Day 5: End of the line

Thursday, July 16, 2009
I woke up this morning and saw the sunrise once again, this time over Nevada, somewhere between Winnemucca and Reno. Reno was unexciting - nothing much could be seen. We did find out that Amtrak was taking the Zephyr train that was behind us (and on schedule) and turning it around in Reno in an attempt to get the trains back on the right schedule. They were busing all passengers who were going to California on to their destinations. I guess the initial plan was to do that with our train instead, but I hope they realized the revolt they would have on their hands if they did that to us after all we had been through. Still, I feel a bit sorry for those on the other train. But not sorry enough to trade places.

Sunrise over Nevada

Western Nevada

I was forced to have scrambled eggs again for breakfast, sadly (the french toast was perfectly edible and preferable). The problem with train travel is they tend to run out of food items as the trip goes on. It was even worse for our trip since we had a whole extra day and they opened the dining car to the coach passengers as well. I don't really have any problem with that aspect, but I just really didn't like the eggs. On the topic of food, Amtrak certainly did their part to feed the coach passengers. My understanding is that those in coach have to normally purchase their food in the club car. In the case of our trip, they were given food from KFC, Subway, and Domino's along the way, as well as the opening up the dining car at the end of the trip. But they still didn't have beds to sleep in, so that pretty much sucks.

Anyway, after breakfast (David slept instead) we camped out in the observation car for our journey through the Sierra Nevada Mountains. This is the part of the train trip that I was most looking forward to. The Nevada desert wasn't overly exciting, but once we got into California, they scenery started to get prettier. We stopped briefly in Truckee, a cute little town, before continuing into the mountains. My excitement for this part of the trip stems from my interest in the Donner Party and the fabulous Donner Party video I show when I teach US History (thank you Rebecca!!). I really had no idea what to expect of the lake when we reached it, but I was certainly impressed. Heading up into the mountains, the views were pretty incredible but the lake was stunning. Right before the lake appears, we head through a tunnel and when we came out the other side, the lake was right there. It was huge - much larger than I thought it would be. The train, I believe, had to travel around much of the lake on it's path through the mountains so we got to see if for a long time. It was also a beautiful day - the entire train trip actually had blue skies and nice weather - hopefully the weather gods would smile on us the entire trip.

Coming out of the mountains we stopped in lots of small towns. I think that the Sierra Nevadas were prettier than the Rocky Mountains, though I don't know that the rest of the group shares my opinion (though they don't really compare to the Alaskan Range, but I'm getting ahead of myself). The train was getting more and more empty (goodbye Amish friends, couple with the small baby, Australian lovebirds, burly farmers...) as passengers got off along the way. We had a big stop in Sacramento, where lots of people got off. That is the station where a lot of train connections are made. We initially were supposed to catch the Coastal Starlight from here. It was extraordinarily hot outside. In retrospect, I'm glad we didn't switch trains - we would have had to sit around the station from 2 pm until around midnight. What fun!

Town of Truckee, CA

Donner Lake, CA

Donner Pass, CA

Sierra Nevada Mts, CA

Sacramento Train Station

The San Joaquin Valley between Sacramento and the coast wasn't particularly inspiring but it got nicer one we reached the Bay Area. The train doesn't actually go to San Francisco but rather Emeryville, a smaller town between San Fran and Oakland. I would have loved to have an extra day or two to spend in San Francisco - I was there the summer of 1994 (I think?) and really enjoyed it then so I imagine I'd like it even more now. We reached Emeryville at about 3:45 - 22 1/2 hours after we were supposed to, almost 76 hours after we started our journey. We covered 2438 miles in that time.

Riding under bridges in the Bay Area

The Bay Area

Dad was given the job of working on getting refunds for our unused tickets once we arrived at the station. It took a bit of time but finally got settled and we were off to the hotel. It took the cab driver forever to find the address to our hotel in his GPS (despite the fact I gave him the address, name, etc.). You'd think that cab drivers in major cities would be familiar with hotels around the airport area, but you'd be wrong. We stayed at a generic Hilton Garden Inn, no frills but perfectly nice. Almost immediately after getting into our rooms the fire alarm went off. It went off a couple more times that evening but only for a short time. They were doing work in the room next door, so I assume that's why it went off, but who knows...

San Francisco, from our cab on the Bay Bridge

I also had my first internet access since leaving Susie's (and no, I will not mention the trouble I had accessing the internet due to a not-all-the-way-plugged-in-cable). I could finally post some pictures, check my email, etc. I felt pretty out of touch with the world during the past few days. Dinner was at the hotel - I had a salad that would rival something from the Cheesecake Factory, it was huge. It was tonight that I discovered something possibly related to the massive knee pain I had the day we landed in Chicago. I had already found several smallish mystery bruises on both legs over the past few days, but today I found a HUGE, nasty bruise on my right knee - with no idea at all how I got it. I had been having stiff knees the past few days, but just attributed that to a lot of sitting around on the train. Of course once I noticed the bruise, it began to hurt...

Nasty bruise on my knee - this picture really doesn't do it justice, it was much more dark and colorful

We had a very early morning flight to Vancouver so tonight would be an early-to-bed night. Well, for me. David stayed up till all hours, I'm sure. I'm giving huge kudos to the Hilton people - I slept in 8 different beds during the course of this vacation and they had the very best - perfect mattress, perfect covers, perfect sleep. I don't think I moved the entire night.

Click to Enlarge - Our Journey, Thus Far