Amtrak to Albuquerque -- March 2013

Warning -- this will be very long since there is no Internet service on our train.

Time to get on the road -- railroad, that is. I love trains and train travel but in the USA it comes with a few challenges. In Europe the trains run often and are quite inexpensive. In my experience they always were on time and comfortable. I think the fastest I have ever travelled on land was on a train from Florence to Venice. I'm not good at converting kilometers to miles but we were travelling somewhere around 140 miles per hour on rails.  The turns were banked and the ride was smooth. Italy is known for its rail strikes but I never had a problem. Strikes are short and there is advance notice so you can plan for it.

In the USA most cross country trains can get up to 70 or 80 mph but they usually travel at slower speeds. Amtrak runs on rails owned by other railroad companies and must stop or pull over occasionally if there is a freight train delay.  Amtrak trains are few and far between and often don't go where you want to go. Costs for riding in a coach seat are not bad but sleepers are expensive.

So why take the train?  I could fly to Albuquerque cheaper than the train trip with a sleeper will cost me.  I probably won't fly into Albuquerque unless I really have to. Given the way I drive when I go to New Mexico, the train is about the same cost. I usually stay on the road two nights and the road trip takes longer than the train trip. With a sleeper, the meals on the train are included so that helps with the price.  With flying or train travel I still need to rent a car.

Leaving Jefferson City

We left Jefferson City on time and headed west toward Kansas City. The trip was uneventful pretty much with the exception of a disagreeable three year old who fussed for about fifteen minutes....could have been worse. The train was pretty full since it originated in Chicago some folks were looking like they spent half a lifetime on the train. I guess that most of them climbed on in St Louis. Thee were lots of people sleeping so it was pretty quiet.

We followed the river only for a few minutes and then it was cows, horses and farm land as well as a herd of deer near Centertown. At California (Mo) we stopped to let the eastbound Amtrak go by...we travel on the same track which is owned by Union Pacific. It is common to have to pull over to let trains pass.

Food service is somewhat limited on this train but -- surprise, surprise -- for $3.50 you can get a White Castle Cheeseburger. The cafe car has other stuff...salads and wraps...and they sell beer, wine and various soda or even Red Bull, coffee or water. I guess this is Amtrak's White Castle service.

A few folks got off at Sedalia, Warrensburg and Lees Summit. Independence saw more people get off but we still had a big crowd at Kansas City's Union Station.

Arriving at Union Station means hauling your luggage up stairs or the elevator to get inside the station  only to turn around and do it in reverse when you board the next train. I checked my big suitcase for the rest of the trip to Albuquerque.

Jefferson City's station is remarkable since it isn't a station but an old historic hotel. Every other place had real train stations. On the other hand, we have an art museum in ours. Union Station is impressive but mostly empty.  We had only about an hour lay over and then we heard "all aboard" and paraded back down to the track.

I walked toward my car and met the conductor on the platform who knew my name, checked my ticket and then pointed me to the car where I met Tommy, the sleeper attendant. Tommy insisted on calling my Kenny at first until I got him to go with Ken. He is a talker and gave me a quick tour of my sleeper roomette. It is comfortable for one person but maybe snug for two full-sized American adults but then you are on a train and can get up and move around.  Bathrooms are down the hall but I had everything else I needed and Tommy keeps coffee on 24/7 and hands out bottled water now and then. The only tricky part is turning on the lights...you can't be touching anything metal, like the door frame, for the light switch to work....go figure.

Roomette

Tommy had the bed made already figuring I would want to go to sleep.....which I did...so as we speed toward Lawrence Kansas, I went to bed.  No better way to go through Kansas.

Going to bed and sleeping are not the same thing. The roomette was on the upper level so it swayed and bounce a little...think "Magic Fingers Bed" that you can't turn off. I got about four hours sleep all together but the engineer was trying to wake up all of Kansas with the train horn so that woke me up a few times.

Dining Car

I slept until after 7 AM but folks were starting to move about and breakfast was being served. I went to the dining car and was seated with Andrew, from Australia, and Darren, from Los Angeles.This is one of my favorite things about Amtrak...they put you at a table with other folks and you end up having a long extended meal over coffee.  Surprisingly, the dining car staff knew my name..."You're Ken who got on at Kansas City!"  Well, yes, but I didn't know I was a celebrity. I see Tommy's hand in this somehow.

Breakfast was good but not exactly on par with the old days but better than airline food. All of my meals are included in the price of a sleeper so I pigged out on coffee, OJ, scrambled eggs, sausage and a biscuit with jelly...more than I ever eat at home. My companions had much the same except Darren had pancakes. We talked for quite a while. Andrew and his wife were touring the US by train. Daren was returning home from a trip to Chicago.

Sleeper Car

We went through Las Animas, where my car broke down once (wheel bearings) and stopped at La Junta for a smoking and fresh air stop. Amtrak is non-smoking so smokers have to wait for smoking stops. Amtrak also has new rules about using headphones on electronic  devices and muting cell phones.

Most of what we were seeing was the Great Plains. The route follows the Santa Fe Trail and the old trail is never more than a couple hundred yards off to one side or the other. We hit the mountains as we approached Trinidad, Colorado. The weather was overcast and there was snow on the ground in places.  Trinidad always looks desolate.

After Trinidad we climb up over Raton Pass at over 7,000 feet, this is the highest point on the trip. It takes a while to snake through the canyon and you can hear the engine laboring to get us over.  You can actually see the engine laboring because of the twisty route through the mountains.  We finally go through a tunnel and pop out on the western side of the pass into a bright sunlit and snowy day. There are lots of animal tracks in the snow...I've see elk here before but not today.

It's all downhill from here. There is ample evidence of a recent forest fire along the route down from the pass. We go through Raton, Las Vegas and Lamy (Santa Fe station) and Glorieta Pass near Pecos. Pecos has the ruins of an old Spanish mission dating back to the 1600s.  I got off at Raton to walk around for a few minutes and get some cool mountain air. Glorieta Pass was the site of one of the western-most Civil War battles.

Coming in to Las Vegas (not THE Las Vegas) we had to slow down to 10 mph because there were crews working on the tracks. Las Vegas has an old Harvey House hotel next to the track that was used in the Harvey Girls movie. (Judy Garland, I think?)

Lunch Scenery - Sangre de Cristo Mountains

I ate lunch at 1 PM...they take reservations on the half hour. This time I was seated with Jason, a young guy from eastern Kentucky. and a married couple from Upper Michigan. This was Jason's first train trip -- from Ashland KY to Los Angeles and then up the coast on the Starlight Express. The other folks were on their way to San Diego
and  had made several trips before.  Lunch was good. I had the special -- pasta and meatballs followed up with coffee and cheesecake. The others had similar good stuff but said they already had cheesecake the night before and wanted something lighter...like ice cream. The diner is spacious and pleasant. They use disposable plates and dishes but stainless flatware.

Observation Car

I finished lunch and went to sit in the observation car for a while. We were going over Glorieta Pass and the conductor came on the public address system to explain the story behind the Civil War battle and point out some landmarks. A bridge built by the confederate soldiers is still partially intact and visible from the train.


After Las Vegas the conductor started to announce instructions to passengers that they needed to tidy up their stuff and free up any extra seats because there was over 100 people getting on at Albuquerque and all seats would be filled. Seeing how folks spread out in coach I think this is going to be a challenge.  Happily I'm getting off. Tommy was anxious to get me on my way so he could touch up my roomette.

Cerillos Hills

We pulled into Albuquerque a little early and there would be a crew change and refueling so they had an hour layover. I got off and went on my way. Some Indians were selling jewelry and other items along the platform.  Tommy's advice was don't buy a rug because it shrinks when you wash it...OK. I'd probably not do that anyway.

It was a long couple of days and I'm happy to be in Albuquerque. It is sunny and warm and looks like good weather ahead. I got my rental car (they had to upgrade me to a Ford Taurus).  Have to go buy some groceries and find dinner.

N'Orleans - 1970

 

New Orleans food is as delicious as the less criminal forms of sin.

Mark Twain

 

 

 

I've been paying attention to the media hype running up to this Sunday's Super Bowl game in New Orleans. CBS is broadcasting the game and milking it for all it is worth...this is like the "Black Friday" of television. Jackson Square has become the venue for several broadcasts and there are countless features about the many charms of New Orleans.

N'Orleans is one of my favorite cities. What surprises me is the large number of grown-up people, seemingly adult and experienced, that are TV personalities who say they have never been to New Orleans and are there for the first time.  Good grief people....where have you been?

For people my age (aging boomers) going to New Orleans was almost a rite of passage. You know...driver's license, HS diploma, draft card, etc., etc., The Road Trip to New Orleans, etc. We won't go into some of those "etc."s...every generation has a few and mine had a lot.

I've been to New Orleans probably five or six times and never get tired of it. Some places you can visit once and declare you have seen it and never need to go back. Modern cities are like that for me. Cities designed or developed after the invention of the automobile have always bored me. Kansas City is an automobile town while St. Louis is a pedestrian city (ooops -- full disclosure...I was born in St. Louis and still say I'm "from" there after living elsewhere 35 years). San Francisco is experienced as a pedestrian city while Los Angeles is more of an automobile place. Cities like Houston, Dallas, Phoenix, and Miami missed out on something. There is a stage of development where a city gains a soul and some places jump over that and are just places. But I digress...I'll save that tirade for another time and I'm sure some people would disagree.

I first went to New Orleans on a spontaneous Labor Day weekend trip back in 1970. There were three of us and we were all about twenty-two. I still use that trip as a yard stick on how tired I can be before I collapse. If I get that tired I need to pull over and get off the road. We drove out of St. Louis on Friday night, stopping briefly in Ste. Genevieve to pick up our third traveler, and then headed south through the Mississippi delta, which starts just south of Cape Girardeau, Missouri. We hit daylight somewhere near Vicksburg and finally made it to New Orleans by mid afternoon. We checked in to the Monteleone Hotel in the French Quarter and crashed in the beds for about three hours and hit Bourbon Street around six or seven...still early.  Okay -- this was the Monteleone Hotel before it became "The Hotel Monteleone"  that it is today. Our room was sparse and cheap...painted that light institutional green if I remember right. There were drain pipes running up one wall for something. We only slept there so we didn't care...and we could walk all over the French Quarter, which we did.

Labor Day weekend isn't Mardi Gras but it was still very busy and crowded. We had a great time. The movie "Easy Rider" had been all the rage the year before so we had that as sort of a mental travelogue. We had Beignets at the old Morning Call by the market, cruised through the local cemetery, hung out at Jackson Square, saw Preservation Hall, Pat O'Brien's, the Old Absinthe House, plus a half dozen dives. (No parental guidance!!)

They say New Orleans changes people and in one way it changed me. The place is known for its cuisine. We were too poor (and grubby) to sample anything in a "real" restaurant but we managed to find a few spots back in the alleys or off on a side street where we could find some good food. I was a fairly picky eater up to that time but I learned to enjoy food and realized the fun of trying different things. I never ate a real salad until New Orleans. There were so many different kinds of seafood - a shrimp is not just a shrimp. I think I met my first oyster on that trip. I couldn't identify some of the food but it was good and enjoyable.

We were road-crazy and gas was cheap so we left New Orleans and went to Pensacola and camped out on the beach. We wanted some time in the ocean...or the Gulf. It wasn't too long before the sand fleas made us regret leaving New Orleans. We managed to get some sleep and headed back home. That drive home was surreal -- that is the memory I have of being tired. We actually made it to work on Tuesday.

Other trips to New Orleans have been less frantic. There is still a lot I haven't seen so I'll go back again...but not on Super Bowl weekend.

Where to next?

Travel options abound right now. I think people are starting to have cabin fever already. It seems early this year, especially since the temperature was in the 70s the last two days. Maybe it is just the time of year. I have some friends who want me to go on a tour to Iceland, Greenland and "some other islands" in the summer. "What other islands?" I asked...but they couldn't say. So how much was this trip? They figured over $10,000 for the two of them. Maybe just $4,500 for me.  Yikes...how bad do I want to go to Greenland? . Another couple is going to the "Spanish Islands". I'm assuming this is the Balearic Islands - Majorca and Ibiza, maybe or the Canaries?

I'm talking up a trip to Ireland with my brother. They went last year and probably don't want to go back so soon so maybe I'll have to wait on that.

My dream trip would be to go to Ethiopia. Sounds odd, right? Look it up. I'm not sure how to work that out. Nobody else I know wants to go to Ethiopia and most have no idea where it is. That's a bucket list thing.

For the time being, I will be content with a rail trip back down to New Mexico. I think I'll go in March by Amtrak and book a "roomette". It would be cheaper to drive but the way I drive I'd spent two nights in a hotel along the way and have to pay for gas and food so the train cost is not so much out of line for me. If two were going it would be much cheaper. The only extra expense would be renting a car in Albuquerque. I've taken this trip twice before and it is enjoyable and you meet some interesting people. The train runs between Los Angeles and Chicago and there are a surprising number of folks who make the entire trip. Some people just don't want to fly. That's a little odd in this day and age but they have their reasons. They all have stories to tell and on the slow transit across the Great Plains there are ample opportunities to spend time with folks you would never meet otherwise.

Post Script, Epilogue, Whatever...

There were a couple loose ends that you, dear reader, must wonder about...

Bocce -- We never found a public bocce court. I called the local senior center and they said they had one bocce court but we had to be members to use it. Membership costs $15 per person...apparently no exceptions.  We didn't want to play that bad.


Key Lime Pie -- I can't believe I didn't mention the Key Lime Pie. Run...don't walk...to Uncle Ernie's in Panama City (Historic St. Andrews district) and order Key Lime Pie. It might take two people to eat it but it is good enough to share so go for it.

Christmas Trees -- I guess they celebrate Christmas in Florida. There were wreaths and bows at various places and we saw houses decorated with lights. Coming from a cold climate it was very odd seeing folks driving along with Christmas trees tied to the roof of their cars in 75 degree weather.

Mike's Diner & Oyster Bar -- We never made it back but Mike's had the best food that we found in PCB. Margaritaville had the worst but I guess folks don't go there for the food.

"Are you kin?" "No, I'm Paul, he's Ken"

We started out in the morning by finding our way across Mobile Bay to the battleship  USS Alabama. The ship is in a park along with the submarine USS Drum and a variety of military planes and other ships. Battleships were huge and had a crew of about 2,500 sailors and marines. Having that many people on board required a huge infrastructure and the services of a small city. The ship is like a maze and they have designated three different self-guided tours. We spent about two hours in/on the Alabama and didn't see everything. At one point Paul and I got separated on one of the interior decks and didn't locate each other for a half hour.

Even though it is a huge ship, it was crowded and conditions were cramped. There were hatches and stairways leading up and down through the decks. I was having trouble managing the stairways. I'd need about four days advance warning of a call to battle stations so I could find my way and clamber up or down the stairs.

There are four huge gun turrets and dozens of other smaller guns ranging from cannons and anti-aircraft guns down to smaller machine guns. The inside of the large turrets have a residual gunpowder smell similar to the smell of cap pistols when I was a kid. There are huge springs set up around the supporting base of the turrets to help absorb the recoil when the cannons were fired. The sound must have been deafening.

The other large ship is the USS Drum, a WW-II era submarine. I've been on a submarine once before and this one seems a little larger but it is still incredibly
cramped. I can't imagine a crew of several dozen men living and working in such a tight space. The captain is the only person with a private space. Everyone below captain had to share space and even share bunks. On the battleship, some sailors, like the ship's barbers, had their bunks in their work space and a little more room.

The submarine's torpedo room was not very large and would have been filled with torpedoes and a few bunks for the lucky sailors who slept there.

The submarine was powered by diesel engines that also produced electricity stored in the batteries. The ship ran on battery power when it was submerged. The air inside one of these submarines was stale and smelled of diesel fumes, cooking smells and the general smell of the crew. Must have been a joy to get fresh air once in a while.

From the picture you can see that people were constrained by the tight spaces and I was definitely having trouble getting through the hatches going from one section to another. In movies they show sailors moving around through the hatches like it was no problem at all.  Maybe it takes practice.

We were late getting away from Mobile since we spent most of the morning touring the two ships and looking at the military planes.  We headed toward home through rural Mississippi to Hattiesburg and Jackson. I'm always surprised at how empty Mississippi is. Population density is about 63 people per square mile in Mississippi compared to 86 in Missouri and 92 in Alabama but large areas of the state seem to be empty.

We stopped for a fast food lunch in Hattiesburg. While we were eating one of the workers stopped at our table and asked Paul "Are you kin?" We didn't quite understand the question because she was speaking Mississippian but Paul finally said (seriously) "No, I'm Paul...He's Ken". She looked puzzled and asked again and we finally figured out what the question was. She said that we looked alike and wanted to know if we were related. Then we had to explain that my name was Ken and he was Paul and we were brothers....and yes, we were kin. Our language fails us once again.

So on we drove. We got to Memphis and decided to go ahead and try to get all the way home to St. Louis. We stopped for supper in West Memphis and ran into a driving rain storm as we tried to get back on the highway. We got turned around a little but finally headed north again on I-55. It was slow going in the rain but we finally got out of it as we crossed into Missouri.  We stopped to walk around a few times and tried to stay awake. In Ste. Genevieve we got out to stretch our legs (at about midnight) and were shocked at the temperature. We went from about 65 degrees to  35 windy degrees in about 50 miles of driving.....that woke us up a little.

It was after 1 AM when we got to Paul's in St. Louis and collapsed into bed. I got started again in the morning and was back home around noon on Monday. It was a good trip and very relaxing. I got rid of a lot of my stored up stress from selling my house and moving. We joked about not doing anything or how dead and laid back everything was but that was exactly what we wanted.

My travelling companion...
yes, we do look alike

Heading Home - Fort Blakely Battlefield

We had another foggy morning but it cleared up by about 8 AM. This was check-out day so we were packed and on our way out of Panama City Beach by 9:30. Our plan was to just go to Mobile and spend about a day there before going home. We got to Daphne, Alabama, where our motel is, by about noon but we couldn't find the place. It took several tries before we found it.  Daphne is directly across Mobile Bay from the city of Mobile.

We had lunch at a local O'Charley's restaurant and headed out looking for Ft. Blakely, site of one of the last large-scale battles of the Civil War. The battle was fought about four hours after Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House in Virginia but there was no way to know here in Alabama. Mobile held out for a couple days before it surrendered and was occupied by Union troops.

Massachusetts battery

It's a long and involved story of why I'm interested in the Ft. Blakely battle and I won't go into it in any detail here. The battle included African-American Union soldiers as well as Missouri Confederate troops.

The battlefield is a state park but is only partially preserved. Not much of it has been reconstructed and most of it is overgrown and exists only as ruins or remnants of the trench lines and artillery batteries. That is a huge contrast from the famous battles of Gettysburg or even The Wilderness, where trench lines are still visible the forest. There are only a couple stone monuments at Ft. Blakely and these are recent additions.

Union trenches

Union forces laid siege of about three days and then attacked from trenches after an artillery bombardment.

Union troops were reinforced prior to the final assault and outnumbered the Confederates four to one.

The chaos of the battle is clearly recognized by looking at how the lines were laid out  and how close the lines were to each other. There were only about 1,500 ft. between the strongest defenses and there were various rifle pits and zig-zag trenches in the area in between.

Redoubt #4

 Confederate forces were well dug in in trenches and occupied fortified redoubts equipped with cannons and mortars.  Their positions were also protected by ravines and "torpedoes", an early version of land mines.

Redoubt #4 was the site of the final assault and the surrender of most of the remaining Confederate troops. Redoubt #4 is a substantial ruin but it is difficult to tell how it was laid out.

reconstructed cannon
ports - Redoubt #4

The state, the Civil War Trust and various reenactor groups are trying to preserve the battlefield. There was a town of Blakely located near the fort but nothing is left other than a cemetery.

Union trench line

Angle - Redoubt #4

Dinner was sandwiches from a local take-out deli.

Tomorrow we are going to see the USS Alabama, a battleship docked in Mobile Bay that is open for tours.

Panama City Proper

Today was cloudy and foggy and a little cool - there were even fewer people on the beach and they had jackets. We have a resident cat that lives out on the beach under the boardwalk but he was curled up in a ball in the sea oats  and just hunkered down all morning. Of course the beach bed mattress guy showed up and set up his umbrellas and mattresses but there was no one interested.

We figured this would be a good day to go over to Panama City...not the beach but the town. They have two "historic" areas...one is called St. Andrews and the other is the downtown area.

Historic St. Andrews is the few blocks surrounding the marina. We walked around a little and visited a couple galleries. There were several bars and restaurants. We ate lunch at Uncle Ernie's...pretty good food. We are starting to approach our quota on seafood although no fish species have become endangered due to our visit.

Uncle Ernie's is also a brew pub so we had one of their beers...an amber ale. It was more like a porter...much darker than an amber ale...but it was good.


The historic downtown area was bigger and more diverse - lawyers and doctors offices mixed in with the galleries and antique stores and fewer bars and restaurants. We wandered into a couple galleries. Some of the stuff was Florida beach cutesy but much of it was pretty good. Not all of it was Florida or beach-based art. The galleries were quite large with several exhibit rooms.

As things go, that pretty much took up our day. We leave for Mobile in the morning and will stay there one night before heading for home.