Two Penny Travels

Cutting It Thin

For the last six days we have been "on the road" meaning three days were devoted to travel by train from Springfield, IL, to Sacramento, CA, followed by three days driving from Sacramento to Laughlin, NV. Finally, we are settled in an RV spot and do not expect to move tomorrow. Of course, there is the day or two after that when we go down to Yuma, AZ.

One of the problems with traveling so much is you get complacent. You start forgetting to plan ahead and worry about what if something goes wrong. You screw UP.

First, let me tell you that traveling by rail from IL to CA during the winter can get boring. All you see is snow, at least this year. There is snow on the ground, and snow on the trees, and snow on the houses and barns. I even saw a homeless man in Iowa sitting on a park bench, and he was covered with snow -- then I realized it was a brass figure. But it sure looked real, and the snow was real. It was cold, down to -15F outside someone said.

It was good to get back to California and begin retraining out dog Wolf. He had spent almost two weeks with our daughter Deb and her partner Paula. Paula took Wolf to work every working day, and he had grown to enjoy the attention and getting around. Slowly but surely we are convincing him that constant sleep is a better alternative.

By last night we had made our way to Bakersfield. I had filled my fuel tank in Coachilla and had over 3/4 a tank left. The weather was overcast/foggy and did not contribute to our really being on the ball. This morning we got up, cooked breakfast, and headed up over Tehachapi Pass. Once we got out of the San Juaquin valley the fog disappeared and only high clouds remained. We could see the sun.

We reached Karmmer's Junction at the intersection of 58 and 395 in time for lunch. I thought about filling my fuel tank there, but at $3.65 per gallon I hoped for something better down the line and the guage still read over 1/2. When we reached Barstow I did not see an easy place to get fuel so kept tootling along.

After we settled into the boredom of driving along I-40, I looked at my fuel guage and at the miles driven and decided I could make it to the Needles area before I needed fuel. Besides, there simply was not much in the way of service stations along the freeway.

I drove and drove, and the road kept getting longer and the guage kept dropping. Halfway across some designated Wilderness, the fuel checklight came on. We were still 60 miles from Needles. I figured we could make it.

The miles kept going by, and as we crested one of the hills I figured it was downhill all the way to Needles. But around the corner there was another valley and climb to the top of the next pass. The needle kept dropping and was soon down to halfway between E and the first mark.

A sign said the next services was 37 miles down the road. I told Alice we could make it all the way into Needles, and that made her feel better. But not me. I had begun to worry.

Miles and miles of miles and miles went by, and I wondered if it would ever stop. We went under overpasses for roads without services -- without even a house or two. No one lived there. Then came another deserted overpass, and another. I realized I was "cutting it pretty thin."

Alice checked phone reception to see if we could call road services is we ran out of fuel. Then these emergency communications posts began to show up every few miles. I wondered how many people had hoped there would be fuel and had cut it too thin along this stretch of the road.

Finally, a sign indicated that the next exit had fuel, and we pulled off and entered the Hi Sahara Oasis, a non-descript place somewhere in the desert along I-40. But they did have diesel -- at $4.239 per gallon. I went in and gave the girl $20. She gave me a smile and a receipt and I went out to pump 4.3 gallons into my tank. I just hoped it was clean fuel.

Net, we made it into Laughlin, though tomorrow I go over to Bullhead City to fill my tank, hopefully at a more reasonable price. The marker is 1/8 inch above E, so there is not much left. No, I could not have made it into Laughlin on what I had, and possibly could not have even coasted on down the hill to Needles.

It reminds of when we were young and Alice's dad told me it was cheaper to keep the top half of the tank full than trying to keep the bottom half full. Made sense then, makes sense now. Don't cut it thin.

sam

Riding the Rails into 2011

Nearly a week ago my wife and I boarded the train for a trip to Illinois. We are in Collinsville, IL now.

The reason for the trip is to participate in the celebration of the retirement of our youngest son from the Air Force (after 27 years). There is a dinner and a ceremony scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday. It is also a chance to see this part of the family and maybe relax and catch up.

But the subject of this blog is to record our experiences riding the train.

Our itinerary was to catch Amtrak's Train 6, the California Zephyr, at 11:09am Tuesday in Sacramento, CA. We had a reserved roomette (#11 in car 631) where we would hang out until we arrived at the Union Station in Chicago, IL, at 2:20om Thursday. We transfered to Train 305, the Lincoln Service, in Business Class, departing at 5:15pm for Springfield, IL, expected to arrive at 8:39pm.

Daughter Deb dropped us off at the Sacramento station in the rain with plenty of time to spare. Once inside, we found there was even more time to spare because the Zephyr was still in Emeryville where they were working on a non-functioning toilet. So we sat for an extra two and a half hours on the hard oak benches they built in 1890 for the people with smaller butts than ours to wait for trains at a train station. A train station full of people waiting for the main train is a great place to engage in serious people-watching, and to meet quite a few of them if you choose. What a cross-section of our society.

The train arrived, and we were taken to the other side of the train in an electric cart. Good, because it was still raining. We stepped onto car 631 and were directed to our roomette.

We have three mid-sized suitcases. One fit nicely in the clothes hanging space against the wall and the other two fit under the seats. Not bad unless you need to get into them, then it helps to send the other person out of the roomette to make room for a suitcase on the opposite seat.

The dictionary definition for roomette is that it is a self-contained compartment (i.e., with toilet) on a rail-way car, most often for one person. Amtrak's implementation is that it is a compartment with seats for two and the toilet is down the rail car. The seats are wide enough for one and a half persons -- no side by side sitting. The knee space requires the opposing adults to interlace their legs, especially if one person adopts the lounge seat position (knees then reach the opposite seat cushion).

The space between the side of the seat and the sliding door is about ten inches, not wide enough to turn around in unless you put your butt out into the the walking aisle (door must be open for this maneuver). This is not much of a problem except at night when the top bunk is down and you have only undies on.

The fold-down upper bunk is wide enough for three/fourths of a person and seems to slope toward the aisle. There is about fourteen inches of headroom, so if you have any kind of problem with claustrophobia, you might not want to sleep upstairs. Ah yes, the stairs to the upper bunk. I assume the two levels of carpeted arm-rest are the "stairs." I suppose if I were 50 years younger it would be a snap, but at 73 it was a struggle to climb up top, especially given the turn-around room. And don't have a leg cramp while in the upper bunk, or have to go to the toilet in the middle of the night. Going up and down the stairs in the dark is a real chore.

So much for my rant.

The trip was a worthy experience. We road into the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the snow banks as the afternoon faded away. It was a beautiful and peaceful sight. That evening we had a delightful dinner (part of the roomette experience) and met the crew and some of our fellow travelers. It was night-time when we reached Reno and after a short stop, the train headed on east.

The attendant came by about 9:30 to prepare our roomette for sleeping. We got out of the way and then returned to figure out the sleeping arrangements. I tried out the upper bunk, but moved into a neighboring empty roomette in the middle of the night after a bout of claustrophobia and cramps (see rant above). I figure I got about 3 hours sleep.

We had gained about half an hour across Nevada and reached Salt Lake City about 5am. Then the train headed to Provo and then Price. The snow was really falling that morning and we watched a few venturesome cars and trucks going up and down I-70 on the unplowed roadway. It was nice and cozy in the roomette.

We had breakfast and lunch in the dining car. Great food and more good company. The scene remained snowy and we reached Grand Junction about noon, still a couple of hours behind schedule. The trip along the Colorado River was very interesting. Some of the river was frozen over and we saw wildlife along the way. A big golden eagle was tearing apart some kind of meal out on the ice flow at one point.The mountains grew higher and there was intermittant snow.

I went into the unoccupied roomette and used my cPAP machine to help my breathing on the final climb up to Frazier, CO. At over 9,000 feet it helped. We entered the long tunnel under the continental divide about 6pm and then headed down toward Denver. My breathing became noticeably easier as we moved into lower elevations.

After another delightful dinner, we went back to the roomette. When the attendant came around to prepare our beds, I said I would do it personally at a later time when we were ready. We got to bed about 11pm, and I did a better job of climbing into the upper bunk. With practice, I may become an expert.

Much of Nebraska went by in the night and we were into Omaha for breakfast. We crossed Iowa and reached Burlington around noon. The Mississippi was about half frozen over at that point. As we approached Chicago, I noticed the snow cover seemed to be receding, and then we pulled into Union Station.

Though we were 2 hours late, there was sufficient time to transfer, and we boarded early because we had Business Class tickets. We had a couple of very comfortable reclining seats. About 5:30pm the train left the station, and we were in Springfield, IL by 9pm. Krista, our daughter-in-law was there to pick us up for the ride down to Collinsville where the family lives.

I would rate the train experience a 4 out of 5. It is a good way to travel if you have the time. There are some inconveniences, but you get used to them. Just take along plenty to read.