Our Cross Country Trip - Long Overdue
I have a little time this morning so I figured that perhaps it is time to start writing and sharing photos from our cross-country rail journey. It was a very long journey so I have a lot to write and a lot of photos to share. In my preliminary notes for writing about this trip, I have broken the trip down into about 30 blog entries. Of course, there is no way I will be able to write and share 30 blog entries today so I will continue to chip away at this list whenever I have some extra time and am feeling well enough to write.
So, back in March, in the wee hours of the morning in darkness, we excitedly prepared to leave the house on this long anticipated journey by rail. This had always been a dream trip for us... traveling across the entire country by rail... visiting various cities along the way... seeing the country right outside our windows from one coast to the other... s o we were pretty excited. Neither one of us probably got much sleep that night before we left!
We showered and collected the last minute stuff to pack and found that we were ready a little bit earlier than planned. Instead of waiting around at home, we decided to head to the train station and get a bite to eat at the rather lousy cafe in the station. (And the pastry I purchased was indeed lousy, as always at this cafe.)
Leaving the house a little bit early turned out to be a good idea because the snow was coming down fairly well at this point. With all the snow that was dumped on us this winter, we were all pretty excited to be heading to warm northern California and sunny skies!
Although the roads were slippery enough to slow us down a bit, we still made it to the station with plenty of time to spare...
There is a model of the Waterbury train station centrally located in the rather small, cramped, poorly designed and terribly uncomfortable Amtrak waiting room. It seems that Amtrak facilities and passenger convenience and comfort were not part of the planning process for renovating this historic station. It is a very nicely renovated station while keeping all of the original architectural details but, as a passenger, you sort of feel like second-rate cargo.
We've been on this leg of our journey dozens of times over the decades and we can say with absolutely certainty that it is a bit of a no-frills train. This is the only leg of this particular journey that we sat in Coach seats for our relatively short ride to Springfield, Massachusetts.
Springfield is in the process of renovating their station. What they have completed already is quite nice. Our only complaint about this station is that it would have been nice if there were more choices for food than Subway. The station is located only a few short blocks from our usual Springfield hotel which makes it very convenient.
Our plan for our first night on our journey was to sit in the lounge, relax, have a few drinks, and order some food from the kitchen. Apparently, the hotel staff was hit with and shared the flu so they were undermanned and consequently had closed the lounge and were not serving any food. We were stuck ordering some dinner from a local restaurant and eating in our rooms.
The next leg of our journey was scheduled for the following afternoon so we talked the front desk into allowing us to check out late. So, there was no rushing around at the beginning of our trip... it was nice and slow and relaxing. We headed back out to the train station and ate at the one option in the Springfield station... Subway...
So, back in March, in the wee hours of the morning in darkness, we excitedly prepared to leave the house on this long anticipated journey by rail. This had always been a dream trip for us... traveling across the entire country by rail... visiting various cities along the way... seeing the country right outside our windows from one coast to the other... s o we were pretty excited. Neither one of us probably got much sleep that night before we left!
We showered and collected the last minute stuff to pack and found that we were ready a little bit earlier than planned. Instead of waiting around at home, we decided to head to the train station and get a bite to eat at the rather lousy cafe in the station. (And the pastry I purchased was indeed lousy, as always at this cafe.)
Leaving the house a little bit early turned out to be a good idea because the snow was coming down fairly well at this point. With all the snow that was dumped on us this winter, we were all pretty excited to be heading to warm northern California and sunny skies!
Although the roads were slippery enough to slow us down a bit, we still made it to the station with plenty of time to spare...
There is a model of the Waterbury train station centrally located in the rather small, cramped, poorly designed and terribly uncomfortable Amtrak waiting room. It seems that Amtrak facilities and passenger convenience and comfort were not part of the planning process for renovating this historic station. It is a very nicely renovated station while keeping all of the original architectural details but, as a passenger, you sort of feel like second-rate cargo.
We've been on this leg of our journey dozens of times over the decades and we can say with absolutely certainty that it is a bit of a no-frills train. This is the only leg of this particular journey that we sat in Coach seats for our relatively short ride to Springfield, Massachusetts.
Springfield is in the process of renovating their station. What they have completed already is quite nice. Our only complaint about this station is that it would have been nice if there were more choices for food than Subway. The station is located only a few short blocks from our usual Springfield hotel which makes it very convenient.
Our plan for our first night on our journey was to sit in the lounge, relax, have a few drinks, and order some food from the kitchen. Apparently, the hotel staff was hit with and shared the flu so they were undermanned and consequently had closed the lounge and were not serving any food. We were stuck ordering some dinner from a local restaurant and eating in our rooms.
The next leg of our journey was scheduled for the following afternoon so we talked the front desk into allowing us to check out late. So, there was no rushing around at the beginning of our trip... it was nice and slow and relaxing. We headed back out to the train station and ate at the one option in the Springfield station... Subway...
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