[Leica] Long and off-topic; long Amtrak train voyage

[SthRosner@aol.com]

I know Mitch Zeissler has been panting for this report; perhaps others are 
interested as well. It's long, well, the journey covered two weeks and 7060 
miles - 11,360 km -  so be advised.

Had I done this trip in coach the ticket cost, senior discount, would have 
been $365.50 ! exclusive of meals. Coach travel is very comfortable indeed, 
the seats recline way back, there is leg room for an NBA basketball player 
and leg rests that rise to support lower limbs. 

Since I took sleeping car space, a small private room with upper and lower 
berth (yes I was alone, mama) and available shower bath, the total tariff was 
not inexpensive, $1,916.50. Had my wife accompanied me, our total ticket cost 
would have been $2,281. or $1,140.50 each, very reasonable considering that 
this purchased seven "hotel room" nights, all meals and a week of sightseeing 
America. 

Monday 30 September, boarded Amtrak's Lake Shore Limited at the literally 
brand-new Albany-Rennselaer Amtrak station, a truly gorgeous and extremely 
user-friendly modern structure with hints of the palatial architecture that 
early in the last century created Grand Central and Pennsylvania Stations in 
New York, Union Station in Washington, several beautiful terminals in Chicago 
(Union, Dearborn St. etc) and in almost every major city in the United 
States, all of Europe and many other parts of this wonderful world of ours. 

Departed Albany at 8:15pm - about 30 minutes late - due to late arrival of 
the Boston section; a sleeper and two coaches from Boston join the New York 
section of the train at Albany. A very good dinner in the dining car, salad, 
a N.Y. strip steak ordered medium rare and served medium rare and piping hot. 
Comfortable night in sleeping berth, breakfast of orange juice, scrambled 
eggs, sausage and grits, biscuits, croissants and coffee. Arrival in Chicago 
Tuesday morning 25 minutes late. 

Lunch with two friends on Lake Shore Drive and back to Union Station for 
2:10pm departure of Empire Builder. Superliner two-level sleeping cars with 
one w.c. on upper level and three w.c.'s and shower bathroom on lower level, 
full-length dome lounge car with bar and cafe on lower level and full length 
dining car with galley below. Across Wisconsin, Minnesota, the mighty 
Mississippi River, North Dakota and into Havre, Montana early. One says it 
quickly but it's 24 hours and 1,370 miles or 2,200 km. 
We're in Havre for 40 minutes; there's a crewe-change and they water the 
train so I have time to stroll downtown, peer into a coouple of saloons with 
slot machines, spend 15 minutes in a book store with walls covered with 
pre-owned books, literature, history, philosophy and photography. There's 
also a small but very interesting railroad museum and gthe 40 minutes 
disappeared too quickly.
 
We leave Havre exactly on time. Ten minutes later the train stops and the 
conductor announces that a Burlington Northern Santa Fe freight train has 
broken down, the line is single track at this point and we have to wait till 
the freight train is moved. We are still for a 1 1/2 hours. At Spokane, 
Washington the Empire Builder divides, half the train going to Seattle and 
the other to Portland. We arrive at Portland 23 minutes early on Thursday 
morning, 3 October.

The LHSA meeting was great fun, thanks and kudos to our own Mark Rabiner who 
was meeting and program director, saw old friends, met some new ones, 
including our own Ted Grant who was the Saturday evening banquet speaker. 
Predictably spectacular presentation of slides with remarks that for me would 
have been sufficient reason by themselves to have attended the meeting. Ted's 
bottom line: for heavens sake, get out and photograph. "Be prepared" is the 
Boy Scouts' marching song. It must also be that of all of us who photograph 
for a living, for fun, for personal satisfaction or for all of the above. 
Many, many sincere thanks, Ted, for a wonderful evening. And for myn personal 
opportunity to meet with you, if only so briefly. Next time we're in Victoria 
or Vancouver or you are east, we'll do a do.

Sunday afternoon following the delectable display of Leica items for sale by 
members off I went to the station, boarded the southbound Coast Starlight for 
San Francisco, scheduled departure 2:15pm, stood in station for over two 
hours, held up by a Union Pacific freight train, moved a few hundred yards, 
U.P. freight still obstructing and finally rolling 3 hours 20 minutes late, 
none of it Amtrak's fault. Otherwise pleasant overnight ride to Emeryville, 
California, across the Bay from San Francisco, Amtrak recovering over an hour 
of the delay and arriving at 10:30am on Monday, Amtrak bus across the Bay 
Bridge arriving on the Embarcadero in time to catch a taxi to the Marines' 
Memorial Club where I found a most pleasant room, lunch of 18 silver dollar 
size Swedish pancakes at Sears, afternoon at the Maritime Museum and 
strolling on Bay and Fishermans Wharf and dinner with a friend at the World 
Trade Club watching the San Francisco Giants win the National League baseball 
championship.

Tuesday morning back to the Embarcadero to catch the Amtrak bus back to 
Emeryville for on-time departure of the California Zephyr for Chicago (well, 
we were actually seven minutes late, having to wait for the southbound Coast 
Starlight to clear). Still the most beautiful train ride in North America, 
covering the Nevada-Utah desert and the Nebraska-Iowa plains at night and the 
Sierra Nevada and Colorado Rocky mountains by day. 

Apart from the appeal of watching the great American mountain west roll past 
the all-glass dome of the lounge car, disappointing service from one of the 
waiters in the dining car - the only such experience out of 18 Amtrak meals - 
and extensive delays caused again by freight trains of the Union Pacific 
Railroad, the ride to Chicago was otherwise uneventful, arrival over two 
hours late but in time for passengers connecting to eastbound Amtrak trains 
to make their connections.

A three-day A.B.A. meeting and homeward bound Saturday evening on the Lake 
Shore Limited, arriving Albany Sunday 13 October about 30 minutes late. 
Altogether a fun trip. As I may have written here in the exchange with Mitch, 
an overnight train trip to me is like a little cocoon of space and time, no 
television, no telephone, the leisure to read what one can't seem to find 
time to do at home, to watch the country slide by and to let one's mind 
wander. And wander it does. Wonderfully. And of course to photograph. Not so 
much the scenery which is flying by at anywhere from 40 to 80 mph, as people 
on the train. Some decade when I have learned to scan, digitize and such, 
I'll post. I promise.

Sorry for the length but if you got this far, perhaps you weren't too bored.

Seth                      LaK 9
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