Chemult Oregon to Tucson and return

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Joined
Oct 24, 2012
Messages
932
Location
Crescent Oregon (17 miles from Chemult)
My wife drove me to the CMO station on Wednesday 2/5. A snowstorm was just starting. The temperature was 9F and there was a stiff north wind blowing putting the wind chill below zero. The CS arrived about 10 minutes late but I had a warm car to sit in until others started up the ramp. We were also about 10 minutes late out of KFS.

We arrived about 35 minutes early in SAC. I called my buddy and we went to breakfast at a Denny's I was not aware of north of the city.

He got me back to the station at 7AM and I waited for the bus to Stockton (7:40 roll out). Amtrak was good about notifying me about the bus bridge between Stockton and Modesto.

Our bus pulled into Stockton next to 2 empty buses. I chose the Van Hool over the MCI. We waited about 15 minutes for the 712 that came in from Martinez.

Both buses were nearly full for the trip to Modesto. We waited in the Modesto station for about 30 minutes for the train to come in from Bakersfield. Passengers got off and headed for the buses we had gotten off. We got on (no ticket scan) and backed all the way to Bakersfield about 45 minutes late by the 712 schedule.

I took the bus that dropped me off at the New Hall/Santa Clarita transit center. My daughter-in-law ended up picking me up since the taxi didn't show up in an hour after being called.

Thursday night I got to see my grandchildren in Stevenson Ranch.

Friday late afternoon my DIL tok me down to the Burbank (Bob Hope airport) stop. I was scheduled to get on the 790 Surfliner at 6:39PM. I ended up getting on an earlier Surfliner which was really running late due to someone dropping a big tree on the line on Friday afternoon.

I got into LAUS in time to stand in a long line to get a seat assignment for the coach seat to Tucson. Our train left at 8PM to meet the needs of BNSF.

We got to Maricopa 1:40 ahead of schedule after starting 2 hours early. We left Maricopa right "on time" and arrived at TUS at 8AM (30 minutes early).

I had a rather expensive taxi ride out to my rental car at the Park Place Mall (7 miles).

I chose Tucson to get the rental car even though the event I was headed to was in Yuma. We were at Yuma at 1:47AM and I didn't want to get a rental car or hotel room at that time in Yuma.

Before my late afternoon event in Yuma I continued west on I-8 into California and then south on Algodones road to a big parking lot just north of the border. I spent about 2 hours in Los Algodones and found 2 geocaches in Mexico. I spoke to no Mexican authorities. The US customs agent asked what I was bringing back from Mexico when he swiped my passport through the reader. "Nothing I just found 2 geocaches in Mexico".

Several hundred geocachers showed up for the "warm up" event in downtown Yuma. The next day (Sunday) over 1000 geocachers showed up in the West Wetlands Park for the 11th annual event. When I left the event at 2PM the temperature was 85F. I drove back to Eloy (intersection I-8 and I-10) and spent the night there.

Monday I found geocaches in Las Cruces and north of El Paso TX before stopping in Van Horn. Tuesday morning when I got up in Van Horn the temperature was 27F.

I found a couple of geocaches in Van Horn before I headed back to Tucson. I found the Amtrak station in Tucson and dropped off my luggage to hold for me until I got back from dropping off the rental car. I dropped off the rental car about 6:10 just after they closed.

I found my way across Broadway to a bus stop and got a $2 ride back to the Ronstadt Transit center which is across Toole Street from the Amtrak station.

My trip back home from Tucson was on AGR points. Stay tuned for the return trip story.
 
OK time for the "rest of the story". The SL pulled into TUS within 5 minutes of the schedule time. My sleeper car attendant helped with my heavier bag to my roomette on the 0130 car (lower level).

Roman asked if I was hungry. He said that they had saved a steak just for me. I headed to the dining car. I did order the steak "medium rare". I had just finished the salad when we started moving at 8:35PM.

My steak arrived brown all the way through but I didn't complain. I believe I got the last meal out of the kitchen. About halfway through my steak, there was an announcement that we all had to evacuate the dining car. Someone asked if the train was on fire. the reply was "maybe".

They provided a cover for my plate. I carried the plate and my drink back to the roomette to finish. I pushed the call button to have Roman take my plate/fork when I was done. I asked for and got a great brownie since I had not been offered dessert yet. Early in the morning I got my first shower on Amtrak. I was glad they didn't hit rough track. I didn't need the grab bar.

We arrived early at LAUS. I carried my bags all the way up to the central hall and did a little looking to find the signs leading to the elevator to the Metro Lounge. I plugged in my laptop to charge in the side of a comfortable chair and left my luggage on the other side.

I asked for directions to Phillipe's on Alameda Street. I had a great omlette there. I was back by 8:30. I used the wifi in the lounge. About 9:50 some of us got rides down to train 14 on the carts.

My roomette was upstairs in the 1430 car which was just ahead of the Pacific Parlor car. No wifi available in the PPC until we got to SLO. The wifi was very spotty for the rest of the way.

On Wednesday evening I had the best cut of beef I ever had on any train. If you get the chance to eat short ribs in the PPC by all means do it instead of going to the dining car.

After the meal I went down to the lower level and watched most of "The Butler". I left and went back to the roomette when we got to EMY. It was raining when we got to Dunsmuir. I got a shower before we got into Oregon. By the time we got to CMO the temp was in the mid 40's and the 12" of snow we had while I was gone had melted. The spot where my wife had dropped me off at the foot of the ramp had 4" of water. We had to come down the steps to the middle of the parking lot.
 
Great story! Still melting here, the wind is blowing, and it is supposed to be back to snow by tomorrow. I hope we get yet more moisture before it dries up next week (you folks back east might not understand this, but it's been so dry out here on the left coast we need to get all the winter we can, before spring comes to stay...).
 
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