Trip Report: August 22 - 28, 2001
by Ted & Sylvia Blishak
MONTANA DAYLIGHT
ONBOARD THE MONTANA DAYLIGHT
Tuesday, August 22, 2001. We had less than one week to plan this trip, but here we are at the Klamath Falls Amtrak Station again waiting for No. 14, the northbound Coast Starlight for Eugene. What does Eugene have to do with Montana? Well, we never book our clients on a connection between the Coast Starlight and the Empire Builder, so this time we are not going to try it ourselves. For those of you who read about our trip to the San Francisco Ballet last spring on the southbound Starlight, getting to our Opera House seats just as the curtains parted, we are always going to follow our own advice from now on and not plan on Amtrak arriving on schedule. And Eugene is a nice town to stopover in. The Hilton is just a short two block walk from the Amtrak Station, and is in the heart of downtown, so we are looking forward to lunch at Mona Lizza's followed by a browse through the CD shelves of the Musique Gourmet, and a stop at Bradford's High Fidelity to check out the latest high end components.
Just a few days previous, we received a phone call from Marsha Pilgeram, CEO of Montana Rockies Rail Tours, at Sand Point, Idaho, advising us that there was space available on the newest addition to their train, the business car Yerba Buena, on two departures in August. We had been wanting to get to Montana for some time to ride this summer-only train, and this was a perfect opportunity. It is always a slow time in our business around Labor Day, so we arranged to join the August 24 departure. Getting sleeping car space at the last minute on Amtrak in the summer is no easy task, but with the kind assistance of Rose Blackson, our Amtrak Sales Rep in Portland, we managed to find the last rooms on the Coast Starlight and the Empire Builder, including a rare Deluxe Room on the eastbound Empire Builder.
We left the ranch in the capable hands of my retired Southern California-based younger brother, George Blishak. While we lug our computers and cell phones all over the Pacific Northwest, he plans to fill in some hiking segments on the Pacific Crest Trail during our absence. We all stand on the Klamath Falls platform this morning, enjoying the cool, dry, weather, and musing on the possible reactions to the Federal Government's plan to again turn off the irrigation water from Klamath Lake. There are hundreds of visitors to Klamath Falls this week from all over the West, here to protest the Administration's stand to protect the sucker fish at the expense of over one thousand Klamath Basin farm families.
The Coast Starlight is a mere twenty minutes late this morning, so there is still a chance to have breakfast in the dining car. As we enjoy our steak, eggs, and biscuits and gravy, we chat with a retired couple from Kamloops, British Columbia, who are on a baseball tour of the West Coast. They have already seen games in Los Angeles and Anaheim, and are looking forward to a Mariner's game in Seattle tomorrow.
The skies are blue with puffy white clouds, a welcome improvement over the smoke filled skies of the previous two weeks, due to a spate of forest fires to the south, the east, and the west. These are largely under control now and we are enjoying the clear air again. The clouds turn thick as we go over Cascade Summit and we roll through light rain all the way into Eugene. We have been working longer hours than usual, getting the office wrapped up for our week away, and after breakfast we take turns napping in the upper berth. Before we know it, we are approaching Eugene.
Having driven the two hundred miles to Eugene many times, I am still always surprised at how easy it is to travel on the Coast Starlight on this same route. No trucks, no construction zones, no trucks, no second rate food, no trucks, no weather problems, no trucks, no dirty rest rooms, and no trucks. I really appreciate how hard our truck drivers work to deliver all of the things that we need, but it has really changed the experience of driving. It is truly unfortunate that the railroads have given up on even attempting to move this high value time sensitive freight over their underutilized and under maintained roadbeds.
On disembarking No. 14, we walk the short two blocks to the Hilton, where we are upgraded, due to our Hilton Honors membership, to the concierge floor. A very nice touch. After enjoying an excellent salad, pasta, and Tiramasu dessert at Mona Lizza's, we go on a shopping spree at the Musique Gourmet and purchase the complete Dvorak Symphonies, all three Borodin symphonies, and the complete suites of Delius. We notice that nearly hidden amongst the thousands of CDs, there are only a handful of Super Audio CDs. I guess there is little point in investing in a SACD player yet. Bradford's Hi Fi is so conveniently located adjacent, we stop in to check out the High Definition TVs and discuss the possibilities of ever seeing any kind of variety of programming that can utilize the amazingly sharp image.
After catching up on our phone messages and e-mail, we repair to the Library where we find a tantalizing array of hot and cold cocktail snacks and freshly baked cookies. Then a long evening of learning how to use the "enhanced" TravelGuard Insurance web site in order to sell two trip insurance policies to clients who are joining us on our Holiday Train Party on the Rocky Mountaineer this Christmas.
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