Trip Report: May 3 - 18, 2001
by Ted & Sylvia Blishak
Through the Pacific Northwest and Canada
by Amtrak, BC Rail and VIA Rail Canada
EUGENE TO KLAMATH FALLS:
THE LAST DAY
Friday, May 18.
We arise early to enjoy the excellent continental breakfast in the Library Lounge, and are appalled to find walking in behind us a young couple who arrive for breakfast in bare feet and shorts. There is quite a flap as management advises them, to their embarrassment and discomfort, that certain laws apply in the State of Oregon regarding dress code in public eating establishments. How much easier it would have been for everyone if their parents had taught them some basic behavioral habits when they were growing up. Now the Hilton is planning on putting up a sign to advise people with no upbringing about how to dress when dining in public.
Click on photos to enlarge
It is a beautiful spring day in the Willamette Valley, and after our morning office chores are complete, we take a walk around the downtown area before enjoying lunch at one of our favorite establishments, Mona Lizza. Before we know it, it is time to check out, even though the Hilton permits its concierge floor guests to stay over until 3 PM, if they need to. We find that the bar of the Oregon Electric Restaurant is the perfect place to relax while waiting for Number 11, which arrives only about 45 minutes late. We learn at the station that Number 14 had gone through over five hours late, due to demolishing an automobile on an private grade crossing south of Klamath Falls. Fortunately, no one was killed, but this has to be hard on the engine crew.
We have a Family Bedroom on this segment, the last room available, and time goes by swiftly as we climb over 5000 feet over Willamette Pass to the High Desert of Central Oregon, enjoy the last call in the dining car and arrive in Klamath Falls only thirty minutes behind. Fifteen days of vacation, and fourteen days on trains, the perfect trip!
What is my outstanding memory of this memorable trip? I have to admit that sitting in the Park Observation Car of the Canadian as it moves swiftly and purposefully across Canada, its long set of cars snaking ahead around curves and hurtling along the straight-aways, is a sensation that cannot be duplicated anywhere else, and is most remindful to me of the great days of North American railroading.
