![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kevin_standleeWe spent the past three days and two nights riding the California Zephyr from Emeryville to Chicago via Reno, Salt Lake City, Denver, Omaha, Ottumwa, and Galesburg, and many other towns and cities along the way. I took a lot of photos. Too many, in fact, because it makes it nearly impossible to catalog them. As I write this, about half of the 360 photos have finished uploading from our hotel in Chicago, where are are tonight only before continuing our journey tomorrow afternoon. All I can do is dump them in to a new 2021 Amtrak Odyssey Flickr album and hope that someday I'll get a chance to catalog them. Getting online on my computer was sufficiently difficult during much of the trip through the land of Nosignal that I could take the photos but not caption/catalog them. I'll try to call out a few high points here.
Day 3 (Wednesday, December 8): We got packed out of the hotel in good order, but as I feared, the taxi summoned for us was almost too small to carry all of our gear. The driver somehow managed it for the short drive to Emeryville Station. I had to repack my checked bag because it was about a half-kilogram too heavy, but otherwise okay. Our train departed on time, for a wonder. Because we were getting on at the origin, Lisa managed (barely) to squeeze on board and get her camera case into the lower level luggage rack, where it remained for the rest of the trip.
As I write this, the photos from the first day haven't yet been uploaded, so I can't illustrate things, but we had a good trip through Sacramento and over the Sierra Nevada mountains. Due to our concerns over COVID-19, Lisa and I mostly stayed in our bedroom and had our car attendant bring us our meals, but we have been over this route before.
To my annoyance, as we passed through Fernley, I was not able to get a picture of the house as we passed due to the view being blocked by cars spotted in Fernley Yard. The house was there when we passed, though.
We'd tipped our car attendant from the start on account of asking for our meals to be brought to us and to allow Lisa to make up/take down the room at her convenience, and so shortly after the fresh-air stop at Winnemucca, she made up the beds and we settled down to sleep. I woke up briefly at the Salt Lake City serving stop because the train had stopped moving, but went back to sleep again easily enough. The next morning (Day 4: Thursday, December 9) I re-learned how to use the tiny little shower in the en suite toilet compartment in our bedroom while Lisa put the room back into daytime configuration and we ordered breakfast. We then settled in for a day of sightseeing through the Rockies.
Photos do not really do this route justice. A fair portion of it is so inaccessible that, as the assistant conductor said while giving us tips, "The only access is by this train or via Class-five rapids on the Colorado River." We saw deer, bald eagles, various other birds, but no bears, although they're known to frequent this area.
At Green River, Utah, before we got to the good scenery, we learned over the radio that our locomotives were having problems. Traction engines were cutting out, and the locomotives couldn't maintain speed. We started to lose time as the engines lost power. There was some hope that maybe at Grand Junction they could get a rescue locomotive from Union Pacific, but while there were dozens of locomotive parked there, they were all on the "dead line" and there were no locomotives with UP crews available. The train crews consulted with Amtrak's mechanical department and soldiered on. We accumulated more than an hour's delay by the time we got to Denver.
Denver was the longest of the "fresh air" stops along the trip because the locomotives had to be refueled and the mechanics tried to work on the mechanical issues; also, the windows were washed and various supplies restocked. While we might have had enough time to go inside Denver Union Station and have a brief look, the chance of being caught out and missing our train seemed too high to us, so we stayed on the platform.
This did give us a chance to photograph some of Denver's electric commuter trains, inaccurately described by some sources as "light rail." Denver does have a light rail system, but electrical multiple-unit trains like this are not the same thing.
We did track down the conductor of our train on the Grand Junction-to-Denver leg to thank him for being blunt and no-nonsense with people about Amtrak's mask policy. Considering how much flak these crews take for enforcing federal policy that the passengers agreed to when they bought their tickets and that is there to protect everyone's health, I think he appreciated having customers who said, strongly, that we very much appreciated having the crew enforce these policies. He gave us a fist bump after we told him we felt safer because of what he'd said and done.
We were in car 631, visible at left as we took this photo of a Denver electric train pulling out of the station. Just before we were ready to leave Denver, our attendant, who was working on cleaning a toilet, said, "Uh, oh, that's not good" and summoned one of the mechanics. It turns out that the vacuum-based system that flushes the toilet was starting to fail. By the time we reached our next stop (Fort Morgan CO), it had gotten so bad that our attendant locked out the toilets entirely and told everyone that we needed to use the toilets in the the adjacent sleeping car. The showers still worked, though.
The mechanical team decided that as it was all downhill from Denver to Chicago, we should be able to continue with our slightly-defective locomotives, but we continued to lose time slowly through the night, as they were unable to maintain full speed. I woke up as we approached Omaha (Day 5: Friday, December 10), by which time we were running around 90 minutes late. Once again, I showered while Lisa converted the car from night to day configuration and we ate breakfast, with a lovely sunrise over the fields.
All our meals were cooked on board ("traditional dining"), not just heated up in a microwave ("flexible dining"). The western two-night trains like the Zephyr have restored traditional dining, but the eastern one-night trains apparently are all still on the less-good meals instituted as a cost-cutting measure. To add insult to injury, when the cost-cutters tried to basically end all food service to "save money," they also sold off all of the Amtrak china and tableware, and now that full service is being restored, they still haven't found a vendor for new china. The plastic tableware they're using now looks good but is not strong enough. Lisa and I broke forks on every meal. Dinners were good steaks and salmon. Breakfasts were omelettes, scrambled eggs, and french toast. Lunches were Angus burgers. I don't think we had a bad meal along the way, aside from the broken forks.
The scenery was not quite as exciting on the Denver-Chicago leg of the trip, but I continued to take photos, including the nice sunrise.
Our fresh-air stop at Ottumwa, Iowa was the first time it was cold enough that I felt that I should have taken my jacket.
After Burlington, we crossed the Mississippi River.
The Galesburg IL fresh-air stop was extended slightly when a Covidiot who had used up all of his warnings refused to leave his seat after the conductor ordered him off the train. There was a delay while the police were summoned to remove him. As far as we could see from our angle, they didn't have to bodily haul him off the train, though.
Adding more concern to our trip was radio discussion between the train crews and the mechanical department. The crew were concerned that not only were they unable to maintain full speed, but that they were worried about running out of fuel before Chicago. They did make it all the way, but it does seem like things were cut closer than the crew would have liked.
Naperville, which is also a commuter station on the triple-track "raceway" from Aurora to Chicago, is the last stop before the end of the line. After we left this station, Lisa and I packed up the rest of our stuff and we prepared for the end of this first big leg of the trip.
I tipped our car attendant again for excellent service and for letting us do things our way. He, for example, didn't touch Lisa's camera case. She was able to get it off the train, and we let nearly everyone else disembark from the train before we slowly rolled up to baggage claim. Inasmuch as several trains had arrived simultaneously, there was a delay for our checked bags, but that didn't bother us. It gave me a chance to confirm how to get to the taxi queue on Canal Street.
Waiting for the queue for the elevator up to Canal Street also gave me a moment to photograph the tree in the Great Hall.
When we got to the taxi rank, heavy rain was falling, and the taxi starter yelled at us to get in the first taxi in the queue, even though we were trying to wave the woman traveling light behind us to take that taxi so we could take the larger van following it. Sure enough, getting all our bags into the taxi was challenge once again, and the starter complained at us for that as well. The driver did manage to cram everything into his car, and then get us to the Crowne Plaza Chicago West Loop. As when we left Emeryville, I over-tipped due to having all of those bags, and also because he remembered one bag that I almost left behind.
It's a good thing the camera case is water-tight. As it was, our soft-sided bags did get wet, but it doesn't look like there any harm done.
Our room is on the 17th floor, and has a balcony that was sufficiently sheltered that we were able to go outside and look around, for which I was grateful for I was very warm after the stress of getting our luggage from the station to the hotel.
After getting unpacked, we went looking for dinner and supplies. There was a Walgreen's one block away where we first picked up two more home COVID test kits and also some drinks to go with dinner. Our room has a mini-fridge, but no microwave oven; however, there is a communal microwave in the elevator lobby, so after we took the drinks back to the room, we went back downstairs and across the street to a high-end frozen-food store to pick up some likely looking food. Unfortunately, a lot of other people on our floor did the same thing, so it took quite a while to get dinner. Given the rain, however, we're glad we didn't get any more ambitious about wandering the neighborhood.
During the first day on the train, I managed to break the elastic in one of my N95 masks. We have spares, but Lisa wanted to fix this broken strap by sewing it back together. But as bad luck would have it, while both of us usually carry sewing kits, we'd both managed to leave our kits behind when we were packing for the trip. This is pretty ironic considering how much we were carrying. However, the Crowne Plaza had sewing kits and Lisa was able to repair the mask, so we're back up to a full supply.
I got a maximum late check-out tomorrow (2 PM). Our train to DC leaves at 5:45 PM, and we have no plans more ambitious than possibly having lunch at a place here in Greektown (the district in which we are staying) that Lisa likes, then going to the station early and taking full advantage of the Amtrak Metropolitan Lounge for sleeping-car passengers. Amtrak has moved and expanded the lounge since our last trip through here. I hope it isn't just a place where people hold empty cups in their hands so they can claim that they're "actively drinking" so they can pull down their masks.
Day 3 (Wednesday, December 8): We got packed out of the hotel in good order, but as I feared, the taxi summoned for us was almost too small to carry all of our gear. The driver somehow managed it for the short drive to Emeryville Station. I had to repack my checked bag because it was about a half-kilogram too heavy, but otherwise okay. Our train departed on time, for a wonder. Because we were getting on at the origin, Lisa managed (barely) to squeeze on board and get her camera case into the lower level luggage rack, where it remained for the rest of the trip.
As I write this, the photos from the first day haven't yet been uploaded, so I can't illustrate things, but we had a good trip through Sacramento and over the Sierra Nevada mountains. Due to our concerns over COVID-19, Lisa and I mostly stayed in our bedroom and had our car attendant bring us our meals, but we have been over this route before.
To my annoyance, as we passed through Fernley, I was not able to get a picture of the house as we passed due to the view being blocked by cars spotted in Fernley Yard. The house was there when we passed, though.
We'd tipped our car attendant from the start on account of asking for our meals to be brought to us and to allow Lisa to make up/take down the room at her convenience, and so shortly after the fresh-air stop at Winnemucca, she made up the beds and we settled down to sleep. I woke up briefly at the Salt Lake City serving stop because the train had stopped moving, but went back to sleep again easily enough. The next morning (Day 4: Thursday, December 9) I re-learned how to use the tiny little shower in the en suite toilet compartment in our bedroom while Lisa put the room back into daytime configuration and we ordered breakfast. We then settled in for a day of sightseeing through the Rockies.
Photos do not really do this route justice. A fair portion of it is so inaccessible that, as the assistant conductor said while giving us tips, "The only access is by this train or via Class-five rapids on the Colorado River." We saw deer, bald eagles, various other birds, but no bears, although they're known to frequent this area.
At Green River, Utah, before we got to the good scenery, we learned over the radio that our locomotives were having problems. Traction engines were cutting out, and the locomotives couldn't maintain speed. We started to lose time as the engines lost power. There was some hope that maybe at Grand Junction they could get a rescue locomotive from Union Pacific, but while there were dozens of locomotive parked there, they were all on the "dead line" and there were no locomotives with UP crews available. The train crews consulted with Amtrak's mechanical department and soldiered on. We accumulated more than an hour's delay by the time we got to Denver.
Denver was the longest of the "fresh air" stops along the trip because the locomotives had to be refueled and the mechanics tried to work on the mechanical issues; also, the windows were washed and various supplies restocked. While we might have had enough time to go inside Denver Union Station and have a brief look, the chance of being caught out and missing our train seemed too high to us, so we stayed on the platform.
This did give us a chance to photograph some of Denver's electric commuter trains, inaccurately described by some sources as "light rail." Denver does have a light rail system, but electrical multiple-unit trains like this are not the same thing.
We did track down the conductor of our train on the Grand Junction-to-Denver leg to thank him for being blunt and no-nonsense with people about Amtrak's mask policy. Considering how much flak these crews take for enforcing federal policy that the passengers agreed to when they bought their tickets and that is there to protect everyone's health, I think he appreciated having customers who said, strongly, that we very much appreciated having the crew enforce these policies. He gave us a fist bump after we told him we felt safer because of what he'd said and done.
We were in car 631, visible at left as we took this photo of a Denver electric train pulling out of the station. Just before we were ready to leave Denver, our attendant, who was working on cleaning a toilet, said, "Uh, oh, that's not good" and summoned one of the mechanics. It turns out that the vacuum-based system that flushes the toilet was starting to fail. By the time we reached our next stop (Fort Morgan CO), it had gotten so bad that our attendant locked out the toilets entirely and told everyone that we needed to use the toilets in the the adjacent sleeping car. The showers still worked, though.
The mechanical team decided that as it was all downhill from Denver to Chicago, we should be able to continue with our slightly-defective locomotives, but we continued to lose time slowly through the night, as they were unable to maintain full speed. I woke up as we approached Omaha (Day 5: Friday, December 10), by which time we were running around 90 minutes late. Once again, I showered while Lisa converted the car from night to day configuration and we ate breakfast, with a lovely sunrise over the fields.
All our meals were cooked on board ("traditional dining"), not just heated up in a microwave ("flexible dining"). The western two-night trains like the Zephyr have restored traditional dining, but the eastern one-night trains apparently are all still on the less-good meals instituted as a cost-cutting measure. To add insult to injury, when the cost-cutters tried to basically end all food service to "save money," they also sold off all of the Amtrak china and tableware, and now that full service is being restored, they still haven't found a vendor for new china. The plastic tableware they're using now looks good but is not strong enough. Lisa and I broke forks on every meal. Dinners were good steaks and salmon. Breakfasts were omelettes, scrambled eggs, and french toast. Lunches were Angus burgers. I don't think we had a bad meal along the way, aside from the broken forks.
The scenery was not quite as exciting on the Denver-Chicago leg of the trip, but I continued to take photos, including the nice sunrise.
Our fresh-air stop at Ottumwa, Iowa was the first time it was cold enough that I felt that I should have taken my jacket.
After Burlington, we crossed the Mississippi River.
The Galesburg IL fresh-air stop was extended slightly when a Covidiot who had used up all of his warnings refused to leave his seat after the conductor ordered him off the train. There was a delay while the police were summoned to remove him. As far as we could see from our angle, they didn't have to bodily haul him off the train, though.
Adding more concern to our trip was radio discussion between the train crews and the mechanical department. The crew were concerned that not only were they unable to maintain full speed, but that they were worried about running out of fuel before Chicago. They did make it all the way, but it does seem like things were cut closer than the crew would have liked.
Naperville, which is also a commuter station on the triple-track "raceway" from Aurora to Chicago, is the last stop before the end of the line. After we left this station, Lisa and I packed up the rest of our stuff and we prepared for the end of this first big leg of the trip.
I tipped our car attendant again for excellent service and for letting us do things our way. He, for example, didn't touch Lisa's camera case. She was able to get it off the train, and we let nearly everyone else disembark from the train before we slowly rolled up to baggage claim. Inasmuch as several trains had arrived simultaneously, there was a delay for our checked bags, but that didn't bother us. It gave me a chance to confirm how to get to the taxi queue on Canal Street.
Waiting for the queue for the elevator up to Canal Street also gave me a moment to photograph the tree in the Great Hall.
When we got to the taxi rank, heavy rain was falling, and the taxi starter yelled at us to get in the first taxi in the queue, even though we were trying to wave the woman traveling light behind us to take that taxi so we could take the larger van following it. Sure enough, getting all our bags into the taxi was challenge once again, and the starter complained at us for that as well. The driver did manage to cram everything into his car, and then get us to the Crowne Plaza Chicago West Loop. As when we left Emeryville, I over-tipped due to having all of those bags, and also because he remembered one bag that I almost left behind.
It's a good thing the camera case is water-tight. As it was, our soft-sided bags did get wet, but it doesn't look like there any harm done.
Our room is on the 17th floor, and has a balcony that was sufficiently sheltered that we were able to go outside and look around, for which I was grateful for I was very warm after the stress of getting our luggage from the station to the hotel.
After getting unpacked, we went looking for dinner and supplies. There was a Walgreen's one block away where we first picked up two more home COVID test kits and also some drinks to go with dinner. Our room has a mini-fridge, but no microwave oven; however, there is a communal microwave in the elevator lobby, so after we took the drinks back to the room, we went back downstairs and across the street to a high-end frozen-food store to pick up some likely looking food. Unfortunately, a lot of other people on our floor did the same thing, so it took quite a while to get dinner. Given the rain, however, we're glad we didn't get any more ambitious about wandering the neighborhood.
During the first day on the train, I managed to break the elastic in one of my N95 masks. We have spares, but Lisa wanted to fix this broken strap by sewing it back together. But as bad luck would have it, while both of us usually carry sewing kits, we'd both managed to leave our kits behind when we were packing for the trip. This is pretty ironic considering how much we were carrying. However, the Crowne Plaza had sewing kits and Lisa was able to repair the mask, so we're back up to a full supply.
I got a maximum late check-out tomorrow (2 PM). Our train to DC leaves at 5:45 PM, and we have no plans more ambitious than possibly having lunch at a place here in Greektown (the district in which we are staying) that Lisa likes, then going to the station early and taking full advantage of the Amtrak Metropolitan Lounge for sleeping-car passengers. Amtrak has moved and expanded the lounge since our last trip through here. I hope it isn't just a place where people hold empty cups in their hands so they can claim that they're "actively drinking" so they can pull down their masks.
