Today begins a long-distance trip across this great country
from sea to shining sea. My travel companions will be my
former travel partner on many rail-related adventures, Chris
and now his new bride, Elizabeth. We have been planning for
this Florida convention for several months. Much time was
spent looking at maps, places of interest, how much time to
spend at those places, and other facts as they arose. A
previous week of travel in Florida before the convention was
seriously considered, but dropped in the end to be replaced by
flying to Fort Lauderdale several days before the start of the busy days of the convention.
Also planned for after the convention was for the three of
us to ride on the return trip of private cars that came down
from New York with conventioneers. We would ride in the "Kitchi
Gammi Club" and sleeping car "Pacific Home,"
a two day and one night trip. My only experience with
private cars has been riding the "Tioga Pass" from Los
Angeles to San Diego and spending the night at the San Diego
Depot in the Pullman sleeper "Pacific Sands", so I was
greatly interested in making this trip. We would leave
Deerfield Beach on Thursday 9/7 and arrive in Manhattan on
Friday at 7:10 PM. For a previous convention, Chris and I
flew to Albany, rented a car and drove to Wassaic, NY, the
end of line for Metro North, taking the train into Grand
Central Station. Chris spent the day riding trains in New
Jersey and I took a bus tour of Manhattan and at the end of
day, we rode back to Wassaic. I been in NYC before but only
to change planes or trains and never at night to see the
Great White Way. My nephew lives in nearby Forrest Hills, so
I planned for three nights in the Big Apple with a visit
with nephew and see my first Broadway show.
After we arrived in NYC, the three of us would separate with
Chris and Elizabeth going to previous commitments in the
Midwest and I planned to return home by rail. My first
thought was to go to Toronto and take the train to
Vancouver, British Columbia. In my time frame, the only
choice was to go by coach for four nights. That didn't sound
like a vacation, so plan B. I was looking for new mileage if
possible. There are several routes from Manhattan to
Chicago, several of which I have ridden before. And so it
was decided that I would take the Lake Shore Limited, which
would be new to me and I have never been to the Finger Lakes
or Buffalo. Again never been to Chicago at night, but passed
through several times. Three nights in Chicago and then
board the Texas Eagle, all new mileage to me, to meet the
Sunset Limited in San Antonio and on to the West Coast and
home. This will be my second trip on the Sunset going home.
Having decided the route and the days, I booked my Amtrak
tickets, sleeping car all the way, paying with points from
my Amtrak credit card and made hotel reservations on
recommendations on friends.
After tickets were bought and reservations made, this
was going to be the start of a grand adventure. Chris,
Elizabeth and I were flying together on Southwest to
Fort Lauderdale leaving from Long Beach Airport. Chris
asked his long-time friend, Bill C. for a ride to Long
Beach. Bill lives near me so he picked me up first and
then drove over to Chris and Elizabeth's and a quick
trip was made to the LB airport. I went through security
fairly easily with my new California ID and too old to
take my shoes off. Everything in my pockets I placed in
a small bag and put in the carry-on backpack, but did
have to take my belt off due to metal buckle. We made it
to the waiting area in time to relax before boarding our
8:25 am flight.
We boarded through both ends of the
plane and found a row of three seats just for us. Our
flight had a change of plane in Nashville and our flight
there was good and arrived on schedule, giving us time
for lunch at Party Fowl while waiting for our new plane
to arrive. Nashville is the first of nine capital cities
I would visit on this journey. I am a capital city
native so my interest is large in those special cities.
We boarded
Flight 820 for the shorter trip to Fort Lauderdale,
arriving late and after daylight, then going to
baggage clam and collecting our luggage. Walking to
the exit, it hits you, like a good sock in the
stomach -The Humidity. The air felt so heavy
I felt I needed a shovel to get air in my
lungs. Outside we found our way to the free
shuttle bus stop to the Tri-Rail station. After
waiting a few anxious minutes, we boarded the nice
air conditioned bus for the short ride to the Fort
Lauderdale Airport station. Arriving at the station,
we bought our tickets at 9:24pm for the last
northbound train to Deerfield Beach. We did not
intend taking the last train, but traveling east can
mess with your time schedules. We boarded #648
at 10:18pm and rode about 30 minutes and four stops
to Deerfield Beach, our home for the next week.
Coming up next was to be the pits of today's trip,
walking in the very warm humid night to our hotel a
mile away with misbehaving luggage. Elizabeth's case
was too heavy for her to move on all four wheels so
she had to lug it behind her, and mine couldn't go
straight. Sweating, wet and tired, we checked in to
the DoubleTree Hotel, receiving a warm cookie. I
went to my room and Chris and Elizabeth went to
theirs and I got ready for bed and sleep after a
long day of waking near the Pacific Ocean and going
to sleep near the Atlantic Ocean with an entire
country in between.
We boarded through
both ends of the plane and we found a row of three seats just
for us. Our flight had a change of plane in Nashville and our
flight there was good and on time getting into Nashville. We had
time for lunch at Party Fowl while waiting for our new plane to
arrive. Nashville is the first of nine capital cities I will
visit on this journey. I am a capital city native so my interest
in those special cities. We boarded Flt 820 for the shorter trip
to Fort Lauderdale. We arrived late and after daylight, then
going to baggage clam and collecting our luggage, walking to the
exit, it hits you, like a good sock in the stomach-The Humidity.
The air felt so heavy I felt i needed a shovel to get air in my
lungs. Outside we found our way to the free shuttle bus
stop to the Tri-Rail station. After waiting a few anxious
minutes, we boarded the nice air condition bus for the short
ride to the Fort Lauderdale Airport station. Arriving at the
station, we bought our tickets at 9:24pm for the last northbound
train to Deerfield Beach. We didn't plan on taking the last
train but traveling east can mess with your time
schedules. We boarded # 648 at 10:18pm and rode about 30
minutes and four stops to Deerfield Beach, our home for the next
week. Coming up next was to be the pits of today's trip. Walking
in very warm humid night to our hotel a mile away with
misbehaved luggage. Elizabeth had a wheel go bad and mine
couldn't go straight. Sweating, wet and tired we checked in to
the Doubletree receiving a warm cookie. I went
to my room and Chris and Elizabeth went to theirs and I got
ready for bed and sleep after a long day of waking near the
Pacific Ocean and going to sleep near the Atlantic Ocean with
an entire country in between.
