Train Blog

Travelling by train has become somewhat of a passion for me lately. EVERY time I get on the train, I don’t want to get off. The last trip, coming home from Seattle, I just wanted to stay on the train to LA, and then turn around and come back. If I didn’t have to work, I would have done just that.

This discussion centers on the assumption that I am getting a sleeper car. While the coach seats are more comfortable and roomier than on an airplane, I haven’t travelled coach since I was 18 years old. It is an inexpensive alternative to air travel, and infinitely better than taking the bus (motorcoach).

There are 4 different types of sleeper compartment; they can be found here:

http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?c=AM_Content_C&pagename=am%2FLayout&cid=1241267399802

When I am alone, or if 2 people don’t mind being a little cramped, the roomette is fine for most trips. For longer trips (or if I can get a cheap upgrade) I’d go for the Bedroom. Once I got upgraded to the family room.

Typically, I pack a suitcase that I check for all my needs at my destination and I take one carry on type of bag for my train needs. If you want some good tips for travelling by train, go here:

http://www.gomovers.com/amtrak-sleeping-accomodations.html

Or here:

http://www.zephyrtravel.us/RRTIPS.HTM

Train travel is not cheap. Round trip to the east coast can easily cost you about $2,000 the trip takes about 4 days, one way. But if you calculate accommodations for 8 days (like you are in a hotel), and 24 meals (8 days x 3 meals), factor in transportation, you are right in the ballpark.

Dining on the train can be good or bad. Here is a sample menu:

http://www.trainweb.com/travel/general/menu.html

The meals are pretty good, considering. Side salads are of the ‘crappy’ variety.

As much as I love the train, here is a differing opinion:

http://www1.epinions.com/trvl-review-2A25-30131E8-38C596A3-bd3

There are a couple of things you have to remember when taking the train:

1 – It’ll probably be late

2 – You CANNOT be in a hurry

3 – It’ll probably be late

4 – If you have to make a connection, make sure there is at least 3-5 hours layover. The longer the leg, the more hang time you should build in.

5 – It’ll probably be late.

Remember, Amtrak does not OWN the tracks, Southern Pacific, or Union Pacific, or Burlington Northern does. Freight takes precedent over passengers. It is entirely possible that you may get sidetracked 2-3 hours while a freight train uses the tracks.

Once taking the Sunset Limited:

http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer/AM_Route_C/1241245650939/1237405732511

There were 15-20 people leaving out of Jacksonville, FL for a Caribbean Cruise. The Sunset was 12 hours late; they missed their boat. Too bad, sorry. SOMEONE should have told those people to plan on getting into Florida a day early and just hang out. Instead all these people lost out. Maybe they charted a boat to meet up with their cruise at the first port of call, but who needs that headache. Did I mention that it’ll probably be late? In Amtrak’s defense, their on time rating has much improved lately. You can go here to check that:

http://www.amtrakdelays.onlineschedulingsoftware.com/

There are problems travelling no matter WHAT you mode of transportation. Here is a brief discussion of problems I have had:

1 – Taking the Coast Starlight to LA. I was bringing a tuba to LA for repairs. I was 8 hours late. Getting a rental car at 2 AM is challenging. No sleeper this time. It was only SUPPOSED to take 11 hours.

2 – Sunset Limited CA to Florida. As mentioned above, due to being sidetracked for freight, 12 hours late. Since I planned on a late arrival it was no big deal for us.

3 – Sunset Limited Florida to CA. This leg was fraught with problems:

a. A hurricane came through and broke the tracks (they are STILL not repaired). They (Amtrak) wanted to put us on a bus from Orlando to New Orleans. 18 hours on a firkin’ bus? No thanks! I rented a HUGE American automobile and drove right through the hurricane. We got to New Orleans a day ahead of the train. Had a wonderful dinner and hung out on Bourbon Street. The refund covered the car rental, the hotel and the dinner. I think I ended up with $35.

b. In the middle of Texas, we hit someone on the tracks. HIT SOMEONE! How the hell does a train in the middle of the desert hit you? We had to wait 8 hours for the coroner to get there. They took some time with the investigation and then we were on our way.

c. Said train was SO late, that in Barstow, they put us on a bus to help us catch the Coast Starlight north. We caught up with it in Santa Barbara (I didn’t build lateness into this leg of the trip)

4 – Last April, on my round trip to Rhode Island, I built in a 4-hour lay over, from CA to Chicago. We got in with one minute to spare. They held the Capitol Limited 15 minutes for the 20 of us that had to make the connection. I had already lined up a rental car to meet the Cap In South Bend, or Elkhart, or Waterloo, IN. Also, there was a chance I could have gotten on the Lakeshore, directly to NY.

So, dear readers, when taking the train, you must remember a couple of things:

1 – It’ll probably be late

2 – You CANNOT be in a hurry.

3 – You’ll meet some cool people at dinner, especially if you put out a little effort

4 – bring plenty to read, or your laptop to watch a movie

5 – Build in plenty of hang time if you have to make connections. If you are taking one of the cross country runs, like the CA Zephyr, or the Sunset Limited or the Empire builder and are taking a train to the beginning of the run. Get there early, like maybe the night before.

Did I mention that you would probably be late?

Why I don't fly

Recently, I have been travelling by train and the obvious question comes up: “Why don’t you just fly?”

Rather than writing a diatribe, I’ll LIST the reasons and we can discuss them at some length in the future. Here’s my list. My reasons are not JUST limited to this list, because I may leave one (or more) off; CRS disease, you know. Here goes:

1 – Erosion of personal freedom. Really, I have to remove my belt AND shoes? What’s up with that? If they randomly select someone to search, I’m the guy. I’m American and Italian. I’m not a religious zealot. I was born Catholic and haven’t been to church in years. I wouldn’t even know HOW to make an explosive device. The closest I came was blowing up my model cars with Cat’s Eyes™ firecrackers. I was 10 at the time.

2 - Long lines waiting to get through security. Once, I flew from Denver to San Jose. I was waiting in line longer than I was in the air. 90 minutes versus 55 minutes.

3 – The seats are SO comfortable. Need I say more?

4 – I ALWAYS get sick. SOMEONE on board is sick and the recirculated air gets to ME.

5 – How come I can’t bring water on board? And please, may I have the whole 12 oz. of soda, instead of the ½ can.

6 – God forbid if I should get hungry during the flight (see #5 above). If I can’t bring water, what makes you think they will let me bring a sandwich?

7 – The flight attendants are SO happy to be there. I understand that this job is very difficult and I realize many of these young women, especially, probably get hit on by every jerk getting on the plane, but please don’t assume I am one of those guys. I’m not. Is it SO hard to be polite?

8 – That bratty kid that kicks the seat is ALWAYS right behind me. And the woman is holding the crying baby with the bratty 3-yr old. Last time I flew, I told the woman with the kid, “If that brat kicks my seat once more, I’m going to slap YOU!” The kicking stopped.

9 – Don’t know about the tuba. Sometimes they flat out won’t take it. Years ago, I flew to Pennsylvania to play a gig. The tuba got TO Pennsy ok, but on the way back, they weren’t going to take it. The security guy made all sorts of lame excuses why he couldn’t take the tuba. Finally, I bribed him. I slipped him $50 and the horn got right on board.

10 – Why, if there is a problem, do we have to wait IN the plane for the situation to be cleared up? Recently, a friend of mine told me she sat in a plane for over 2 hours. Couldn’t they bring the passengers back to the terminal, liquor them up for their trouble and re-board later?

11 – Why do I have to get to the airport 2 hours early? Can someone PLEASE explain this to me? ESPECIALLY when so many flights are delayed anyway.

12 – Customer SERVICE? HA, that’s a joke!

13 – I hate flying. Not the LEAST of my worries. If a motorcycle fails, you coast to a stop, same with a car. If a plane fails, you drop out of the sky like a rock. Two of my very best friends EVER were killed in plane crashes. My life is greatly diminished because of these two losses. I will NEVER get over the loss of Vic, NEVER. I miss him every day.

And there you have it. Discuss amongst yourselves.

Disney Musings

We got to Disney T'giving Day, about 2:00. Our room was not ready so we parked the car behind the Paradise Pier Hotel and walked to Downtown Disneyland. MAN, this place is different since I was here. Our room was ready shortly after 3, and our bellman brought our stuff up to our room. We had dinner reservations for 5:30 at the Jazz Cafe Downtown Disney (DD). Everyone was SO nice. We said how sorry we were that they had to work on T'giving and TO A ONE, they said, "That's ok, I'm glad to be working today." I had turducen, and as good as it was, I don't have to have it again. We actually hit the hay early and I was asleep by 8:00. Seven hours in the car (with stops) was a long day.

We got up at 6:30 as we were told that as a guest of the Paradise Pier, we could get into the park early, at 7:00. WRONGO!! Sooo, we walked back to the Grand Californian (the new HUGE Hotel on the property) and had their breakfast buffet, which was NOT cheap, but I digress...

We got into the park at opening 8:00 and headed right to Tomorrow Land where we got on Star Tours, Buzz Lightyear, Space Mountain and the submarine ride, with NO wait!!! We then headed into Adventure Land for the Jungle Ride (about 8 minutes) and Pirates (<10 minutes)

A few odd things: The rocket ships that used to be above the people mover have been moved to the entrance to Tomorrow Land. There IS NO PEOPLE MOVER; I was bummed. The Swiss Family Tree House has been converted to "Tarzan's Tree House" and it doesn't make any sense because all the Swiss Family Robinson's stuff is all there, minus the cool stuff like the water wheel and water delivery system. I'd skip it. The Monorail does NOT go all the way to the Disneyland Hotel anymore; it stops in DD.

We wanted to take the sternwheeler around Tom Sawyer's island, but there was no place to sit down, so we got off.

We had lunch in New Orleans Square, and then headed to the Matterhorn. That was our longest wait, >20 minutes. But the line kept moving, and fast.

So we did all the big rides before 5:00. Headed back to the room and we are having dinner with Jeannine Flores (one of our BCMW friends) at 7:00. We'll head back into the park for Fireworks.

California Adventure tomorrow!

8:09 PM. Jeannine joined us for dinner at the PCH grill, and yes, she was wearing pants!

End of Oregon trip

Saturday, Nov 14. Slept in, packed and had a nice breakfast with Joan & Paul. They dropped me off at the Salem train station and I decided to upgrade to a bigger room on the 11 train, the Coast Starlight south. Elaine at the station was very helpful and was able to save me some money by finagling the tickets around. I had a few hours to kill so Elaine took care of my tuba while I went to a sports bar across the street. I had been in contact with an old HS friend who lives in Salem. I got her phone number through Facebook and I gave her a call. In no time, Karen Hansson and her husband Al came by the bar and we had a WONDERFUL visit. We spoke about old times and between Karen and (mostly) me, poor Al couldn't get in a word edgewise. The 11 was right on time and I got on board and settled in to my room. I met a fellow, George, who was traveling to SJ to visit family for T'giving. I had dinner with Ron who was also heading south for T'Giving. He grew up in La Honda, and was around there in the 60's. He had some stories to tell about the Hell's Angels, and Neil Young, who lived next door. Jack Kerouac did his greatest work while living in La Honda. I turned in early.

Sunday AM, I had breakfast with an elderly gentleman, who didn't talk much. I was really hungry so I asked for both the omlet AND french toast. Jack, the dining car steward, ok'd the request. The Capitol Corridor train had some problem, so we were sidetracked to pick up some passengers who were being dropped off in Hayward, Fremont and Santa Clara. Our train hit Diradon Station right on time anyway. LC was there to pick me up and took me right home.

As much as I love my sorties out of town, it is GREAT to be home. OWO tonight!!!

Oregon Day 6

Friday, November 13. REALLY light day. I have a lesson scheduled with Linfield’s tubist @12:30, then the concert at 7:30. I’m ready to go. We’ll see how the day progresses….

I met with Megan at about 12:45 and we worked for way over an hour. Joan and I took a ride into town to get some supplies for the house. When we got home, I was feeling kind of sneezy, so I took a couple of Benedryl and promptly fell asleep! My iPhone alarm woke me up at 6:30, I got dressed and headed for the concert.

We played at the First Baptist Church of McMinnville, a nice place for a concert. Joan narrated the concert, reading program notes before each work performed. It is obvious that she has created quite a rapport with the Linfield audience.

I played pretty well. The guest conductor, Jeff Hornik, prepared the accompaniment very well. The audience was very gracious, and I played my encore. I boffed the VERY ending of if a bit, so I played it twice! Live music wahdaygonnddoaboudit?

At the end of the concert, I spoke with few people about the though of coming up to Salem once a month to do some teaching. There seemed to be some real interest in this so I'll work on this when I get home.

After we went to a little hotel downtown for some food and I had risotto. I got home about 10:15, read a while & reflected upon the week. As much as I love doing these out of town engagements, it’ll be great to be back at 321 Dallas soon!

Tomorrow, I hang at Joan’s awhile and leave for Salem around noon to catch the 3:37 Coast Starlight bound for San Jose, and point south.

Oregon, Day 5

Thursday, November 12. NICE, SLOW morning. Ran around a bit with Joan’s kids and hung around their really nice house, which Paul actually built from scratch. My room is away from the rest of the family and animals that I feel like I’m in guest quarters.

At 4:00 I went to the performance seminar. I played first, “Introduction & Dance” by Barat. Then each of the students played for me, one at a time. I worked with a clarinetist, saxophonist, trombonist, tubist and an oboist. I had a great time, they all played well and I believe I was able to offer them a few suggestions that helped them along the path of musical growth.

Also, I made GREAT connect. The pianist here, Sarah, and her husband run a music school in or near Salem. While driving from Salem to Dayton, I spoke with Mary Lou about coming up once a month to do some private teaching. I spoke about this with Sarah and she seemed excited about the project. I’ll come up with a list of dates and I might be able to make something happen up here. There is no tuba teacher in Salem, so it might be a good inroad for me, perhaps looking towards the future. WHO KNOWS? Housing is cheap up here, relatively.

After seminar, we had a 6:30 band rehearsal at the First Baptist Church of McMinnville, where the concert is to be held. Rehearsal went off without a hitch (one percussionist didn't show up). Done before 7:10. We went over to a local Mexican restaurant for food. They featured excellent strawberry margaritas and chili rellenos. Home early, asleep before 10.

As much as I love these sojourns, I’m ready to be home. I hit the Coast Starlight Saturday, and I’ll be in my own place Sunday AM.

Oregon, Day 4

Wed, Nov 11. – Veteran’s Day. Nothing planned for today. Mary Lou will pick me up noonish to drive me to McMinnville. Being reflective and thankful for all those men & women who put their lives on the line so that we may enjoy the freedoms we DO have left.

It’s supposed to rain all day between here & there. I’m glad I brought my umbrella.

Mary Lou picked me up at noon, and we had a wonderful lunch in an old Victorian house that was converted to a restaurant. We drove out to Dayton, OR, where we were met by Paul, Joan’s husband. We got the the Paddock homestead. Both of Joan’s children, John Martin and Helen, have grown so much since I was here last, I hardly recognized them.

I had a great cup of coffee (UNLIKE the crappy in-room coffee from the morning) and went over to Linfeld College to coach a brass quartet.

We went to dinner at a great Italian joint, owned by a little old Italian guy who used to cook in Las Vegas for the Rat Pack.

Tomorrow, I have a seminar and a rehearsal. Should be really easy.