The Great North American Adventure, Part 1
The good news is I am slowly coming back out of my post-trip funk (a similar condition to the infamous post-convention depression, but much worse) and getting on with the things I need to do. It has been just a hair under a week since arriving back, that anniversary is reserved for the upcoming Saturday evening, and let me tell you! If given the chance and the choice, I would have remained on the road indefinitely. It is not the doing of some bad circumstances or anything back here at home, but instead just the reality of me not having bled the urge for wandering completely out of my system just yet. This could be cause for some brash and sudden decisions in the future, if I know myself well enough, and also be the culprit behind random acts of wandering. You know the kind: late-night drives to nowhere, sudden all-day rides on two wheels when the weather and the moment strikes me, short-notice decisions to head somewhere a good distance away on flimsy reasoning.
The trip itself, however, was quite simply the best thing I have done in a very long time. I spent a total of 17 days on the move, traversing well over 7,000 miles in that span of time, and exploring through temperatures as low as -38 degrees at times, all while having a blast and having only the regret of not spending enough time in the places I stopped. And it all started over a plate of eggs and bacon, my dad sitting across the other side of the table, as I bought him breakfast in Folsom just ahead of him dropping me off at the light rail station. The plan I had cooked up was to travel entirely on rails, from one coast to another, and then head back by the same means through our neighbor to the north. I have always been something of a rail buff, having knowledge and fascination of the famous passenger trains from the 1920's through the 1960's ingrained deep inside my imagination, and this was primarily the catalyst in my desire to try and recreate what a trip would have entailed if it were to be taken in a time before reliable air travel and good roads.
And the light rail was just the first step, as it takes me directly from Folsom all the way to downtown Sacramento and the former Southern Pacific Railroad station there that now serves as a major Amtrak facility. I arrived several hours early, just as I had wanted, and casually took my time waiting for the train amid a cool and blustery morning. And to my delight, the California Zephyr, my train to the east, was right on time as it rolled in on the platform with my camera catching the moment. I quote the following from a journal I had started. "My car for the next two days is sleeper #0631, my room is #5. The rest of the people on the train are quite friendly and excited, the lady in room #6 across the way being no exception as she is raving about the train to every one of her friends via cell phone as we travel east bound; her final destination is Reno before flying on Saturday to Denver for a Van Halen concert. Come to find out, this is also the first time she has ever traveled by train… We need more people like her to keep Amtrak alive! We made great time… All the way to Truckee before being bogged down in the snow! In fact, we stayed in one place from about 12 noon until 14:30! I ate lunch in the diner, had a cheeseburger (that was not half bad) and watched a freight finally get cleared from the other side of the summit before the rotary plow that helped them came around and started doing the same for us.
The rest of the journey down the mountain on the Nevada side went without incident. We ended up arriving in Reno just as night was falling, and I took to stepping off the train for a little while to snap some photos of the platform and the train itself while also stretching my legs. This was short-lived though and in only a few moments the blasting echo of the train horn screamed at me to get back aboard. Reno has a below-street rail system that makes it so traffic in the city is not impacted by trains as they travel through, this also making the station below ground as well. Dinner in the dining car was alright, certainly not the best meal I have ever eaten; a steak that was more like a shoe with instant mashed potatoes and microwaved vegetables. Drown it all in A-1 sauce and it is edible. The night came a bit quicker than I had anticipated, and before I knew it I was making up my bed somewhere in the middle of nowhere, turning in, and calling the day."
It really was a good start to a long adventure. And now that I look at this as I am writing, I suddenly realize just how much there is to write about! My journal is incomplete, and as of this entry, only goes up to February 6th... Much less than half-way through the whole trip, yet it contains more than 16,000 characters already! Denver came to have me in the company of
crimson_fox and his sister, and even in the failed attempt at finding an open sushi restaurant in the city the following day, burritos and stories exchanged back and forth entertained and sustained none the less. I had a date to go north, to Wyoming, and visit family friends I had also not seen in years. It takes about two hours to travel from Denver to Laramie, and despite a bout of bad weather along I-80 going over the summit, I succeeded in getting there in about that.
Wyoming was nice, even if it was cold. In many ways it kind of prepared me for the even colder weather to be found ahead of me further along on the trip. I stayed a total of three days and nights before saying my goodbyes and heading back to Denver. A lot of things had taken place, from snowshoeing to show shoveling, and it will certainly be cause for return perhaps in the time of year snow is not so dominating. I returned to Denver, visited with a long-lost boyhood friend, and went to catch that Zephyr again. Only this time it was three hours late, which was cause for me to visit the Wynkoop Brewery across the street from the station and partake in their selection of ales and a bit of their dining as well. I mean... Drinking was a must, seeing as this was Mardi Gras!
Unfortunately those three hours of tardiness had turned into six by the time we pulled into Chicago's Union Station. Luckily the fellow firefighter who had agreed to become my host while in the city found this lateness to not be a big deal, even if it changed my original plans of staying in a fire station overnight into staying at his house instead. A late night meal and a few beers came next at his favorite local establishment. And indeed it was late night by the time we got back into his home and took to bed, well after midnight even. This did not stop anyone from getting up the next day and taking a tour of the city from a fire department point of view. Several stations, several calls ran with the guys on multiple companies, and visits to historical sites such as the training center which is also the place the Great Chicago Fire started in 1871.
I now think I'll be breaking this report of my adventures into a few volumes, just to save friends pages and my fingers from typing all this at once. I'm actually quite curious to know who will take the time and read it all as well, and should you indeed do such a thing, you're a brave soul! Just rest with the knowledge that the best is yet to come!
The trip itself, however, was quite simply the best thing I have done in a very long time. I spent a total of 17 days on the move, traversing well over 7,000 miles in that span of time, and exploring through temperatures as low as -38 degrees at times, all while having a blast and having only the regret of not spending enough time in the places I stopped. And it all started over a plate of eggs and bacon, my dad sitting across the other side of the table, as I bought him breakfast in Folsom just ahead of him dropping me off at the light rail station. The plan I had cooked up was to travel entirely on rails, from one coast to another, and then head back by the same means through our neighbor to the north. I have always been something of a rail buff, having knowledge and fascination of the famous passenger trains from the 1920's through the 1960's ingrained deep inside my imagination, and this was primarily the catalyst in my desire to try and recreate what a trip would have entailed if it were to be taken in a time before reliable air travel and good roads.
And the light rail was just the first step, as it takes me directly from Folsom all the way to downtown Sacramento and the former Southern Pacific Railroad station there that now serves as a major Amtrak facility. I arrived several hours early, just as I had wanted, and casually took my time waiting for the train amid a cool and blustery morning. And to my delight, the California Zephyr, my train to the east, was right on time as it rolled in on the platform with my camera catching the moment. I quote the following from a journal I had started. "My car for the next two days is sleeper #0631, my room is #5. The rest of the people on the train are quite friendly and excited, the lady in room #6 across the way being no exception as she is raving about the train to every one of her friends via cell phone as we travel east bound; her final destination is Reno before flying on Saturday to Denver for a Van Halen concert. Come to find out, this is also the first time she has ever traveled by train… We need more people like her to keep Amtrak alive! We made great time… All the way to Truckee before being bogged down in the snow! In fact, we stayed in one place from about 12 noon until 14:30! I ate lunch in the diner, had a cheeseburger (that was not half bad) and watched a freight finally get cleared from the other side of the summit before the rotary plow that helped them came around and started doing the same for us.
The rest of the journey down the mountain on the Nevada side went without incident. We ended up arriving in Reno just as night was falling, and I took to stepping off the train for a little while to snap some photos of the platform and the train itself while also stretching my legs. This was short-lived though and in only a few moments the blasting echo of the train horn screamed at me to get back aboard. Reno has a below-street rail system that makes it so traffic in the city is not impacted by trains as they travel through, this also making the station below ground as well. Dinner in the dining car was alright, certainly not the best meal I have ever eaten; a steak that was more like a shoe with instant mashed potatoes and microwaved vegetables. Drown it all in A-1 sauce and it is edible. The night came a bit quicker than I had anticipated, and before I knew it I was making up my bed somewhere in the middle of nowhere, turning in, and calling the day."
It really was a good start to a long adventure. And now that I look at this as I am writing, I suddenly realize just how much there is to write about! My journal is incomplete, and as of this entry, only goes up to February 6th... Much less than half-way through the whole trip, yet it contains more than 16,000 characters already! Denver came to have me in the company of
crimson_fox and his sister, and even in the failed attempt at finding an open sushi restaurant in the city the following day, burritos and stories exchanged back and forth entertained and sustained none the less. I had a date to go north, to Wyoming, and visit family friends I had also not seen in years. It takes about two hours to travel from Denver to Laramie, and despite a bout of bad weather along I-80 going over the summit, I succeeded in getting there in about that.
Wyoming was nice, even if it was cold. In many ways it kind of prepared me for the even colder weather to be found ahead of me further along on the trip. I stayed a total of three days and nights before saying my goodbyes and heading back to Denver. A lot of things had taken place, from snowshoeing to show shoveling, and it will certainly be cause for return perhaps in the time of year snow is not so dominating. I returned to Denver, visited with a long-lost boyhood friend, and went to catch that Zephyr again. Only this time it was three hours late, which was cause for me to visit the Wynkoop Brewery across the street from the station and partake in their selection of ales and a bit of their dining as well. I mean... Drinking was a must, seeing as this was Mardi Gras!
Unfortunately those three hours of tardiness had turned into six by the time we pulled into Chicago's Union Station. Luckily the fellow firefighter who had agreed to become my host while in the city found this lateness to not be a big deal, even if it changed my original plans of staying in a fire station overnight into staying at his house instead. A late night meal and a few beers came next at his favorite local establishment. And indeed it was late night by the time we got back into his home and took to bed, well after midnight even. This did not stop anyone from getting up the next day and taking a tour of the city from a fire department point of view. Several stations, several calls ran with the guys on multiple companies, and visits to historical sites such as the training center which is also the place the Great Chicago Fire started in 1871.
I now think I'll be breaking this report of my adventures into a few volumes, just to save friends pages and my fingers from typing all this at once. I'm actually quite curious to know who will take the time and read it all as well, and should you indeed do such a thing, you're a brave soul! Just rest with the knowledge that the best is yet to come!