Tag Archives: Grand Tour 2017

Grand Tour: Week 4

Philosophical Meanderings, Too Posted on by

Week 4 was a leisurely part of the trip. We rode the California Zephyr from Reno to Chicago. Once in Chicago, we rented a car and drove to Wisconsin to spend a few days with my mom and dad. They are doing well. Our visit with them was probably the best part of our trip. All too soon, we had to head back to Chicago, turn in the car, and climb on the Texas Eagle for the trip home. Rockdale, TX Depot

Soon after we were underway, we learned our trip was not to be without adventure. Thankfully, we were able to ride the train the whole way, but due to track work, passengers between Longview, TX and Taylor, TX had to detrain in Longview and pick up a bus. We got to ride the “alternate” route which took us within 15 miles of our Central Texas home. Shhh. Don’t tell anyone, but Mr. L said he hoped we’d take that route, thus speaking it into existence.

We arrived in San Antonio three hours late, caught a cab to the house, and gratefully sank into bed. The next morning, I assessed the grass growth for the month and decided it could wait if it had to. Thankfully, it did not rain as forecast, so I mowed the lawn. We met friends for dinner and drove back to Central Texas on Memorial Day, arriving in time to talk to both Walter and Zelda outside. The game camera revealed they had both been regular visitors all month. I was particularly relieved, because we hadn’t seen Walter for a month before we left. Walter on the porch

On Tuesday morning, I picked up the indoor herd from boarding at our veterinarian’s office and brought them home. Then I mowed the lawn. Vacation was definitely over.

Grand Tour: Week 3

Philosophical Meanderings, Too Posted on by

I’ve been putting off writing this post. Week 3 begins with the Greyhound portion of the trip. It was supposed to be the Coast Starlight, so we went from riding Amtrak’s flagship train route to…Greyhound. Yes there are worse ways to have to travel, but…

Greyhound says they have comfortable seats with extra legroom and electrical outlets at each seat. They do, indeed, have electrical outlets at each seat. We got the dubious pleasure of getting two people (who seem to have met on the bus) discuss their criminal history somewhere behind us (we were seated near the back of the bus). They got off in Eugene, OR, along with most of the rest of the bus passengers.

After Eugene, there were only ten of us on the bus, so we stretched out and tried to sleep. Some poor guy got to keep moving his legs to make room for me to hit the bathroom (side effect of the cold I came down with midway through the cruise). He was very nice. I’d been watching the Spurs game on my phone, and he’d been watching the Warriors game on his phone (same game, different phones, different perspectives). Turns out he had tickets to the playoffs games, because his uncle was the Warriors scorekeeper. Pretty cool for him. We parted with friendly well-wishes in Sacramento.

Sacramento had some good moments. We had no trouble picking up our rental car, and when we stopped at our motel to see if they could hold our luggage for us until check-in, they said our room was ready, and we could go up then (8:30 am). Oh, and breakfast was still serving. Help ourselves. Made my day! We moved everything in, got breakfast, and I immediately took a nap for the rest of the morning while Mr. L ran errands.

Originally, we’d planned to go to Yosemite, but before leaving Seattle, we realized we hadn’t allowed enough time in this trip in Sacramento. We revisted the California Railroad Museum; tried for the California Auto Museum, but it was closed on Tuesday, and we checked out the Aerospace Museum of California on the former McClellan Air Force Base site. Recruiting F-16Snow Plow Engine

 

Snow Plow Engine    F-16 Recruiting plane — never saw one that looked this good out in the real world.

 

 

DC-3/C-47C-47 cockpitC-47 cockpit

 

 

 

 

C-47 passenger/cargo areaThis DC-3/C-47 is interesting to see in it’s current state. I presume those indentations in the “seats” were for parachute packs. Even so, not the more comfortable way to travel, but it did the job.

 

 

 

Next, we have the A-10 Thunderbolt. These planes seemed to hang in the sky around Westover AFB in Springfield MA. I still love the beasts.

A-10 ThunderboltA-10 Thunderbolt

A-10 Thunderbolt

We had dinner with one of Mr. L’s subscribers and talked kerosene lanterns for several hours. After Sacramento, we climbed on the train and headed for Reno. We stay at Harrah’s, because it’s directly across the street from the train station. We walk our luggage to their lobby and check in. This time, we got a spacious corner room. Quite nice.

Harrah's room Harrah's room

 

 

 

 

The Truckee River was raging while we were there. In March, 2015, I remember it being much tamer.

Truckee River (May 2017)

We were in Reno for the Spring edition of Hot August Nights Car Show — much tamer than the mother event in August, but we enjoyed it.

My Dad had a Dart like this for the year he went away to graduate school in the late 60s.

Dodge DartThis El Camino SS was pretty original. The custom wheels were appropriate for the time. This engine is pretty clean, too.

El Camino SSEl Camino SS engine

 

 

 

 

The next thing I enjoyed seeing was a Lincoln Limosine. From the photo album, this baby has come a long way.

Lincoln Limo FrontLincoln Limo InteriorLincoln Limo RearLincoln V-12We climbed on the California Zephyr Saturday night for our ride to Chicago. One thing that always tickles us in Reno is the superb service we get from the Harrah’s Bell Desk. Both times we’ve stayed there, the guys manning the desk have walked our luggage to the train station for us. This time, he took it all the way downstairs to the waiting room. Wonderful guys. They also helped us arrange a rental car for one day while we were there.

Overall, Week Three was a success. Stay tuned for Week 4, and the conclusion of the 2017 Grand Tour Edition.

 

Grand Tour 2017: Week 1

Philosophical Meanderings, Too Posted on by

Grand Tour 2017 was planned to accomplish various things. First, we wanted to reverse the route of travel on various major Amtrak Western routes. We wanted to spend more time in Reno. And I wanted to visit Alaska — the final state of the 50 US states I needed to visit to be able to say I’d been to them all. When planning Amtrak travel, one must, above all things, remain flexible, and our Semper Gumby was stretched on this trip.

Remember the tornadoes and heavy rains in Northeast Texas and Arkansas at the end of April? In addition to severe property damage and flooding, railroad tracks were washed out in numerous places. We boarded our Texas Eagle and it departed on time. Everything seemed normal until we neared Fort Worth and the announcement came over the system that everyone would be detraining in Fort Worth and would be bussed to their final destination or Little Rock, Arkansas. In Little Rock, we’d pick up the train again. Okay. Sounds fine. Amtrak will make it right.

In Seattle several years ago when the train was delayed, Amtrak got Subway dinner boxes for everyone, including coach passengers. I thought that was a nice gesture. This time, the bus stopped and everyone got to purchase their own dinner. I was less impressed. After meandering the back roads of Texas for many hours, and then the back roads of Arkansas, we took a tour of Little Rock while the bus drivers searched for the train station. Once they found it and after a long delay (and no passenger train in sight), they told us we were being taken to a train yard about a hundred miles north, and the train would be waiting for us there.

In one of my strangest Amtrak experiences, the train was, indeed, waiting for us. It came to life as we arrived, and the crew did a wonderful job of helping everyone get on board. Unsure they would actually remember our checked baggage, I grabbed it from the bus, and we loaded it on the train with us.

We arrived in Chicago several hours late, which nixed our plans for dinner with friends. Our motel room was waiting for us, though, and I got a great night’s sleep. In the morning, I called Amtrak and they initiated reimbursement for the portion of our trip where we did not have the use of the bedroom on our train. Refreshed, we headed back to Union Station to catch the Empire Builder to Seattle. The Empire Builder left on time and arrived in Seattle close to on time — a completely uneventful ride, but very pleasant. As we approached Seattle, I received the email I’d been dreading — the Coast Starlight from Seattle to Sacramento was cancelled. We’d have to find our own transportation for that leg of the trip.

Upon arrival in Seattle, I went to the ticket counter to initiate the refund for the Coast Starlight leg of the trip. After picking up our rental car, we drove to the Greyhound station and purchased two seats to Sacramento. Greyhound said they had comfortable seats, more leg room, and electrical outlets at each seat. Mr. L said, “It has to be more comfortable than that bus from Fort Worth to Little Rock.