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Here's the report I sent to my "general" audience as we headed to Tacoma for my 50th Peace Corps Reunion.
We enjoyed the train portion of the trip very much. The PPC was under-supplied. No table cloths or napkins, no coffee mugs, only one mini of gin! Worse was the inventory sheets (REAMS of dot matrix printed minutiae!) that the attendant has to justify for the end of the trip.
Frank in sunny but cool SBA
WEDNESDAY, 4 SEPTEMBER 2013 ON BOARD AMTRAK'S COAST STARLIGHT, TRAIN 14 We are headed to Tacoma, WA and Frank's 50th Anniversary Peace Corps Reunion. We go off to a late start. The train lost time between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara and hasn't made it up yet. We are coming into Paso Robles but have stopped because of a "tie fire". The Conductor says not to be alarmed. The Fire Department is there. Ah, the joys of travel. We are using some AGR (Amtrak Guest Rewards) points for this trip. They were just sitting there and this seemed like a good way to use them. Since they are my (Frank's) points I'm in a bedroom which includes a toilet and shower and a nice big bed and Norm is down the hall in a Roomette. It's fine for one person but not for two. No toilet -- that's down the hall -- and the shower is downstairs. The real upside is that neither one of us has to climb into one of Amtrak's notoriously claustrophobic upper berths. One nice thing about this train is that it has a "Pacific Parlour Car" which is for sleeping car passengers only. These cars were built in 1955 for the Santa Fe Railroad's "Hi-Level El Capitán" which ran between Los Angeles and Chicago. It was the first attempt at bilevel trains. The lounge cars have comfortable swivel seats and curved windows that go up into the ceiling. Although we were an hour late boarding they were still serving lunch in the Diner so we went there right away. I had a pretty good Chef's Salad and Norm had an Angus bacon cheese burger that he said was very good. By the time that we finished lunch it was time to return to the Parlour Car for Wine and Cheese tasting. We sat with a retired UA pilot so there was some airline talk but we mostly just enjoyed the scenery as we went right along the coastline through Vandenberg Air Force Base and on up into our first stop at San Luis Obispo. We've done this trip before and the Wine Tasting was a bit more casual than we've had before. We had the feeling that Debbie, the car attendant, was more interested in finishing the job and selling wine. They are able to do that by the bottle and I'm pretty sure she gets a cut -- either formally or by just helping herself. We have two choices for dinner. We can eat in the Diner -- sharing a table but with five entree choices -- or we can eat in the Parlour Car with a table for two and two choices. We've opted for the Parlour Car tonight. As sleeping car passengers all meals are included. That's really good value because the meals tend to be a bit pricey a la carte. The steak at dinner is about 25 dollars. We are just coming into Paso Robles and are still about an hour late so I think I'll take a break and finish up my "Champagne". Oh, did I forget to mention the "Champagne"? Actually it's Sparkling Wine from California but quite nice. Another perk for sleeping car passengers. It's meant to be in the room when you board but our attendant didn't get around to offering it until after the wine tasting. More later. THURSDAY, 5 SEPTEMBER 2013 Dinner was good last night. Norm had a braised beef rib with barbecue sauce and I had a dinner salad with five or six very good shrimp with a Cajun seasoning on them. Desserts were disappointing. Amtrak used to do a really good job with that. Norm had a sort of chocolate mousse that looked like something you might buy from the Deli case. I had a cardboard cup of orange sherbet. It was served in the cup -- no plate, nothing. All that was missing was the wooden spoon. I slept very well right on through until Dunsmuir at about 6:00AM. One good thing about running late is that we had a good daylight view of Mt. Shasta. The route of the train takes us pretty much around three sides of the mountain. Norm and I exchanged a couple of text messages until we lost cell service. I slowly got up and had my shower and got dressed. I'm in the Parlour Car getting caught up on mail and thinking about having a cup of coffee. Our Hostess looks like she didn't have as good a night as I did. 10:00AM Norm joined me in the Parlour Car and we each had a very good Bloody Mary and Blueberry Scones. We moved from there to the Diner where we sat with two young women from Germany who were just finishing up a three week tour of the United States. I had a huge breakfast -- a vegetable and cheese omelette, very good potatoes, two chicken sausage patties and a giant croissant. Norm had the "Railroad French Toast" which he said was good but it didn't look like the puffy kind I used to enjoy on the Southern Pacific Coast Daylight. After breakfast we went back to the Parlour Car and read the Klamath Falls newspaper. Our friend Cary will be happy to know that they quoted an article from the Redding Searchlight about a group in far Northern California that wants to secede from California and start a new state called Jefferson. I've been hearing these stories for years and they seem to come up again every once in awhile. Norm headed back to the sleeper for a shower and I struck up a conversation with new retiree from Auckland, New Zealand. His wife doesn't like to travel so he's on a rail trip around America. You do meet some really nice people on the train and also a pretty fair number of "unusual" folks. It's nap time for we. We are going through the Cascades now and there seem to be tunnels every mile or so -- some of them quite long. SUNDAY, 8 SEPTEMBER 2013 Our train adventure continued to be enjoyable. We arrived in Tacoma, WA, just about ten minutes late which is the same as "on-time" for Amtrak. Our friend Jim Button ("Uncle Jim" for those of you who remember when my classes followed him and "Aunt Martha" around the world on their 97 day cruise on HAL's Rotterdam.) picked us up and got us the La Quinta. We were soon swept up into reconnecting and catching up. On a wet Friday Norm and I and Kate and George Griffin went to the Boeing Museum of Flight. We hadn't been in quite awhile and it is now much larger. We had planned on just spending the morning but realized we wanted to see more so had a good lunch in the Museum Cafe and then didn't leave until about 3:00PM. Part of the Museum is the Airpark where they have the first 747, examples of the 727 and 737, an early Air Force One, a beautifully restored Lockheed Constellation and one of the British Airways Concordes. You can walk through the Concorde and Air Force One. This one was used by LBJ when he was Vice President and has the doggie door into his office for the Beagles. Yesterday we spent the morning at the Museum of Glass which is a beautiful building and has an amazing glass studio. We were captivated by the process and ended up having a very good lunch in the Museum Cafe. From there we took the free Link Train to the LeMay Car Museum across from the Tacoma Dome. They have 300 cars on display at any given moment but have close to 1,000 cars in total in the collection. It was a real trip down Memory Lane! We've decided that Tacoma is a pretty much hidden gem. We've always thought of it as being the industrial step-sister of Seattle but it is anything but. The Dinner was last night and was preceded by Happy Hour. We did tributes to those we've lost (2 from Costa Rica II and 5 from El Salvador II). We have had our final breakfast and said some hasta luegos and hope to slip out on a van to the airport at 12:30PM. We will be back up in Seattle on Thursday for the departure of a 10 night coastal cruise on Friday. I am going in for heart valve replacement surgery on 1 October and will be up and running and ready for more adventures soon after. That will include our next Peace Corps reunion in Providence, RI, in October, 2015!
Posts: 2160 | From: Santa Barbara, CA, USA | Registered: Oct 2003
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My Brother served in the Peace Corps and was killed on 1-1-85 when the Eastern Airlines flight from Ascunsion to La Paz crashed into the summit of Mt, Illimana. His name was Bill Kelly and his wife was Judith. If you should know him please let me have your email or phone number and we shall communicate.
Posts: 467 | From: Prescott, AZ USA | Registered: Mar 2002
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I'm so sorry to hear about your loss. I left the Peace Corps in June, 1965, so would not have known him or his wife. Where was he (they?) serving?
We didn't lose anyone while "in country". That started later when two people came down with melanoma. It's hard to pinpoint, but I've always expected that exposure/over exposure to the intense sun without protection led to their deaths.
Frank in overcast and cool SBA where Grand Princess is off shore waiting to tender about 2800 ashore!
Frank in, well, see above.
Posts: 2160 | From: Santa Barbara, CA, USA | Registered: Oct 2003
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Great report, Frank. And I want to thank you for your service to the Peace Corps! Hope the surgery is nice and smooth and you are up and "training" it soon!
Posts: 2642 | From: upstate New York | Registered: Mar 2004
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The surgery went very well. I had my three week check up (and discharge) with the surgeon today! I still have quite a few restrictions which will last into late November but, all in all, things are moving along.
Posts: 2160 | From: Santa Barbara, CA, USA | Registered: Oct 2003
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Made me think of the 'Lost State of Franklin', a stillborn attempt in the 1800's to carve a new state out of parts of Western North Carolina and East Tennessee.
Like so many things in Appalachia, it was 'done in' by people who just would not get along.
-------------------- David Pressley
Advocating for passenger trains since 1973!
Climbing toward 5,000 posts like the Southwest Chief ascending Raton Pass. Cautiously, not nearly as fast as in the old days, and hoping to avoid premature reroutes. Posts: 4203 | From: Western North Carolina | Registered: Feb 2004
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