Union Station, lunch and departure–San Antone, yeehah!

Didn’t sleep much the night before departure–I always have a panic attack before I leave town for a while–having the house burglarized twice eight years ago traumatized me, but since we’ve had the alarm installed theft hasn’t been a problem, so I know it’s just neurotic to worry as much as I do but I still do–not a rational thing.  We have all the neighbors watching the house and folks to take the mail in etc., but leaving still makes me twitchy.  Plus, this year’s rains have made the roses come out in force, and they were just starting to burst open in multitudes as we left, so we’ll miss it.  I hope the mail-bringer-inner accepts my invite to take tea in the garden while we’re gone, as my garden is unhappy unless it is admired….like me, I guess.

We enjoyed lunch with Karl, our chauffeur, in the grand, elegant part of Union Station, then departed through the gritty, dingy platform tunnel.  We took our first day on the train to adjust–this is a working vacation for me, so figuring out how and what to cram into our “roomette” and which connectors would fit where took the better part of the afternoon and evening.

Outside Palm Springs, CA

After dinner at our communal tables–thus far our meal partners have been pleasant–we retired to our roomette, clicked off the lights, got a couple of those little airplane bottles of rough Scotch from the club car, toasted the launch of our adventure, and watched the desert twilight of Arizona whiz by.  When we finally figured out how our bunks folded out (with the help of our car attendant, who set up a little mattress pad, sheet, and blankie on each bunk), Samuel volunteered for the upper (complete with catchnet to keep you from falling out) and I got the lower bunk and window.  I kept the curtains open and watched the sprinkling of stars and airplanes over the dunes; each time the train hit a rough trestle or went around a curve, I could see them shudder and curl around as if the sky were a dark, waving flag.  I’m moving, I’m on a train; as I move, the cosmos moves too.  It’s all a matter of perspective, of course, just in my head….or is it?

Little cloud over big desert

Sunset, Arizona

Slept fairly well despite long late night stops at Tucson and Maricopa that kept me awake and some rough track as we entered West Texas in the early morning hours. I liked seeing the sunrise, usually miss it at  my house.

Sunrise, West Texas

Our lunch companions pointed out the border fence as we went through El Paso/Juarez–the brick station was cute, small and stately, in contrast to the chaotic landscape of sheds and tin huts beyond.

The Border (fence), near El Paso/Juarez

Storm a-coming, TX

Storm's a-here, TX

Tonight we detrain in San Antone, yeehaah (we’ve made it a rule that if you say, “San Antone” instead of “San Antonio” you have to say “yeehaah!” afterwards.)  Last we heard there might be rain and heat; that’s some Texas high humidity for y’all.

Samuel and Amistad Reservoir, TX

Here’s a rockin’ little version of the San Antone (yeehah!) hometown tune–enjoy!

San Antonio Rose, 1962

Yeeeee-haaaaah!

Rambling Impressions, Part I

One of the things I like about trains is that the path they take cuts through the unpolished and unadorned part of the country. By and large, the facades face the roads and highways, while the rails pass through the land, almost unnoticed.

Unadorned America

Texas ... but could be anywhere.

From a train, you see places as they are, not as they would like you to see them. Instead of the well-maintained public-facing business park, you see the warehouse loading docks; instead of the shiny car dealership, you see the scrapyards, the repair shops, the pick-a-part lots. You see the hidden face of our tremendously complex infrastructure: power plants and electrical substations, flood control channels, highway maintenance yards, aqueducts, landfills, and refineries.

I  tend to think of the United States (and California in particular) as being a completely post-industrial society. Ten minutes on an eastbound train out of Union Station puts the lie to that belief. We may no longer have the kind of industrial output we once did, but all across Los Angeles County we passed small factories churning out security cameras, concrete structural components, piping, pallets, vacuum fittings, aerospace connectors, signs, irrigation equipment, and more. Then again, it’s not Kaiser Steel or General Motors.

…

Texans are fond of pointing out how big the state is. And it is big. So big, in fact, that there are vast stretches without any cell coverage at all.

But then, the heavens open up, and to a chorus of angels, pure, beautiful bandwidth rains down from on high…

Heavens

A chorus of Angels

Bandwidth

Bandwidth ... but not a compatible carrier

Bandwidth

Sweet Sprint CDMA like Manna in Del Rio!

Planning with Amtrak, Part III

SO the last two portions of this sad tale were about anger and frustration. This last part, however, is where it all comes together.

Now that I had our rail passes, I called the Amtrak reservations number, and reached a representative who very helpfully went through our entire travel plan, made all the reservations, and emailed me a copy of the itinerary. She was pleasant, efficient, and friendly. There was only one snag:

Amtrak lies about its routes.

Specifically, the Sunset Limited, the train joining New Orleans to Jacksonville, Florida is on all of the maps, but it is not running. From what I’ve been able to glean (from Wikipedia, blogs, and newspapers), the track was damaged by hurricane Katrina, which caused Amtrak to stop service on that route. Six months later, when the track was all safely repaired, Amtrak failed to re-initiate travel on that route. Even Congress can’t seem to get them to reopen it (according to an expired article in the LA Daily News, copied on this anti-Amtrak-or-any-government-service site run by Randists).

So to get from New Orleans to Savannah, Georgia, what should have taken on the order of one day would take us three days — because we’d have to go by way of Washington DC. That’s like going from Los Angeles to San Francisco by way of Salt Lake City.

In the end, we made the decision that our Great Train Adventure would not lose its essential “traininess” if we did one stretch by car. So a quick visit to Avis’ web site, and the major transportation planning portion was complete.

At this point, planning came down to finding places to stay. Summon the mighty Internet! My approach was to find an area using Google Maps, and then going through endless linked reviews on TripAdvisor.com, keeping in mind that online reviews often tell you more about the reviewer than the place being reviewed. I tried to avoid chain hotels, opting instead for local institutions, B&Bs, and Mom ‘n’ Pop places.

Over the next few weeks, you’ll be able to read more about these places… stay tuned!