August 2015
I'm not informed of the "rules" of a blog. I blog as a personal journal, and the most interesting part of our life are our travels in the Lark. So that is what I have blogged about. Until now.
We do have other adventures. Every year, several times, we make out way out to Davis, Ca. to visit our son, daughter-in-law and two most special granddaughters. They live 12 miles west of Sacramento, 1 hour east of Napa and 1.5 hrs. NE of San Fran. It is a most wonderful area and there are always adventures to enjoy. Hiking rivers, canyons and mountains. Up to Tahoe in two hours. Or to Pnt. Reyes National Seashore on the Pacific Ocean.
We arrive Cle to Sac by Southwest, only deviating by which route. A straight through is 4.5 hrs., however it takes 7-8 hrs. every time with a stopover. NO straight throughs. Our country is wide, 2000+ miles wide. We chose to fly over as quickly as possible.
Always wanted to take the train across the US. Hasn't everyone thought about that? On a Lark: I booked our return trip in a sleeper car on the Amtrak California Zephyr. Sacramento to Chicago. Not Sacramento to Cle, because you end up at 2AM downtown under the freeway. Only in Cle.
How romantic will this be? Over the Sierras and the Rocky Mountains. Flying by the great plains. Two nights and three days of Orient Express. Not Quite.
Booking a train trip on line is very similar to a bus schedule, except the choices are more widespread. First you have to determine which train goes where you want, then how to connect and how to buy the ticket. A lot like a bus schedule. For a first timer, it is not easy. We could have boarded right in Davis, but I booked Sacramento. Just confusing.
There is another decision to be made. I wanted romance. I wanted a "sleeper car" with our own little nest. And beautiful scenery and white table cloths for romantic dinners...and wine and starlight over the Rockies. Be careful what you get. Definitely not the Orient Express.
I booked our "roomette", two senior tickets with all meals included and a scenic observation car available. Didn't think about a non-existing private bath. The word "roomette" is rather retro...this sleeping car was retro alright. 1970's vintage. That is over 40 years old. My, how things have changed in 40 years.
We did board in Sacramento, an old large station, currently being renovated. We were herded into a small waiting room with other sleeping car guests. The overhead speaker was a "waaawaawaa" totally incomprehensible banging off 50foot ceilings. It was a interesting group of peoples. I'm thinking "OK, these are travelers that won't fly." "Look what they have with them. No luggage, a plastic bag filled with supplies, too much luggage (we were warned about that) including golf clubs and guitars and dogs. Dogs, I'm sleeping in a sleeping car with other peoples dogs?" Hmm.........
All aboard and we were pointed to our "roomette" on the second floor. Trains are bigger than they look at crossings. Halls are very narrow and when we slid our privacy door open, Ed said: "This is where we are living for 3 days?". Ouch. OK, it was small, two seats facing each other with a tiny tray table that flipped down. Big windows, but so dirty you could barely see daylight. We are used to small spaces on the road. Lark is no diesel pusher 40foot bus. This however, had a distinct casket sized feeling. The option to avoid claustrophobia was to use the curtain across the door instead of sliding the glass door shut. No privacy but you could breathe.
If you were one person, the two seats were flattened by the Porter at night to make one small, single bed. We were two persons. Only the Porter could release the upper bunk, down from the ceiling. A plank appears 12inches from the ceiling, 18inches wide with straps to hold you in. Getting up there would be better if you were under 5foot tall, less than 100lbs. and a gymnast. Being less than 15 years old would help also.
A little giggle of hysterical laughter was bubbling up in my throat. Oh yes, I would be the one to climb up... Ed had no chance of doing that. I slipped the Porter a nice tip for future help in upgrading our "roomette". I did get up there, worried how I was ever going to get down. Visualize a long train car of separating curtains with butts sticking out. You cannot step into the room with the beds down. So, to get into your jammies....... The Bathroom... think airplane coach restroom and not quite as nice. Rumor had it there were showers on the lower level...could not think about bare feet.
Observation car would be our destination. After a fine breakfast in the dining car. All meals were scheduled into an hour. Miss the hour, miss your meal. Sit with whom anyone was seated with you. And we had some doozies. Yes, there are people who are afraid of flying and others. Yes, we did have white table cloths. We also had the same 4 item menus every meal. Sometimes it was hot. The salad dressings were in plastic pouches (like McDonalds) napkins were paper and once I requested the forgotten dressings and was told to turn around and grab it from the next table. Wait service reminded me of a group of US postal workers issued white shirts, black pants. Wine was a 4oz bottle of $2buck Chuck and desserts, there were 3 choices, were 3oz. cups of whatever with tiny wooden spoon attached to the lid. Remember those??
All of these miseries were made palatable by the scenery! The trip up to Donner Pass and then over the Sierras was amazing. The sights could be captured no other way. The train takes you were no man drives. The observation car was our waking location. It was revamped in the 1990's..as a special brass plate bragged. We floated, rocked and rolled and bounced along. Some track is better than others. Regulars told us to stay off the northern route, terrible track. Rate of travel ran between 50 and 70 MPH. We waited once on a side rail for over an hour. We were waiting for our "sister" western bound train to pass us. I wondered why they didn't seem to know where or when it would arrive. Does the train not have GPS?
The passengers were intriguing. We were like a social, economic world, coupled together with the same destinations. We were in the last car of a considerable long Amtrak train. Hitched behind us was a private rail car getting a pull back to Denver. It was a mystery who the occupants were. They had their own crew, their own food and never mixed with us at several station stops. Rumors were rampant. The rest of us waited in the Denver rail yard, while they uncoupled and moved on with their lives. I think very Big Money. Who owns their own rail car and staff?
Then there were the sleeper car upgrades like ourselves. A real mix of ones and twos. Everyone had a story...and you shared those stories over meals. Much more fun than the food.
Then there were the coach coach fare up ahead of us. These riders lived in a reclining seat for 3 days. With no services. They tend to travel with kids and dogs. They brought their own food. We were mostly happy not to spend much time mingling. There was the stoner who couldn't wait to get off, first stop in Colorado. Grandmothers going to see grandchildren. Occasionally a porter looking for some one without a ticket. Once a dog w raced through the observation car with owner and porter on his heals. I truly believe he was trying to escape coach! A real assortment of Americans.
One thing Amtrak does right. You are awake to see the sights during the day and sleep missing all boring parts of the country. Our first night we saw the sunset over the Sierras and entered the Great Basin. We awoke with the sunrise, still in the Great Basin. Ed kept muttering, "we are never driving the Lark through the Great Basin." What a lot of nothing. Like a moonscape.
Traveling through the Rockies was another day of spectacular scenery. Just like no other. We bordered the Colorado River and river rafters by the hundreds. Not long until I got "mooned" and then another and then another. Questioned our fellow travelers: "Is this a Colorado thing". Nope, just a rafter thing. Mooning train travelers is quite a sport on the Colorado River. Who knew.
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| These were "non-mooners" |
We began to slow in a huge canyon along a river. We came to a standstill and an announcement was made we would be escorted through the canyon because a wild fire had burned across the tracks the day before. We traveled slowly with escort and we could still see burning tree stumps and much blackened earth from above us, across the tracks and down the ravine. Smokey too.
As the sunset behind us over the Rockies we approached our second night. Theses where generous tipping paid off. My "favorite" porter upgraded us to a family sleeper. Nicer lower 3/4 bed and a reasonable pull down bunk. This room had walking space (slim) and it's own toilet. How nice. I can only imagine sharing it with a family with kids. I swear, the ugliest accommodations we have ever had.
If you still want to see America the Beautiful by train on the California Zephyr buy a coach ticket and ride 2 days1 night from Sacramento to Denver and get off! We can tell you there was nothing to see between Denver and Chicago. Soy beans and corn and wind farms. That's it.
I will be waiting for a ticket either across Canada, which is much acclaimed, or Europe by train. No more Amtrak. Not romantic in any way and in general not even comfortable.
We love our Lark.
Our photography was less than wonderful.... rolling along the tracks leaves for some fuzzy picures!
Stretch out on the couch and watch flat screen TV (46 free stations here in Kissimmee) and live stream with Amazon prime music and movies. I can tidy up in 10 minutes and full house clean in 30! Life is good in a small house. A glass of wine becomes a celebration.
