanks in advance, and while I won't take such corrections personally, I also won't likely thank you individually.
My primary audience for this are my parents. Dad's a steam train enthusiast in theory, but as Mom doesn't travel well, they don't take vacations, either. I hope my descriptions help them travel vicariously with me to visit their only grandchild a continent away.
I do not intend to post photos, mostly as I can't figure out how to downsize the images my iPad takes with its cracked screen.
I'll slug all my posts with "Auntie C" this or that, for ease of finding (or avoiding) them.
FORMAT
I'm compiling these trip reports from emails I send to a handful of kith and kin, taking out the duller bits (I hope). For the first leg, I started typing while on the Silver Meteor, so real-time intrusions into the narrative are separated by ellipses and perhaps time signatures. If I continue to type as I go, this format might persist. It makes sense to me, an you are welcome to stop reading if it does not appeal to you.
My Bluetooth keyboard, as I discovered in my first email, tends to double some characters. I doubt I'll be diligent in proofing, so please forgive typos.
return LEG 1: EUG to SAC, June 10 to 11, 2015, Coast Starlight 11, Roomette 4
EVERYTHING'S ROSIE
4:19 p.m. PST, Friday, June 10, just checked two bags, carrying one plus travel pillow and purse, learned the train runs slightly late: due now to depart 5:35 p.m. rather than 5:10.
In the Eugene station, a woman with a Rosie the Riveter T-shirt, red scarf with white polka-dots and a cap labeled "ROSIE" takes photos with similarly clad friends, one with a cap stating "ROSIE-BUD" -- how cool is that! I'm going to be riding a train with a World War II worker-woman! (And yes, I have now used up my allotment of exclamation points, though I reserve the right to pull out an emergency backup if something even niftier happens during this leg of my adventure.) I hope she's on a sleeper car, but I doubt I'll introduce myself and ask.
Following a successful visit with relatives (so successful, I have not yet had time to check my prior posts for comments), I begin my return trip to Florida via a different route. As the introductory text for this trip report states, I briefly rode the Coast Starlight south from Portland to Eugene, Oregon, last week, experiencing coach. Now it's sleepers all the way back. I'm sure entire threads on the AU forum are devoted to the special Parlour car available only with the Coast Starlight. I hope to take a meal there, so there will probably be a subsection of this report devoted to it.
It took me a good three nights on solid ground to lose the slight vertigo after arriving -- I kept thinking the spacious twin bed was swaying a bit. Eugene is beautiful, with so many things blooming or fruiting at this time of year. (I am fortunate not to suffer from allergies.)
I do not see the Eugene station volunteer today -- perhaps he takes a day off sometimes. No wifi in the station, but not much need of it.
4:43 p.m., a freight train rumbles slowly past the station, horn tooting, hauling cars loaded with lumber -- it looks like 2x4s to my untrained eye, some maybe 20 feet long others more. Some are wrapped in tarps stating the lumber company is based in Coos Bay, Oregon. A few empty cars in the middle of the, um, consist (apologies if I keep getting the term wrong) will let me identify their function should I see them again. More trandtional freight cars break up the lumber cars -- oooh, one with a nicely rendered graffiti rocketship.
4:52 p.m. had I been 6 and sitting at a railroad crossing with my dad, I would have counted all the cars. Nine minutes at a slow rate of speed makes me think there were at least 100.
5:50 p.m. seated in Roomette 4, another couple who boarded at Eugene settling into No. 3 across the corridor. They'll have the coastal view as we head south. I seem to be in the carclosest to the parlour/diner/sightseer cars.
The station attendants announced the train was soon to arrive and started lining up coach passengers at 5:30 p.m. down the sunny pavement. Sleeper-car passengers got to stand in the shade outside the station. At 5:40, I hear the train's horn.
My train attendant - sleeper car is Linda, her nametag states. She brought my ssuitcase up the stairs for me and, of course, knew the most convenient place to stow it. This Superliner car has the 5-inch-wide closet with a door, so I am glad I did not bring two carry-on suitcases.
5:56 p.m., the train begins moving. 6 p.m., Linda handed out slips of paper with our dining car reservations: 6 for me, 6:30 for the couple. here I go...
CLIMBING THE CASCADES
7:22 p,m. PST, still ascending through the Cascade Mountains as the sun sets -- or the mountains shade it out, I suppose.
I dined with a couple married 61 years, traveling to a granddaughter's high school graduation, and another single traveler who proved very knowledgeable about Amtrak.
... 7:26 p.m. waterfall, small but surprising, in a nook on my eastern side of the train, then a short tunnel. Most of my view seems to be steep sloes with fir trees and ferns among the rocks. ...
Seating ran slightly late for later diners, but we were seated promptly. Dining car attendant Andrew served us and several other tables. He brought out the ice cream with the plastic topper already peeled away, and the lids propped on the side of the tub by the tiny plastic spoon, all in an Amtrak bowl -- nice presentation! TA-SC Linda helped out as she passed through the car, deliveringg rolls to one table, later busing another.
I think I will enjoy the view before an early bedtime. Traveling eastward now, I need to get back on East Coast time, or I'll risk being late to work upon my return.
DOES THE SUN SET IN THE WEST?
8:12 p.m., as the dining car calls people on thw waiting list for meals, I reflect upon the above section heading. This was a question I wrote in gradeschool for a vocbulary lesson -- use each word in a sentence.
An aide for the class, a lovely older lady whose name I've long since forgotten, though I was so precocious and profound for posing this question.
She imagined poetry. I truly did not know.
As we heead south from Oregon into California as I know we must, I am thusly baffled: Why am I getting rays of the setting sun in my windows? I thought I ws on the eastern side of the train -- the left side as it points south. The sun is to the read of the train, yet occasionally through breaks in the mountains it shines on the front wall of my roomette.
Argh. I need a pencil and paper. Does the train run northeast through the mountains? If I had wifi, I would hunt up a map. Although I am steps away from the parlour car's promised wifi, I cannot pick up its signal -- the metaal body of the trail cars likely impedes reception.
I trust someone with better directional sense than I will clarify my observations.
8:21 p.m., traveling alongside a lake. Just after dinner, I attempted to record some video out the window for my non-traveling parents to view when I return home. I managed to hit a span of track with many tunnels.
I hope they like long moments of darkness, with me babbling away about how I can't see anything either. I might have succeeded in a selfie as I finally turned the camera through the roomette -- that, or they'll see my forehead or chin bouncing along with the movement of the train.
TA-SC Linda set up my bed and promised to wake me half an hour before we's due to pull into Sacramento. The train stopes there until 6:30 a.m., she said, but often arrives long before.
Good thing I'm sleepy already.
Whichever restroom of the three downstairs I used to brush my teeth after dinner seemed somehow roomier. The sink/counter and trash were catty-corner to each other and the toilet seat angled between, allowing more room to maneuver. I peeking in at the shower: another layout, with glass door. Doubt I'll be awake enough to try it before disembarking.
5:56 a.m. PST Thursday, June 11
Woke about 5:30 on my own, sun already rising over distant mountains as we move through flat fields.
TA-SC Linda scrambled to clear mattresses from four or more roomettes, as some passengers leave in Sacramento, others join the train to go further south. She kept us all informed of our ETA. She encouraged everyone to get coffee or juice from the small station by the stairs in this car. I noted a tray with oranges, too. Tempting, as I don't think we get breakfast on the train, bbut I'm not awake enough to be hungry.
PASSING THE PARLOUR
I walked through the Parlour car to reach the dining car last night: individual swivel seats in the fron half of the upper level,, a small table with inset lids hinting at a buffet across the the stairs, then perhaps eight booths with tables able to seat four guests. A counter pushes the walkway over to one side, past the kitchen area. One steps down to get into the car, up to exit it.
It looked nice enough, and the special macaroni and cheese on its dinnner menu, I saw in passing, is served with the standard vegetable medley of carrots, green beans, squash and corn.
After brushing my teeth in a different unit this morning, I realize all the toilets are configured the same. (This is the layout I first encountered on a Suerliner riding the Capitol Limited last week, I just didn't know to appreciate it then.)
HELLO, SACRAMENTO
6:38 a.m., sitting in the section of Sacramento station reserved for sleeper-car passengers, comfy chairs and couches separated from the wooden benches of the rest of the station by room dividers, information posters and potted trees.
As alerted in another trip report (by KmH, maybe?), I knew it was a hike from the train platforms to the station. I chose to walk it, following a long ramp down to the underpass under my train, up to a wide concrete path with nicely labeled landscaping (I think the sign for English lavender was out of place, though), across another set of tracks from whhat I assume is the local transit, past the bus lane and into the station.
I'm nnot sure if it is still under construction, or if the steel beams of the scaffolding, lit with yellow-caged worklights, are some postmodern architectural statement.
At least there's wifi.
I might take advantage of a Red Cap's multi-person golf cart to get back out to the trains for my next leg. The temperature outside was warmer than Oregon but not yet scorching, with more humidity.
No amenities as in other lounge areas, so I'll dig out a meal bar for breakfast from my travel supply.
(these first bits will appear in each post -- scoll down to get to the new stuff)
ORL to WAS = Orlando, Fla., to Washington, D.C., on Silver Meteor 98; sleeper car roomette -- "Auntie C "begins her grand tour
WAS to CHI = Washington to Chicago, Ill., on Capitol Limited 29; sleeper car roomette -- "Auntie C gains perspective"
CHI to PDX = Chicago to Portland, Ore., on Empire Builder 27; sleeper car roomette -- "Auntie C beholds the Empire"
PDX to EUG = Portland to Eugene, Ore, on Coast Starlight 11 coach seat -- "Auntie C arrives at her destination"
return trip
EUG to SAC = Eugene to Sacramento, Calif., on Coast Starlight 11; sleeper car roomettte
SAC to CHI = Sacramento to Chicago on California Zaphyr 6; sleeper car roomette
CHI to WAS = Chicago to Washington on Capitol Limited 30; sleeper car bedroom
WAS to ORL = Washington to Orlando on Silver Meteor 97; sleeper car roomette
I'll not mention cars or rooms until after I've completed that leg of the trip. Nor do I intend to give the full names of Amtrak crew members -- the nametags state first initial and last name, but they tend to introduce themselves by first name.
GLOSSARY OF TERMS
I picked these up from other trip reports, and will post atop each of mine to remind myself what terms I should use, adding as I learn more. (Then I'll forget and fail to use them.)
LSA-D lead service attendant - diner
TA-SC train attendant - sleeper car
TA-C train atendant - coach
waiter - other service attendants in diner car, as I'm not sure what the official name might be (I will probably end up calling most all diner staff something else, as I did not notice nametags on either attendant during the first leg of my trip -- likely under the aprons.) Non-gender specific.
Red Cap staff member at stations who helps travelers get to and from trains, the club lounges and, I assume, the outside world. Non-gender specific.
INTRODUCTION
I am a 45-year-old Floridian visiting relatives in Oregon after about five years with little contact and no other big vacations. I'm introverted, so comments about struggling to chat with other passengers should be viewed as my own hangup, not any character flaws on their parts.
I've taken two-plus weeks off work for this, my first Amtrak rail journey, to attend a life event for my niece -- hence my chosen moniker for this forum.
I trust the more knowledgeable members of Amtrak Unlimited will correct any errors I make in describing particuars of the trains, stations or other aspects of rail travel. Thanks in advance, and while I won't take such corrections personally, I also won't likely thank you individually.
My primary audience for this are my parents. Dad's a steam train enthusiast in theory, but as Mom doesn't travel well, they don't take vacations, either. I hope my descriptions help them travel vicariously with me to visit their only grandchild a continent away.
I do not intend to post photos, mostly as I can't figure out how to downsize the images my iPad takes with its cracked screen.
I'll slug all my posts with "Auntie C" this or that, for ease of finding (or avoiding) them.
FORMAT
I'm compiling these trip reports from emails I send to a handful of kith and kin, taking out the duller bits (I hope). For the first leg, I started typing while on the Silver Meteor, so real-time intrusions into the narrative are separated by ellipses and perhaps time signatures. If I continue to type as I go, this format might persist. It makes sense to me, an you are welcome to stop reading if it does not appeal to you.
My Bluetooth keyboard, as I discovered in my first email, tends to double some characters. I doubt I'll be diligent in proofing, so please forgive typos.
return LEG 1: EUG to SAC, June 10 to 11, 2015, Coast Starlight 11, Roomette 4
EVERYTHING'S ROSIE
4:19 p.m. PST, Friday, June 10, just checked two bags, carrying one plus travel pillow and purse, learned the train runs slightly late: due now to depart 5:35 p.m. rather than 5:10.
In the Eugene station, a woman with a Rosie the Riveter T-shirt, red scarf with white polka-dots and a cap labeled "ROSIE" takes photos with similarly clad friends, one with a cap stating "ROSIE-BUD" -- how cool is that! I'm going to be riding a train with a World War II worker-woman! (And yes, I have now used up my allotment of exclamation points, though I reserve the right to pull out an emergency backup if something even niftier happens during this leg of my adventure.) I hope she's on a sleeper car, but I doubt I'll introduce myself and ask.
Following a successful visit with relatives (so successful, I have not yet had time to check my prior posts for comments), I begin my return trip to Florida via a different route. As the introductory text for this trip report states, I briefly rode the Coast Starlight south from Portland to Eugene, Oregon, last week, experiencing coach. Now it's sleepers all the way back. I'm sure entire threads on the AU forum are devoted to the special Parlour car available only with the Coast Starlight. I hope to take a meal there, so there will probably be a subsection of this report devoted to it.
It took me a good three nights on solid ground to lose the slight vertigo after arriving -- I kept thinking the spacious twin bed was swaying a bit. Eugene is beautiful, with so many things blooming or fruiting at this time of year. (I am fortunate not to suffer from allergies.)
I do not see the Eugene station volunteer today -- perhaps he takes a day off sometimes. No wifi in the station, but not much need of it.
4:43 p.m., a freight train rumbles slowly past the station, horn tooting, hauling cars loaded with lumber -- it looks like 2x4s to my untrained eye, some maybe 20 feet long others more. Some are wrapped in tarps stating the lumber company is based in Coos Bay, Oregon. A few empty cars in the middle of the, um, consist (apologies if I keep getting the term wrong) will let me identify their function should I see them again. More trandtional freight cars break up the lumber cars -- oooh, one with a nicely rendered graffiti rocketship.
4:52 p.m. had I been 6 and sitting at a railroad crossing with my dad, I would have counted all the cars. Nine minutes at a slow rate of speed makes me think there were at least 100.
5:50 p.m. seated in Roomette 4, another couple who boarded at Eugene settling into No. 3 across the corridor. They'll have the coastal view as we head south. I seem to be in the carclosest to the parlour/diner/sightseer cars.
The station attendants announced the train was soon to arrive and started lining up coach passengers at 5:30 p.m. down the sunny pavement. Sleeper-car passengers got to stand in the shade outside the station. At 5:40, I hear the train's horn.
My train attendant - sleeper car is Linda, her nametag states. She brought my ssuitcase up the stairs for me and, of course, knew the most convenient place to stow it. This Superliner car has the 5-inch-wide closet with a door, so I am glad I did not bring two carry-on suitcases.
5:56 p.m., the train begins moving. 6 p.m., Linda handed out slips of paper with our dining car reservations: 6 for me, 6:30 for the couple. here I go...
CLIMBING THE CASCADES
7:22 p,m. PST, still ascending through the Cascade Mountains as the sun sets -- or the mountains shade it out, I suppose.
I dined with a couple married 61 years, traveling to a granddaughter's high school graduation, and another single traveler who proved very knowledgeable about Amtrak.
... 7:26 p.m. waterfall, small but surprising, in a nook on my eastern side of the train, then a short tunnel. Most of my view seems to be steep sloes with fir trees and ferns among the rocks. ...
Seating ran slightly late for later diners, but we were seated promptly. Dining car attendant Andrew served us and several other tables. He brought out the ice cream with the plastic topper already peeled away, and the lids propped on the side of the tub by the tiny plastic spoon, all in an Amtrak bowl -- nice presentation! TA-SC Linda helped out as she passed through the car, deliveringg rolls to one table, later busing another.
I think I will enjoy the view before an early bedtime. Traveling eastward now, I need to get back on East Coast time, or I'll risk being late to work upon my return.
DOES THE SUN SET IN THE WEST?
8:12 p.m., as the dining car calls people on thw waiting list for meals, I reflect upon the above section heading. This was a question I wrote in gradeschool for a vocbulary lesson -- use each word in a sentence.
An aide for the class, a lovely older lady whose name I've long since forgotten, though I was so precocious and profound for posing this question.
She imagined poetry. I truly did not know.
As we heead south from Oregon into California as I know we must, I am thusly baffled: Why am I getting rays of the setting sun in my windows? I thought I ws on the eastern side of the train -- the left side as it points south. The sun is to the read of the train, yet occasionally through breaks in the mountains it shines on the front wall of my roomette.
Argh. I need a pencil and paper. Does the train run northeast through the mountains? If I had wifi, I would hunt up a map. Although I am steps away from the parlour car's promised wifi, I cannot pick up its signal -- the metaal body of the trail cars likely impedes reception.
I trust someone with better directional sense than I will clarify my observations.
8:21 p.m., traveling alongside a lake. Just after dinner, I attempted to record some video out the window for my non-traveling parents to view when I return home. I managed to hit a span of track with many tunnels.
I hope they like long moments of darkness, with me babbling away about how I can't see anything either. I might have succeeded in a selfie as I finally turned the camera through the roomette -- that, or they'll see my forehead or chin bouncing along with the movement of the train.
TA-SC Linda set up my bed and promised to wake me half an hour before we's due to pull into Sacramento. The train stopes there until 6:30 a.m., she said, but often arrives long before.
Good thing I'm sleepy already.
Whichever restroom of the three downstairs I used to brush my teeth after dinner seemed somehow roomier. The sink/counter and trash were catty-corner to each other and the toilet seat angled between, allowing more room to maneuver. I peeking in at the shower: another layout, with glass door. Doubt I'll be awake enough to try it before disembarking.
5:56 a.m. PST Thursday, June 11
Woke about 5:30 on my own, sun already rising over distant mountains as we move through flat fields.
TA-SC Linda scrambled to clear mattresses from four or more roomettes, as some passengers leave in Sacramento, others join the train to go further south. She kept us all informed of our ETA. She encouraged everyone to get coffee or juice from the small station by the stairs in this car. I noted a tray with oranges, too. Tempting, as I don't think we get breakfast on the train, bbut I'm not awake enough to be hungry.
PASSING THE PARLOUR
I walked through the Parlour car to reach the dining car last night: individual swivel seats in the fron half of the upper level,, a small table with inset lids hinting at a buffet across the the stairs, then perhaps eight booths with tables able to seat four guests. A counter pushes the walkway over to one side, past the kitchen area. One steps down to get into the car, up to exit it.
It looked nice enough, and the special macaroni and cheese on its dinnner menu, I saw in passing, is served with the standard vegetable medley of carrots, green beans, squash and corn.
After brushing my teeth in a different unit this morning, I realize all the toilets are configured the same. (This is the layout I first encountered on a Suerliner riding the Capitol Limited last week, I just didn't know to appreciate it then.)
HELLO, SACRAMENTO
6:38 a.m., sitting in the section of Sacramento station reserved for sleeper-car passengers, comfy chairs and couches separated from the wooden benches of the rest of the station by room dividers, information posters and potted trees.
As alerted in another trip report (by KmH, maybe?), I knew it was a hike from the train platforms to the station. I chose to walk it, following a long ramp down to the underpass under my train, up to a wide concrete path with nicely labeled landscaping (I think the sign for English lavender was out of place, though), across another set of tracks from whhat I assume is the local transit, past the bus lane and into the station.
I'm nnot sure if it is still under construction, or if the steel beams of the scaffolding, lit with yellow-caged worklights, are some postmodern architectural statement.
At least there's wifi.
I might take advantage of a Red Cap's multi-person golf cart to get back out to the trains for my next leg. The temperature outside was warmer than Oregon but not yet scorching, with more humidity.
No amenities as in other lounge areas, so I'll dig out a meal bar for breakfast from my travel supply.
