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All - Travel - Travel: 2005 - Seattle (2005)

May 27, 2005: Oregon to Seattle

Posted June 1, 2005 14:08 | Category: Seattle (2005) | #

We entered Oregon in the early morning. As delays accumulated throughout the day we fell further and further behind schedule, until we finally arrived in Seattle at 2am on the 28th, 5 hours behind schedule. I took a cab to my hotel, showered, and collapsed in bed.

Here are some notes I wrote as I was riding the train:

8:47 am

Level terrain now, lots of grass and croplands. Every few minutes the guy comes out of the dining car to summon someone from the waiting list. There's an older Korean couple sitting a few seats away, and the husband went downstairs with a Thermos and brought back hot water which he used to make some instant soup for breakfast. I should try that on the way home. Klamath Falls is the next stop.

11:47 am

At Klamath Falls, Oregon, two docents came on board to give us a narrative tour of the scenery from here to Eugene. They set up a small PA system in the lounge car, and read from scripts to give us all kinds of information about Klamath Falls, Klamath Lake, the Williamson River, and Crater Lake.

My extension cord has gotten a workout. A woman was filming with her camcorder but her battery died, so I let her use my extension cord so she wouldn't be tied to the area close to the power outlet. Now, I'm using it to recharge my laptop's battery. I really wish I had brought a power strip though, as there have been many people wanting to recharge their cell phones and other devices. There are a total of four power outlets in the lounge car, to my knowledge. Three are here on the observation level: two in a mini-kitchen and one next to the top of the stairs. There is a fourth downstairs by the entrance door. I haven't found any in the coach cars, but I've heard there are a couple there.

4:03 pm

Now we're running about four hours late. That means it'll be well after midnight when we get to Seattle. Some passengers are getting pretty pissed that they're missing their connections. The docent is running out of material and has resorted to quoting silly laws that are still on the books, like the one where it's illegal to "knock a snake's head off with your cane on a boardwalk."

I just made a reservation for dinner at 7:15 pm. I think I'll have the salmon. We're almost to Eugene, where we should have arrived 3.5 hours ago...

4:54 pm

We've been sitting here, a short distance from Eugene, for a half hour or so. Nobody knows why. I suspect the crew died. Not literally - that is railroad jargon. Train crews are limited to 12 hours on duty, and must be replaced no matter where the train is. I called the 800 number, and they said there had been an incident with a trespasser who may or may not have been struck by a train, and we'd be in Eugene at 5:45 (originally due at 12:45).

We finally got going again around 5:20. We might just make that prediction.

5:56

Leaving Eugene station. We did get there around 5:45 after all! Let's hope additional delays are minimal.

Click the big picture to go to the set page on Flickr, or click on an individual photo. Or, you can view a slideshow of the photos.

2 comments

Comments:

Re: May 27, 2005 (Northbound)
Guru wrote on Thu, 02 Jun 2005 16:02

The pictures are great! Only problems are that: (a) they are not easily accessible from the daily notes i.e. it would be nice if I could see the pictures as I am reading about (say the south bound Amtrak), and (b) When you click on a picture (to go to the next), it takes you to the top of the page which is frustrating - suggestions: either use a tag to force the pictures to come into view, or (if the first suggestion is not feasible) put the pictures at the very top to avoid having to scroll down.

Re: Re: May 27, 2005 (Northbound)
Bill Ward wrote on Thu, 02 Jun 2005 17:16

Thanks! I think (a) would be difficult to implement, but I found a way to do (b) by adding #pic to the URL. Thanks for the suggestion - that had bothered me too, but I never thought of that to fix it.

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Last updated: 09/19/2007 William R. Ward, bill@wards.net