Seattle Post-Times

Amtrak Cascades: Portland to Seattle

SEATTLE, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2008 — I had never taken the train to or from Portland before, so I was interested to see how it would go. After a two-night stop in the Rose City, near the end of my rail trip to Michigan and back, I was ready to get home to Seattle. It involved a three-hour ride over land I knew well, but seeing by rail a route that I had driven many times was a lot of fun and the time passed quickly. I rode business class on the Amtrak Cascades, and it was similar to that aboard the Wolverine — lots of room and a mostly quiet clientele. No kids.

Coast Starlight: Sacramento to Portland

ABOARD THE AMTRAK COAST STARLIGHT in Oregon, Friday, Dec. 12, 2008 — After a busy day in Sacramento, I climbed aboard my last overnight train sometime after midnight this morning. For this leg, a quick 16-hour run up to Portland for a weekend visit, I booked a roomette instead of a bedroom, as on the other legs. Roomettes are rather compact, with barely enough space for two facing seats which convert into two bunks. The bedroom, on the other hand, has some room to move and a combination toilet/shower. For such a short ride, I figured I needed primarily to sleep, and when I boarded, the bottom bunk was ready for me and I quickly fell asleep as the Coast Starlight pulled out of Sacramento.

I awoke in Northern California to a pinkish landscape of scrub brush and arid evergreens.

Sacramento: Saying goodbye to toy trains

SACRAMENTO, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2008 — Earlier this week I bid farewell to this and other pieces of the Lionel train set my brother, Keith, and I had when we were kids in the 1960s. We had a monster layout in the basement of our house in Albion, Mich. Its size and location — two plywood tables two feet off the ground in the southwest corner of the basement — made it the perfect tornado shelter:

California Zephyr: Salt Lake City to Sacramento

ABOARD THE CALIFORNIA ZEPHYR in California, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2008 — Breakfast in Winnemucca. Then, in Reno, a couple of volunteers from the California State Railroad Museum in Sacramento boarded and provided occasional commentary as we crossed the Sierra Nevada Mountains. This was cool for me because I recently read (most of) Nothing Like It in the World by Stephen Ambrose, about the first transcontinental railroad, which was completed in 1869 by the Central Pacific, working east from Sacramento, and the Union Pacific, which built west from Omaha. Today's California Zephyr follows much of the original route, except for a detour south through Colorado instead of Wyoming, so as to serve Denver and the ski resorts.

California Zephyr: Chicago to Salt Lake City

ABOARD THE CALIFORNIA ZEPHYR in Utah, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2008 — We left Chicago yesterday afternoon as a snowstorm was hitting Illinois.

One thing about riding trains is the intimacy you have with the passing landscape — it's right there, the train could stop and you could step off as if you were in a car. And yet you are in a moving house, in the sleeping cars, at least. The comfort of having a bed and a beverage and your slippers makes the experience a little surreal. A blizzard is right in front of you, but you are observing it as an unaffected ghost. No one on the outside knows who you are, if they even notice you at all behind the smoked window. Meanwhile, their lives are on display. You see more backyards than front yards, the rears of businesses, not as often the fronts. You see the junk out back, the cars up on blocks, the tidy patios of sweet suburbia.

So passed Illinois, and, during dinner, Iowa. I was asleep by the time we hit Nebraska and didn't awake until we were east of Denver, as the sun rose.

Industrial blight in dim light

ABOARD THE AMTRAK BLUE WATER, Dec. 9, 2008 — Riding from Battle Creek, Mich., to Chicago, I was reminded that the Soviet Union had nothing on the U.S. when it came to urban decay and depressing, gritty, industrial wasteland. (And yes, I've seen both countries.) The south shore of Lake Michigan where Illinois and Indiana meet, around Gary, is possibly the grimmest corner of commerce in America. I first saw it as a child when traveling to Chicago by car from our home in Albion, Mich. It is arguably worse now for the fact many of the foundries and factories clearly are no longer in use. And the ones that are seem uninhabited.

Training continues

Today I continue my journey aboard Amtrak. (Most recent previous post.) I leave my parents' place in Albion, Mich., and ride the Blue Water from Battle Creek to Chicago, where I will board the California Zephyr for Sacramento. When I arrive there on Thursday, Dec. 11, I will jump the Coast Starlight for Portland, Ore., where I will stay the weekend. The circuit is completed on Sunday, Dec. 14, with a ride on the Cascades from Portland to Seattle.

I plan to post en route if I can get Wi-Fi access along the way. My luck was mixed during last week's eastbound trip aboard the Empire Builder.

Wolverine: Chicago to Battle Creek

Now that's a train depot. Union Station's Great Hall in Chicago.

Then, business class aboard the Amtrak Wolverine from Chicago to Battle Creek, Mich.: $8 more and worth every penny:

I am now at the home of my parents in Albion, Mich., where I will stay for a few days, continue my job search online, and reconnect with roots.

Empire Builder: The frozen north

ABOARD THE EMPIRE BUILDER in Wisconsin, Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2008 — Boy howdy it was cold last night. Outside, yes, of course, but also in my room, which had no heat. I had to bundle up with socks and fleece. It's not easy to sleep across North Dakota and Minnesota in December when the heat's busted and the train is rocking at 80 mph.

Here's the view in Rugby, N.D.:

Empire Builder: Montana

ABOARD THE EMPIRE BUILDER in Montana, Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2008 — I awoke in Whitefish, north of Lake Kalispell. Annie and I took the train here some years ago to go skiing. The top story in today's Daily Inter Lake, "serving the Flathead since 1889" and delivered to our room: "Deer harvest declines 20 percent."

Very little snow in the Flathead Valley, but as we entered Glacier National Park, it was snowing hard and visibility was nil. So the scenery today was not what it could have been:

Navigable only with GPS!

Empire Builder: Seattle to Wenatchee

ABOARD THE EMPIRE BUILDER in Wenatchee, Wash., 8:45 p.m., Monday, Dec. 1, 2008 — I am sipping a nightcap after dining on steak. We are on a cigarette break at this small agricultural city in Eastern Washington, some four hours after leaving Seattle. It's been a wonderful trip so far. I have a sleeper room all to myself, with a toilet/shower and four pillows. We rolled out of Seattle right on time just after sunset and followed Puget Sound north to Everett, then east into the mountains.

As we crossed Stevens Pass in the Cascades, I ate in the dining car with three strangers, including a woman who lives in Seattle and works for Amtrak in human resources. She's on her way to Shelby, Mont., to administer tests for train crew candidates. Hmmm. I'm pretty good with an electric train controller ...

My Great Northern adventure

Today I'm embarking on my big railroad adventure, a solo trip from Seattle to Michigan and back via Amtrak. The Empire Builder, named for the historic passenger run of the Great Northern Railway across Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and Washington, is scheduled to pull out of Union Station King Street Station in Seattle today at 4:45 p.m.

It's not clear I will be able to get online until Thursday, when I am in Albion, Mich. But I might be able to post before then. In any event, I will keep a log and take photos and post when I can.

BusCapade! JetCapade! TrainCapade!

I was going to call my forthcoming two-week trip by train TrainCapade, in honor of USA Today founder and megalomaniacal publisher Allen Neuharth, the former Gannett CEO. In 1987, he concocted a promotion called BusCapade, in which he purportedly visited all 50 states in a fancy bus. He had plenty of help writing the World Book Encyclopedia-caliber stories that resulted. Later, he did something similar with JetCapade, visiting 32 foreign countries. (He was accompanied on that journey by since-fired fabulist USA Today reporter Jack Kelley.)

Ah-hah, I thought. I will call my 16-state journey TrainCapade!

Unfortunately, Neuharth did that, too, in 1995.

So I am calling my trip Train Plodding 2008. It's plodding in the best sense. Having been raised on Lionel Trains and having recently read a good portion of Nothing Like It in the World (sloppy attribution and all), I am quite excited, and I leave a week from today.

I intend to one-up Neuharth. I plan to write in-depth profiles of all of the 16 states I pass through without even leaving the train. This is a new trend in journalism — not doing any actual reporting.

Looking forward to this

Amtrak through Albion, originally uploaded by chuck.taylor.

Now that I have the time, I'm going to take a long train trip home to Albion, Mich., where my parents live. During the holidays last winter, my wife, Annie Koch, and I flew to Chicago to see her brother and then took the Amtrak Wolverine to Albion for a few days. This shot was taken as we waited for the train back to Chicago.

So this time, regrettably without Annie, I will take the train all the way to Michigan and back. The plan is to leave Dec. 1 on the Empire Builder, from Seattle to Chicago, then take the Wolverine again, this time to Battle Creek, which is just down the freeway from Albion.

Returning home about a week later, I'll take the California Zephyr from Chicago to Sacramento, then the Coast Starlight north to Portland, Ore. After a brief visit there, I'll return to Seattle on the Cascades.

I will be getting sleeper rooms on the long legs. What will I do with all that time? Look for America, out the window. (OK, that song's about buses, but it is about Michigan.)