May 12, 2012
Amtrak!: Heading East!
The Empire Builder arrived on schedule.
The train was exceptionally long and impressive - like a tandem pulling a Bob.
As we scrambled on board carrying two Ortlieb handlebar bags, one rear pannier, and one rackpack, we were immediately recognized as cyclists. This of course would not be much of a tough call for anyone, but Timothy - the young fellow who greeted us - could claim to be an expert. It turned out that last season he crossed on the TransAm and recrossed by another route. And yes, it was a tandem pulling a Bob!
Needless to say we passed a good amount of time talking about tandems, Bobs, routes, wheels, and every other topic you can normally find on Crazyguy. When the subject came round to folding bikes, Timothy pointed out two other cyclists in our car. These (Will an Leah) had their Bromptons folded and with them in a small space behind their seats.
I introduced myself as a Bike Friday rider and presented our little "Grampies on the Go" slip, that looks like this:
They countered with their much more impressive card, that looks like this:
Since the Will and Leah are from Portland, the Bromptons naturally were from Clever Cycle, described in our own blog here . Crazyguy makes us feel part of a rather close knit community of cyclists, but this rail car makes it feel like an even smaller cycling world.
Timothy, like us, was interested and nostalgic to look out the train window and we whizzed through areas where last year we had slogged on the bikes. For us, Havre, Montana is such a place, and we dutifully took yet another couple of photos of the station area from the train side, as opposed to the bike side:
Union Station in Chicago this time around was pretty much as disappointing as last time. The Grand Hall is not really all that grand, and the available food was much like that in a small shopping mall.
We have a lot of packaged food in our packs, but at least felt a need to take on some "pastry power". The "Corner Bakery Cafe" in the station seemed like a good bet. $2.59 for a slice of coffee cake (plus 11% tax). A price we could maybe swallow, but yikes - the long arm of North American junk food standardization reached out and got us. The coffee cake was exactly (like exactly!) the same as what passes for coffee cake at our local "Superstore". Only difference, $2.59 at Superstore buys almost the whole cake. In this case, the whole thing went straight into the dumpster. We gotta get at least to Montreal, fast!
One thing about Chicago, it was home to Steve Goodman, who wrote City of New Orleans - touted as the best train song ever written in America. (yes, I ranted about this last year too). Anyway, this time we found the schedule for the "City of New Orleans". It originates in chicago and passes through Memphis, Jackson, Yazoo City... Cool!
Next it's the Lakeshore Limited for us, and soon we will be back in Schenectady to hop the Adirondack!
The Lakeshore Limited is as much fun as the Empire Builder, but sheesh, it's not a gourmet experience:
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