I would be flying home from San Francisco using JetBlue Airways this year. This would be the first time I've ever flown on JetBlue. I left the hotel around 4:30am on November 17th and I'm so glad I left when I did as even at 5:00am, there is still a decent amount of traffic on I-80. I knew one thing I would have to drive over was the San Francisco Bay Bridge and the line at the toll booths for it is usually very long. Lucky for me, I didn't wait more than 10-15 minutes, and was finally over the bridge and eventually made it to the airport. After turning in the rental car, I took the tram to the International Terminal as this happens to be where JetBlue operates out of at the San Francisco International Airport though they predominantly are a domestic carrier. I had to pay $50.00 for the second checked bag (first one is free on JetBlue). After going through security, I found my gate, and would get breakfast at a restaurant near the gate which consisted of a Breakfast Pizza made with sausage, egg, and cheese along with some home fries. Shortly after finishing breakfast, my flight, JetBlue #434 would begin boarding.
I would be flying in an Airbus A-320. One of JetBlue's amenities are TV's at every seat with DirecTV Satellite TV programming and Sirius XM Satellite Radio. Unfortunately, the TV's and therefore the radio didn't work on this flight so JetBlue said they would credit all of us for it (though as of May 2015, I never got any credit). We took off close to on time from San Francisco and the flight was uneventful. About an hour into the flight, I discovered several songs on my iPod disappeared for no reason, that was probably the only "issue" I ran into on the way home and this had nothing to do with the airline! As we moved across the country, eventually I saw clouds underneath us (it had been bright and sunny when we took off), and by the time we began our approach for landing at Boston Logan Airport (I would connect to Buffalo from Boston), the weather really took a turn for the worse. I could eventually see rain outside the plane and when we landed (which was a completely safe and efficient landing), it was raining pretty good.
I headed inside the airport and found my connecting flight back to Buffalo was one gate away from the one I arrived from. I picked up 2 doughnuts and a Diet Coke from Dunkin' Donuts and waited for the boarding call as I only had about a 1 hour layover between flights. Once I boarded JetBlue Flight #1915, I was pleasantly surprised that we were on another Airbus A-320 as I had expected to be on one of their smaller Embraer 190 planes. The flight back to Buffalo would leave Boston close to on time and still in the lousy weather but everything about it was otherwise good, including that on this flight, the TV's did work! I listened mostly to the radio and just relaxed. Once we started our approach for Buffalo, I eventually noticed snow outside the plane. Now to put things in perspective, it was almost 70 in Napa on Sunday and this is what I get to come home to! We landed safely, in the snow and wind at Buffalo-Niagara International Airport. I grabbed my two suitcases at Baggage Claim and took the free shuttle van to the Thrifty Airport Parking lot where I parked my car on October 30th. There was a few inches of snow on it and I was actually afraid it might not start after being in the cold all this time! As luck would have it however, the Honda started perfectly on the first try. I eventually had dinner at Burger King, then did laundry and drove home, only to find about an inch of snow on the ground, but for someone who basically can't sand winter, it's one inch too many! And so ends one absolutely out-of-this-world, once-in-a-lifetime journey!
With that, I'll now get into some closing thoughts. I've been doing trips like this every year for many years and each year, I try to "outdo" myself and see just how much I can pack into a single trip! Well I knew I faced some serious time challenges with this trip and knew that it would be a logistical nightmare to plan, but like all my trips before it, I was totally up for the challenge!!! So here are my closing thoughts about several aspects of this trip:
Amtrak Service: Overall, I had positive experiences with every single Amtrak employee I interacted with. One of the trains was carrying a full Sleeping Car's worth of Amtrak employees from Florida who were attending the President's Service & Safety Awards Ceremony in Washington and were thus heading back home to various locations in Florida. I would end up having one of these excellent employees as my sleeper attendant on the northbound Silver Meteor later in the trip! If I was reminded of anything, it's that Amtrak has a lot of very dedicated, hard-working people who take great pride in their work. I had a steak on the Silver Meteor that I'll remember for a long time, it was that good!!! I did compliment the chef on that as well! All of my sleeping car attendants were excellent and did their jobs very well. To Amtrak, I say JOB WELL DONE. I have but only one suggestion. Even though each train had its own branded Dining Car Menu, the menu itself on every train was the same! Variety is the spice of life! I know that right now, you're trying to reduce or eliminate food and beverage losses, and I'm no accounting expert but I'm sorry, that's simply never going to happen in this kind of business. If you could bring back regional menus for each train, that would be great.
Cedar Point: This place is STILL my second home!!! After coming to this park for the past 23 years, it never gets old, and I keep wanting to come back for more! Although this year the weather largely didn't cooperate much at all, I still found a way to have a good time and even ended up making an unplanned visit on the final operating day to get photos I was inspired to take during a cold, wet, windy, rainy walk up the Frontier Trail on the first night I was there. Every time I finish a trip to CP, whether by car or train, I'm always constantly thinking, "how much time do I have to wait before I can get back there again?" This park finds a way to keep you entertained no matter how bad the weather gets and this year was no exception. The Halloween-themed events in the park are almost worth the price of admission alone!!! I can't wait to get back to CP again in 2015!!!
Space Shuttle Enterprise: The Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum in New York City is phenomenal! This marks now the second Aircraft Carrier I've visited (the first being the U.S.S. Midway in San Diego in 2006). The setup there for the shuttle was great, and I'm glad to have visited this place!
Space Shuttle Discovery: If you love aviation of any kind, you need to visit the Smithsonian's National Air & Space Museum, both the main complex and the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center where the Discovery shuttle is located. You may want to spend more than one day here as there's simply so much to see! The shuttle is in a huge part of the complex giving lots of good views of this incredible work of American engineering!!!
Space Shuttle Atlantis: If you've never visited the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex, then you need to! You will learn so much about our space program there, it's awesome! I was told they built the building that the Atlantis is housed in AFTER they set up the shuttle inside. I highly recommend the Shuttle Launch Experience, as there's no ride like it anywhere in the UNIVERSE!!! This place really puts on a great show for anyone interested in the shuttle program or space exploration in general!
Space Shuttle Endeavour: The California Science Center has a little something for everyone. Their setup for the Endeavour teaches you a lot, just like the other three shuttles, but each one is set up a little differently which makes it a
good idea to see all four shuttles if you can! So much of the shuttle program originated in the state of California and this museum shows California's big contributions to this incredible program.
Railfanning At The Fostoria Iron Triangle Railfan Park: This place is a must-see if you're in the northern-Ohio area. Lots of trains and good times to be had at this excellent railfanning park!
Railfanning At Roosevelt Road In Chicago: Well what can I say here, this is my FAVORITE place to go railfanning in Chicago! Seeing the Willis Tower in the background of photos and lots of trains make this my go-to place during my layover in the Windy City when on these trips!
The Napa Valley Wine Train: Honestly, there was no better place on earth to close out this trips than to be in beautiful Napa Valley again! All I kept thinking about last year was finding a way to get back here again! Despite a bit cooler and cloudier of weather than last year's visit, I ended up having just as great of an experience as the previous year. Every member of the Wine Train's staff was a complete joy to work with and be served by while riding the train. I had the same server on both of my trips and my ride in the locomotive was just plain great!!!
Final Thoughts: This trip broke several personal records for me, including riding 9 Amtrak trains, staying in 5 hotels and renting 4 cars!!! I also got to meet so many great people both on the Amtrak trains as well as at my different destinations. I got to live out a dream and see all 4 of the space shuttles! I'm sure many people have made trips to see all 4 of them, but how many people ever rode Amtrak to do so??? I don't think I could have found a better way to combine these two interests better than to have take the trip the way I did. Would I have done a few things differently, knowing what I know now? Maybe, but those are the chances you take when you do a trip like this, and you learn things along the way you may not have expected to, and that's what makes travel so great!
I hope that in this travelogue, you got to truly see not just a story about a bunch of train rides and space shuttles, but that you got to see a real story about America! The Space Shuttle is an invention of American Engineering and is part of what made our space program so great! NASA has now set its hopes on eventually going to other planets which wouldn't be possible with the shuttle so eventually, the shuttles did need to be retired so that future programs to go further into space could be developed. I wish NASA all the best with everything going forward and hope I'm alive to see an American land on the moon again and eventually on another planet like Mars!!! I certainly hope you enjoyed reading this travelogue as much as I enjoyed taking this trip. Some fonts used in this travelogue came from www.railfonts.com including "Grand Central", "NPacific", "PRR_1930", "Railroad Roman", "Seaboard", "Texas Special" and "Zephyr". Until next time...Happy Railfanning... |
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