From the Train

 I am safely at Marie's. Tomorrow we head for Philadelphia. Meanwhile, we are both ready to crash. It was not a good day for pictures.

Here, the train was standing still and so was I, but ha! One big blur. This is when I got on at Toledo, OH.

Got one look at Lake Erie where the tracks are close. I believe it froze over this year. But it was warm again today, so ice is melting everywhere.

By the time we got near Syracuse, NY, the sun was shining. This is Onondaga Lake.

The Adirondack Scenic Railway originates in Utica, NY. It used to go far into the Adirondacks, but now it has a rather limited schedule. The northern end is a bike-rail trail in some places. But I still like seeing the distinctive engine and cars

All efforts to take a picture of the Hudson River focued on the dirty and scratched train window.

The train was on time- even a little early. I was a little concerned about how I'd hold up on the ride, but it went wonderfully well. I managed to sleep some (not all night, but enough). I didn't have to take extra ibuprofen, I took enough food with me. It's a 12 hour train ride, but it's SO much cheaper than driving.

Marie picked me up at Albany, and we are back at her house. We're pretty much done for today, but she is making a list of what has to go to Philadelphia tomorrow.

See Sunrise from the Train

I've Got (Half) a Ticket to Ride

 The big local news is snow.

We are socked in. But that's not the focus of my day. This is one of those stories that goes on so long it becomes ridiculous. I've been trying to get a train ticket East to go to the 2025 Flower Show.

I started trying to get a ticket yesterday. I already knew the Amtrak web site is bad, but how bad? I could get the round-trip ticket and the correct dates etc in my cart, but could not pay for it. I also could not see the return trip times. That seemed worrisome, but I used their live chat and it was explained to me how to see that, which I then could do.

Kept trying to pay for the ticket. Of course, after 5 minutes the site times out. Tried to log in, but it said I don't have an account. Well, I did... so I wonder how long that lasts before they dump a customer out of their database. Ran out of time before Monica picked me up yesterday.

Started trying again today. Created a new account Tried in two different browsers. Still no way to actually pay for the ticket, and every time you have to start over because it times out. Tried to get help through the chat. Explained it all. They bumped me up to a supervisor. Explained it all again. No go. That person told me to call the 800 number to make my reservation.

Ten minutes on hold. Their voice activated system could not understand me saying the word "reservation." Last I knew, I speak standard English. Lady with thick Spanish accent finally came on. She said I sounded like I was talking under water, and she could not understand me. She hung up.

I installed the Amtrak app on my phone, loaded in all the info for the trip yet again. It would not take a payment.

Called the 800 number again. Got a robot named Julie! This is possibly good. It speaks English. It took the reservation and quoted me a price that was double the online price. I hung up.

Tried the web site again in both browsers. No. Tried the phone app again. I got it to take my payment!

The e-ticket arrived and it is one way.

Well, I'm going East at the end of February. We'll see if I am returning. I really can't tolerate working on this any more today. I've already spent over two hours.

This is the kind of thing that makes me absolutely NUTS.

Now, here's what I really wanted to share today. I had posted this picture once long ago on Facebook, but then I couldn't find it. Well, the original slide is somewhere, but I knew I had it digitally. It just wasn't filed where it belonged. Anyway, here it is!

This is from a Girl Scout campout either my junior or senior year in high school. I actually don't know most of the girls because it was some kind of council exchange thing where our troop went and camped with another troop.

I have no idea who owned the truck. It was borrowed for the occasion, but my mother agreed to drive it. My mom had spirit! She is sitting on the running board.

The woman standing on her right (picture left) is Delores Bush, the school librarian who was our assistant scout leader. She was rigid and severe at school, but had a fun sense of humor and spunk when one got to know her.

I am sitting top left in the picture with my hands on the head of Vienna Louma (nickname Vanilla. I was Chocolate, and another girl with red hair- not in the picture- was Strawberry) whom I met at Camp Comstock. She was from Ithaca. Sitting next to me is Faith Hiltbrand, a friend from school. She died a couple of years ago. The only other person I recognize is Lexi King of Trumansburg who has her head sticking out of the cab window (or maybe she's standing on the running board).

The truck makes this look like it's a scene from about two centuries ago instead of only one! We didn't care. It was a truck to haul our tents and gear, and we had a blast. Thanks to whomever trusted the ladies to borrow it. I'm wearing my standard out-of-school uniform. Jeans and t-shirt. See My Natural Habitat

I am pretty much in a snit about the ticket. Edited a little, but I'm busy snitting. See you tomorrow.

See Sunrise from the Train

Sunrise from the Train

  Marianne from the Toledo area was a total trooper, agreeing to take me to the train station at 2 in the morning. I caught a quick nap on her sofa before we headed out. Our friendship began because of the trail, but discovered we have many more things than that in common, including trains.

The train was full, which is sort of interesting in its own right. This is the Lakeshore Limited from Chicago to New York and Boston, with a split at Albany. I got on in Toledo and got off in Albany. The first time I took this train was in 1975, the same year Amtrak established the line. I took toddler Steve and went to NY to see my mother. We had an entire train car to ourselves. That sure wasn't the case today.

I've taken this route four times, that 1975 trip, then once in the 1980s, and once in 2002, and today. This is the first time it's ever been full when I rode, and it's also the first time that it was pretty much on time. The worst was in the 1980's when I had to sleep on the floor in the station in Rochester and wait for 12 hours because there were mechanical problems.

Anyway, I managed to get a couple more hours of sleep on the train. My seat mate went to get breakfast at about sunrise, which was great for me, because I was able to scoot over to look out the window. The sunrise was spectacular with mammatus clouds lit from below. Even through the crummy train windows the pictures aren't bad. This color is accurate.

Sunrises and sunsets have to be just about the most ephemeral sources of beauty in our lives. It was still looking nice about 5 minutes later, but then the sun actually rose, and all the glory faded.

It's a long way across New York State, by train or car. Train was a great option for this trip. I didn't have to drive. The price was less than I would have spent on gas, and it didn't take much longer. I can't really do that 17-hour drive in one day any more, although I used to. And we were just going to park my car at Marie's house and only take one vehicle to Philadelphia, so there was no reason I had to take the car.

I packed enough food. There was a cafe car in the train, but I opted to not have to spend any extra money. I took my pillow and a blanket. I didn't need the blanket, but I think I'll get a neck pillow before the return trip.

Finally, we crossed the Hudson River to arrive at the Albany-Rensaleer train station.

Marie picked me up and we crossed back to the west side of the Hudson and headed south to her place. The Thruway runs between the Hudson and the Catskills. We think this is Timmerman Hill ahead.

We arrived just in time to fix dinner, and then go do some prep work on a project she is involved in. Now we are crashed. We'll take a picture of us tomorrow. For now, you know I'm here safely. Really tired, but all is well.

See Working My Way East

Kaleva Day

  I'm calling this post Kaleva Day, even though I was there for an event known as Kaleva Days. That's because my pictures mostly aren't about the event, but are an ecclectic assortment of things around town. I participated in the vendor event and did pretty well. Another part of the event was a classic car show. There were lots more cars, this is just a few.

One man was walking around with a white German Shepherd, which reminded me of Ester's dog, Jade. This one's name was Powder.

I wanted to swing by the Bottle House. I thought sure I'd blogged about that before, but I guess not. This was completed in 1940 and was made out of 60,000 pop bottles. The man who owned the bottling plant built it, but he died before his family could move in. His name was John Makinen.

This totem pole is for my writer friend Diana whose muse is a duck named Drake. The totem symbols come from the Kalevala, an epic Finn tale and the source of the town's name. In the Kalevala legend "the Duck is the Messenger that helped Vainamoinen discover his true powers."

There is also a museum in the old rail station. I'll just have to go back! The Manistee and North Eastern RR ran from Manistee to Traverse City, and was one of the many logging boom lines. Link below to other posts that mention it.

I'll just end with a nice planter. It was a good day and there is no other news.

See Local Finnish Heritage See Manistee and North Eastern RR

Miscellaneous

  If yesterday was congested, today was miscellaneous and as flighty as the phoebes on my deck. I worked on a lot of different projects. I took pictures of a lot of different things.

We'll start with some new flamingoes in the lawn just down the road from me. There is quite a collection now, but you haven't seen these ones yet. I'm pretty sure they are getting ready to open a dance studio for their neighborhood.

While out doing errands, I had to wait for the train at a grade crossing with gates. That was neat- I got to see more of the train at one time than when it passes behind my house. They have one of the engines with the new paint scheme on this line now, but it's not the lead engine.

Then I stopped for some quick shots at the Pere Marquette River Flats. This is where the river begins to open into Pere Marquette Lake (where the Badger car ferry is docked). It's a huge cattail marsh. You can see more of the open water at this time of year.

Finally, the first and last pictures of the day- the new and the old, both textural. The first is a sugar maple tree loaded with flowers. New life.

I'll end with the broken-down cattail stems and leaves from last year in the marsh. Past life.

In other news: It's really all other news- wow. Got my car, did laundry, did accounts, did volunteer stuff, did other stuff, went to UPS, ate too much. Didn't finish hardly anything, but hopefully the progress I did make will build up to completed tasks soon.

See Congested

Get Outa the Way!

  You know what they say- "Lead, Follow, or Get out of the way! One should definitely get out of the way of an engine! Several trains went by today- seemed like more than usual. This is Marquette Rail- the line that goes in back of my house, but we were in Scottville when I took this picture.

It was a busy day on the home front. It was probably good to stay out of our way too. We were on a roll! The hiking was limited to a walk to Scottville and back. We went shopping at three stores, planned tomorrow, and did three loads of laundry. I know I show you clothes on the line almost every year, but it's one of my favorite spring milestones. Of course, the new ropes all stretched, but we'll tighten them up later!

We visited with crafter friend Chris, and Cathy. We cleaned out the cars. We thought we would start a trailer project, but didn't get to that except for getting out the extension cord and discussing it. However, we did start another little project. Stay tuned. Will reveal all tomorrow.

And that is enough for one day! Tomorrow is?... some of you know.

See Crash

Whistle Stop

 
Imagine my surprise when I got home from work and there's a train parked in my back yard! I should have taken a shot without zooming in, so you'd see what I see from my deck.

I have to say that I don't think I've ever seen a train stopped here. It's single track, so there's no way they were just waiting on a siding.



I had to go back and find out what was up.

You can see a spot of green in the window- that's the back of the engineer's jacket.



I hollered a "hello," and the engineer and conductor actually came out to talk to me. They were bored stiff. The track was being worked on between here and Ludington, where they were headed. Instead of telling them before the train left Baldwin, they were told en route that there would be a slight delay. Right. They'd already been there three hours.

I learned a couple of things. I knew Marquette Rail operated between Ludington, Manistee and Grand Rapids, but not the actual logistics. Two separate trains do the Ludington-Baldwin and Manistee-Baldwin routes. The cars are sorted at Baldwin and run by a third train to Grand Rapids.

I told the guys I'm a railfan, and had seen an engine with the new paint scheme out here only a couple of times. They said another one is in the shop being painted. So perhaps eventually I'll get to see pretty engines more often.

Told them about the fire the train caused this summer. He said that wasn't that unusual, and most of the time, they never even know it happened. Last year the train he was driving started a fire near Manistee that burned about 3 acres. Who knew that diesels caused so many fires?

Offered to make them some coffee, but they said they were good.

A few nice autumn pictures keep posing themselves. White birch against interesting sky.



Accountability Report:
Worked all day. Did some stuff this afternoon- I may tell you about that tomorrow.
No writing, although I have an hour yet before I have to go to work... we'll see if I can talk myself into doing anything. I have hopes for tomorrow afternoon.

	See New Owner, New Paint Scheme
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