Monday, June 27, 2011
The Zen of Train Travel
So nothing, absolutely nothing, is going as I expected on this trip, yet by staying open to the moment I've had a very significant experience. I hope to write about it soon. Meanwhile this meditation by Thomas Merton seems appropriate..
My Lord God
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself,
and the fact that I think I am following
your will does not mean
that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that my desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope that I have that desire
in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything
apart from that desire.
And I know that if I do this
you will lead me by the right road
though I may know nothing about it.
Therefore will I trust you always
though I may seem to be lost
and in the shadow of death.
I will not fear,
for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me
to face my perils alone.
- Thomas Merton (1915-1968)
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
More on Amtrak service interuption..
Amtrak temporarily suspends service at Minot, other N.D. cities
June 22, 2011
By ELOISE OGDEN - Regional Editor (eogden@minotdailynews.com) , Minot Daily News
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Amtrak's "Empire Builder" service is temporarily being suspended between St. Paul, Minn., and Havre, Mont., with no alternate transportation available between those points until further notice, Amtrak officials said.
The disruption of service will affect Minot and other Amtrak stops in North Dakota.
The temporary suspension of service was effective in both directions with the originations of the "Empire Builder" trains Tuesday.
The suspension is being done because of the flooding in and around Minot. Amtrak uses Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks.
"BNSF Railway's tracks are in service in Minot and we're working to remain in service as long as possible, but we are also planning for when the water will overtake the rail and we'll be out of service. This includes moving crew changes and removing equipment that could get damaged, and developing plans for rerouting traffic where possible," said Amy McBeth, a spokeswoman for BNSF from St. Paul.
"We are also providing emergency relief for crews so that employees who live in Minot get back to town so they can manage their own flood preparations," McBeth said.
She said any outages are posted on the weather updates section found on the BNSF home page at (www.bnsf.com).
For passengers traveling on Amtrak from Seattle and Portland, a combination of trains and chartered motor coaches will provide service to Spokane, Wash., with the "Empire Builder" trains continuing east into Idaho and serving all Montana stops for Glacier National Park (including Whitefish, East and West Glacier and Essex), continuing east to terminate at Havre each afternoon. The trains will originate there to operate back west to Seattle/Portland.
For those passengers traveling west from Chicago, the "Empire Builder" trains will serve all their Wisconsin stops (including Wisconsin Dells), continuing west to terminate at St. Paul each evening. Each morning, the trains will originate there to operate back east to Chicago.
For more information passengers should call 800-USA-RAIL or visit Amtrak.com.
© Copyright 2011 Minot Daily News. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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Floods are everywhere!
The final 3rd of my trip is off. Tomorrow I get on a train back to California instead of West to Montana, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I can make it all the way to Chicago without getting stuck somewhere. My problem is nothing compared to people living in affected areas, but I'm bummed out nonetheless. Wish me luck.
xo Joe
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
My House in Portland
Monday, June 20, 2011
Saturday, June 18, 2011
Way more detail than you need...
I need to put all this down in a note so I can post it later to the blog.
Let's go back to last Thursday night. I'm riding the train through Iowa headed for Lincoln NE and the Stanley family reunion. It is night, it is storming, and the train is going v.e.r.y.... s.l.o.w.... as the lightning flashes I notice that there is a lot of water all along the tracks.. in fact it often appears that we are actually traveling along a bridge over a lake rather than an elevated rail line on solid ground. I ask the conductor why we are going so slow, and the answer is that there are flash flood warnings for the area we are traveling through, and NTSB rules require a passenger train to go no faster than 15 MPH in such a situation. Then I start to hear rumblings from the crew about service being cancelled from Chicago through to Denver for the California Zephyr, the train I am on.
Long story short; I get to Lincoln and find out this train is the last one to come through Lincoln heading West for several days and perhaps even weeks. The flooding on the Missouri River south of Omaha is threatening to wash out the only viable crossing point for hundreds of miles, and the freight traffic added to that crossing is making it impossible for the Zephyr to keep any reasonable schedule even if the bridge doesn't wash out.
This means I get in Lincoln six hours later than expected at 5:30 am Friday morning without any hope of being able to rejoin the westbound Zephyr on Sunday night as planned. I did some quick checking and found a seat on a flight from Lincoln Sunday evening to Denver, the place from which the Zephyr would now originate on Monday morning at 8 am. I also checked with Amtrak to make sure my reservation on the train would still be in effect.
So I settle in to my very comfortable B&B room in Lincoln, join in all the Family Reunion activities, do some Lincoln site-seeing, and proceed to have a great time. To make it more enjoyable I find I'm on the same flight out of Lincoln as Susan although she is proceeding onto Portland via another plane. We hang out at the rather compact Lincoln airport together, go through security together (I apparently violate far more security rules than Susan), and have an uneventful one hour flight to Denver. Karen, Ken's wife who is AWESOME and most wise pointed out a fallacy in my thinking regarding Denver. I thought I could simply hang out at the airport until say 6 am and then take a shuttle to the train station. Karen pointed out that I would be riding downtown (not a short ride) from the airport at the start of rush hour, a major cluster**** in Denver. Also the shuttle services stop at many places as people need let out, and I have no guarantee that I would be at the station early enough to catch my train. The prospect of possibly missing my connection to rejoin my travel itinerary was too horrible to contemplate, and so I decided I should get a room in downtown Denver near the station to be safe. I found a pretty good deal at the Hampton Suites on Sherman and ended up having a really great night's sleep there.
Getting to the train station proved to be yet another ordeal not anticipated. The hotel clerk was very cheerful and assuring that the free people mover shuttle on 16th Street would take me right to the front of Union Station which turned out to be about 20 blocks from the hotel. It was true that the shuttle proved frequent and free, and it does stop at the front entrance to the classic Union Station Terminal building, but unfortunately the Amtrak station is temporarily relocated to a building about five blocks away. In spite of all my efforts to get to the train station in plenty of time, it was almost 7:30 am when I walk up to the counter to check-in. Got on fine though and I've been rolling along ever since.
Next challenge... money. So because of the extra time it took me to get to the train station in Denver, I didn't have a chance to pull some cash out of an ATM on the way. I had what I thought would be enough but after buying some coffee and some food in the dining car, my reserves were down to about eight dollars and some change.
I made a decision to try and get a sleeper berth since the train was not at all crowded and a lot of people had changed their travel plans due to the Chicago/Denver cancellations. When you purchase a sleeper you get all your meals, snacks, beverages, etc. included. You do not, of course, have any tips included.
After dinner and leaving a five dollar tip, I realized I had to do something about the cash situation. I asked my sleeper attendant named Errol and he suggested I could get cash during the half-hour layover in Salt Lake CIty. Turns out the ATM at that spot didn't work so I'm down to change for the remainder. Then during breakfast I asked the waiter if there was anyway my credit card could be used for tips or to get some cash. The dining services manager came over and.. by buying a cup of coffee I was able to get enough cash to tip the servers for my remaining meals and the sleeper attendant. Traveling is easy if you have money and credit!
Friday, June 17, 2011
Mountain High, Valley Low
So yesterday I had a great adventure. I rode up the side of San Jacinto mountain in a rotating tram car and hiked through this wonderful and verdant woods on the top. Palm Springs is 445 ft above sea level and is part of the Sonoran Desert zone that extends south into Mexico. The tram goes straight up the side of San Jacinto to an elevation of 10,834 feet. The park is the gateway to one of the largest expanses of wilderness area in Southern California, and there are primitive campsites and hiking trails all over.
http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=636
Here are some photos..
http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=636
Here are some photos..
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Huervos Rancheros Bakersfield Style
Delicious breakfast in this little crepe house off the main drag. Bus for Palm Springs leaves in a. ouple of hours.
I keep moving but am I getting anywhere?
It's been days since I've had any dependable wifi and doing blogging via the phone is hard. I should have time and access after today.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Monday, June 13, 2011
Sunday, June 12, 2011
the flood would have engulfed us, the torrent would have swept over us,
I need to put all this down in a note so I can post it later to the blog.
Let's go back to last Thursday night. I'm riding the train through Iowa headed for Lincoln NE and the Stanley family reunion. It is night, it is storming, and the train is going v.e.r.y.... s.l.o.w.... as the lightning flashes I notice that there is a lot of water all along the tracks.. in fact it often appears that we are actually traveling along a bridge over a lake rather than an elevated rail line on solid ground. I ask the conductor why we are going so slow, and the answer is that there are flash flood warnings for the area we are traveling through, and NTSB rules require a passenger train to go no faster than 15 MPH in such a situation. Then I start to hear rumblings from the crew about service being cancelled from Chicago through to Denver for the California Zephyr, the train I am on.
Long story short; I get to Lincoln and find out this train is the last one to come through Lincoln heading West for several days and perhaps even weeks. The flooding on the Missouri River south of Omaha is threatening to wash out the only viable crossing point for hundreds of miles, and the freight traffic added to that crossing is making it impossible for the Zephyr to keep any reasonable schedule even if the bridge doesn't wash out.
This means I get in Lincoln six hours later than expected at 5:30 am Friday morning without any hope of being able to rejoin the westbound Zephyr on Sunday night as planned. I did some quick checking and found a seat on a flight from Lincoln Sunday evening to Denver, the place from which the Zephyr would now originate on Monday morning at 8 am. I also checked with Amtrak to make sure my reservation on the train would still be in effect.
So I settle in to my very comfortable B&B room in Lincoln, join in all the Family Reunion activities, do some Lincoln site-seeing, and proceed to have a great time. To make it more enjoyable I find I'm on the same flight out of Lincoln as Susan although she is proceeding onto Portland via another plane. We hang out at the rather compact Lincoln airport together, go through security together (I apparently violate far more security rules than Susan), and have an uneventful one hour flight to Denver. Karen, Ken's wife who is AWESOME and most wise pointed out a fallacy in my thinking regarding Denver. I thought I could simply hang out at the airport until say 6 am and then take a shuttle to the train station. Karen pointed out that I would be riding downtown (not a short ride) from the airport at the start of rush hour, a major cluster**** in Denver. Also the shuttle services stop at many places as people need let out, and I have no guarantee that I would be at the station early enough to catch my train. The prospect of possibly missing my connection to rejoin my travel itinerary was too horrible to contemplate, and so I decided I should get a room in downtown Denver near the station to be safe. I found a pretty good deal at the Hampton Suites on Sherman and ended up having a really great night's sleep there.
Getting to the train station proved to be yet another ordeal not anticipated. The hotel clerk was very cheerful and assuring that the free people mover shuttle on 16th Street would take me right to the front of Union Station which turned out to be about 20 blocks from the hotel. It was true that the shuttle proved frequent and free, and it does stop at the front entrance to the classic Union Station Terminal building, but unfortunately the Amtrak station is temporarily relocated to a building about five blocks away. In spite of all my efforts to get to the train station in plenty of time, it was almost 7:30 am when I walk up to the counter to check-in. Got on fine though and I've been rolling along ever since.
Next challenge... money. So because of the extra time it took me to get to the train station in Denver, I didn't have a chance to pull some cash out of an ATM on the way. I had what I thought would be enough but after buying some coffee and some food in the dining car, my reserves were down to about eight dollars and some change.
I made a decision to try and get a sleeper berth since the train was not at all crowded and a lot of people had changed their travel plans due to the Chicago/Denver cancellations. When you purchase a sleeper you get all your meals, snacks, beverages, etc. included. You do not, of course, have any tips included.
After dinner and leaving a five dollar tip, I realized I had to do something about the cash situation. I asked my sleeper attendant named Errol and he suggested I could get cash during the half-hour layover in Salt Lake CIty. Turns out the ATM at that spot didn't work so I'm down to change for the remainder. Then during breakfast I asked the waiter if there was anyway my credit card could be used for tips or to get some cash. The dining services manager came over and.. by buying a cup of coffee I was able to get enough cash to tip the servers for my remaining meals and the sleeper attendant. Traveling is easy if you have money and credit!
Let's go back to last Thursday night. I'm riding the train through Iowa headed for Lincoln NE and the Stanley family reunion. It is night, it is storming, and the train is going v.e.r.y.... s.l.o.w.... as the lightning flashes I notice that there is a lot of water all along the tracks.. in fact it often appears that we are actually traveling along a bridge over a lake rather than an elevated rail line on solid ground. I ask the conductor why we are going so slow, and the answer is that there are flash flood warnings for the area we are traveling through, and NTSB rules require a passenger train to go no faster than 15 MPH in such a situation. Then I start to hear rumblings from the crew about service being cancelled from Chicago through to Denver for the California Zephyr, the train I am on.
Long story short; I get to Lincoln and find out this train is the last one to come through Lincoln heading West for several days and perhaps even weeks. The flooding on the Missouri River south of Omaha is threatening to wash out the only viable crossing point for hundreds of miles, and the freight traffic added to that crossing is making it impossible for the Zephyr to keep any reasonable schedule even if the bridge doesn't wash out.
This means I get in Lincoln six hours later than expected at 5:30 am Friday morning without any hope of being able to rejoin the westbound Zephyr on Sunday night as planned. I did some quick checking and found a seat on a flight from Lincoln Sunday evening to Denver, the place from which the Zephyr would now originate on Monday morning at 8 am. I also checked with Amtrak to make sure my reservation on the train would still be in effect.
So I settle in to my very comfortable B&B room in Lincoln, join in all the Family Reunion activities, do some Lincoln site-seeing, and proceed to have a great time. To make it more enjoyable I find I'm on the same flight out of Lincoln as Susan although she is proceeding onto Portland via another plane. We hang out at the rather compact Lincoln airport together, go through security together (I apparently violate far more security rules than Susan), and have an uneventful one hour flight to Denver. Karen, Ken's wife who is AWESOME and most wise pointed out a fallacy in my thinking regarding Denver. I thought I could simply hang out at the airport until say 6 am and then take a shuttle to the train station. Karen pointed out that I would be riding downtown (not a short ride) from the airport at the start of rush hour, a major cluster**** in Denver. Also the shuttle services stop at many places as people need let out, and I have no guarantee that I would be at the station early enough to catch my train. The prospect of possibly missing my connection to rejoin my travel itinerary was too horrible to contemplate, and so I decided I should get a room in downtown Denver near the station to be safe. I found a pretty good deal at the Hampton Suites on Sherman and ended up having a really great night's sleep there.
Getting to the train station proved to be yet another ordeal not anticipated. The hotel clerk was very cheerful and assuring that the free people mover shuttle on 16th Street would take me right to the front of Union Station which turned out to be about 20 blocks from the hotel. It was true that the shuttle proved frequent and free, and it does stop at the front entrance to the classic Union Station Terminal building, but unfortunately the Amtrak station is temporarily relocated to a building about five blocks away. In spite of all my efforts to get to the train station in plenty of time, it was almost 7:30 am when I walk up to the counter to check-in. Got on fine though and I've been rolling along ever since.
Next challenge... money. So because of the extra time it took me to get to the train station in Denver, I didn't have a chance to pull some cash out of an ATM on the way. I had what I thought would be enough but after buying some coffee and some food in the dining car, my reserves were down to about eight dollars and some change.
I made a decision to try and get a sleeper berth since the train was not at all crowded and a lot of people had changed their travel plans due to the Chicago/Denver cancellations. When you purchase a sleeper you get all your meals, snacks, beverages, etc. included. You do not, of course, have any tips included.
After dinner and leaving a five dollar tip, I realized I had to do something about the cash situation. I asked my sleeper attendant named Errol and he suggested I could get cash during the half-hour layover in Salt Lake CIty. Turns out the ATM at that spot didn't work so I'm down to change for the remainder. Then during breakfast I asked the waiter if there was anyway my credit card could be used for tips or to get some cash. The dining services manager came over and.. by buying a cup of coffee I was able to get enough cash to tip the servers for my remaining meals and the sleeper attendant. Traveling is easy if you have money and credit!
Thursday, June 09, 2011
Rainy, slow morning..
Actually slept last night, but of course woke up several times. Arrival in Chi later than scheduled.. looks like 11 am. My train to Lincoln Nebraska leaves at 2 pm so no sweat.
Breakfast below. It worked, especially the coffee.
Wednesday, June 08, 2011
There's a Greyhound Loose in Squirrel Hill
Everything with the bus ride was going so well.. we left on time, it wasn't crowded so I had the seat to myself, and we made great time with no in between stops. But then the driver, when he was two blocks from the terminal, had a brain fart and turned right instead of left. We went on a 30 minute joy ride into Oakland and then Squirrel Hill before he started listening to some of us who had a clue which way to go to get back. We made it but not before we went up a crazy steep road that ended up being an exit ramp one way THE OTHER WAY. Kinda scary let me tell you.
"What I Meant to Say" Lives On
I'm reviving this blog by journaling during my Western train trip. This is my first entry since I made a trip to Mississippi with friends from church in 2009.
The form will be short reflections with some original photography to illustrate. We shall see what develops.
.. Joe
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