Trip Report: November 8 - December 10, 2006
by Ted & Sylvia Blishak
31 Day Grand Tour on Amtrak and the Mississippi Queen
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, November 8-11, 2006
Our clients often write us reports about the trips we help them plan, frequently referring to them as, "The Trip of a Lifetime". Well, we decided last year to plan ourselves a trip of a lifetime. In the fall of 2004 we traveled to Pittsburgh on Amtrak, and sailed to Cincinnati on the sternwheeler "Delta Queen". Ted's brother and his lady booked a trip for themselves, and then later asked us to join them. By the time we booked, the only cabin left was in the very lowest category. We called it the "bump your head" cabin. But we all had such a grand time that we decided to do it again, but on the "Mississippi Queen" from St. Louis to Memphis . This time we booked ahead to got ourselves the top of the line stateroom, then began to plan our "Trip of a Lifetime".
September through December is our quite time of year, and we always take our lengthy trips during this period. This year we were working up to the last day before departure, booking extensive trips for our clients traveling in 2007. So after a 3 hour nap after dinner, we stayed up all night to complete our packing.
Amtrak's "Coast Starlight" has been greatly improving its timekeeping since that powerful letter in August from a VP of Amtrak to a VP of Union Pacific Railroad. This letter was only possible due to the resignation of the Honorable Secretary of Transportation, Norman Mineta, the man who had the President of Amtrak, David Gunn, fired for not agreeing with the Bush Administration policies which would have destroyed Amtrak as we know it. Mr. Mineta would have never permitted such a letter. (For the text of this letter, see our previous trip report in October of this year.)
This morning's "Coast Starlight" is only 1 ½ hours late, as opposed to the more typical 5-7 hours recently. We check our baggage when the Klamath Falls Station opens at 730am, and then have breakfast at our favorite downtown restaurant, Nibbley's. When we board No. 14 at 945am, we told our car attendant we just got off the night shift and could he please make up our bed. We slept soundly until the last call for lunch, then dressed to enjoy a cheeseburger on the new Dining Lite menu. (For the story on Dining Lite, see our previous trip report of October 2006.)
Although the Pacific Parlour Car is no longer listed as an amenity on this train in the October 30 timetable, we enjoyed an afternoon wine tasting in the Parlour Car on today's train.
The dining car steward gave us reservations for a 5pm dinner, as we were not scheduled into Portland until 530pm. The dining car gave special rush service to those passengers disembarking in Portland . The salmon was excellent, even better than the salmon on our trip last month. I finished mine, and some passengers carried out their dinners with them in take away containers, when the train arrived unexpectedly early into Portland Union Station, with its beckoning neon sign on the clock tower, GO BY TRAIN!
If we had wanted to make a connection with the "Empire Builder" to Chicago , we would have taken the Amtrak Thruway Bus from Klamath Falls to Pasco . However we are train riders, not bus riders. Portland is a city we love to visit, especially at The Westin Portland, with its Heavenly Beds, outstanding cuisine, and superb service. So we decided to treat ourselves to not just one night, but three nights at the Westin. As it turns out, we needed that time to get our technology in order.
Sylvia had to rush some 35mm slide film to the publisher of the new Passenger Train Journal, for which she writes a column. Portland has Citizens Photo, which can turn around slide development on the same day. Their shop is only 1.2 miles away according to my Microsoft Streets and Trips, 2006. But we find out this is by vehicle, not on foot. If we had completed the circuitous sidewalk route on the Morrison Bridge across the Willamette River , I estimated it would end up being more like 1.8 miles.
One cannot just walk across this bridge, there are separate pedestrian ramps which are not signed and difficult to find, and when you reach the opposite bank of the river, you descend a spiral ramp to the east bank of the river, from where you have three choices, a walk along the river walk, a walk along a sidewalk under the bridge, an area populated by the unfortunate homeless of Portland, or a three story staircase which dead ends at a No 15 Tri-Met bus stop on the bridge deck. We elect to wait for the next bus, which arrives in a few minutes, and which drops us off two blocks from Citizens Photo. (We also elect to return by bus.)
Back at our room, I set up our two laptops, one primary, one backup, and find that the backup has somehow lost its Sprint PCS software! Of course I did not bring my CD ROM with me, and no Sprint store has any of these now obsolete products. I decide to take the big step and move up to Sprint PCS Broadband. When I install the software and test it I find it will download data at 47Kps, which compares favorably with the in-room Internet access which downloads at 147Kps. Continuing my test I find that my 5 year old Sprint PCS modem downloads at less than 1 Kps. What I had thought so revolutionary five years ago was hopelessly obsolete today.
The second revolution in technology on this trip is our ability to log on to our office computer, and actually issue tickets remotely. There is hardly a need to be in our office anymore with all of this technology.
The down side of this new software was that after loading into my old IBM Think Pad backup laptop, it stopped working and would not reboot. Desperately searching the Yellow Pages, I find Geeks, who provide emergency service nationwide. The local Geek phoned me after a little while, and although he first thought my hard drive had failed, when I told him I had just installed Sprint PCS Broadband software, kept trying things, and was able to breathe life into the old IBM over the phone. He was so happy that he didn't have to make a house call; he refused any payment for his exemplary service. But now I have his phone number in case I run into trouble again.
(As it turned out, the IBM failed to start again on Sunday, and eventually, I had to reboot and restore the machine to its previous state before Sprint PCS was added. But when shut down again, it would not start again, so it is getting shipped back to the dealer in Klamath Falls . I want to get another Dell Latitude, the only laptop that has never given me any problems.)
The Westin Portland has an excellent dining room by the name of Daily Grill, which is a tremendous improvement over the Oriental style restaurant that the hotel opened with several years ago. At that time we would always dine in restaurants elsewhere, but now we find ourselves looking forward to every mealtime at the Westin.
Our room is on the 12 th floor, which is designated Starwood Preferred Guest floor. (Starwood operates Westin, Sheraton, Sheraton Four Points, and W Hotels.) We are checked into a corner room which not only has windows on two walls, but also in the bathroom. The trademarked Heavenly Bed practically guarantees a good night's sleep. Outside our door Thursday and Friday mornings we find a USA Today, on Saturday, the Oregonian. In the dining room there are often Wall Street Journals and New York Times available. The two public rooms off the lobby have coffee, other newspapers, a collection of classic books, and a gas fireplace. If you can find an easy chair in one of these rooms when there are no guests yammering on their cell phones, it is a quiet interlude indeed.
On Saturday, we ask for an extension of our checkout time, as the Empire Builder to Chicago does not leave until 445pm. A new wrinkle at Starwood, for $25.00 they will extend your checkout time from 12 noon until 4pm. We sign up immediately and now have a home until train check in time.
I call for a bellman and a taxi at 330pm. It is not until 415pm that a taxi appears. We arrive at Portland Union Station just in time to check one bag of laundry back to Klamath Falls and board Car 2830, the Portland sleeper, which is a the very end of the train, its usual position. Departure time is 445pm.
A very tasty box dinner is served in our room at 6pm along with small bottles of California sparkling wine. The meal choices are beef, chicken, and shrimp, something to satisfy everyone. The box meals are a great improvement over what we received on our last Empire Builder trip, where we received what we dubbed the moldy grape breakfast.
It has been a long day. We ask the porter to make up our bed and soon we are in dreamland, until we arrive in Spokane in the wee hours, the locomotive is uncoupled, the emergency lights come on, and the A/C turns off. I set up my Dell laptop, and in two minutes am signed on to the Internet with my Sprint PCS Broadband card, downloading email and checking the news on USA Today's web site. What miracles technology hath wrought!
Continue to Next Page
