I’ll be on this train for … call it 19 hours.
Also, it would appear that I’m heading for San Fran Fish, in West California. Makes sense; Western California would be damp.
Could have gone with a sleeper, but it didn’t really seem worth it for a trip where I need to be off the train at 8am. Who knows, by 8am tomorrow I may have changed my tune & be extolling the virtues of sleepers for every possible occasion.
Yep!
Sleepers are awesome.
It was not the best night ever.
The views were pretty good though.
I’d forgotten that the Business Class seat gave me access to the Metropolitan Lounge, but as it happens the train spends some time at Portland, and they board as soon as they’re able, so I’d have had to get there pretty early to enjoy the lounge.
Or, from the look of it, comfy waiting room.
Another passenger advised me to go for a right-hand side seat, for the view, though that may apply more further south, where the water lives; In Oregon & Northern California, it’s trees & farms, sometimes tree farms.
The seats are comfy enough; Sleeping issues were more to do with people.
Bickering couple behind me who spent a lot of time messing with very noisy bags, and who were constantly kicking the footrest or resting their feet on the back of my seat while I was trying to sleep. Turns out that fully reclining said seat cramped their style, and one of them moved.
There was also the guy who swore every time the train hit a bump, thrashed around while loudly muttering as he tried to get a comfy position, and generally made sure that if he couldn’t sleep, neither could any of the rest of us.
I alternated between sleeping across two seats, with feet pulled up on the fold-out legrest, sleeping sitting against the window with my feet on the other seat’s footrest, and fully reclining my own seat. All of them worked for a while as an approach.
OK, back to the views.
Taking pictures from a moving train means that you’re constantly getting objects flinging themselves into the shot at the last moment. Objects like this group of trees.
When that didn’t happen, there were shots like these.
And another opportunity to add to the ‘photographing photographers’ series.
This one I’m keeping because … I kind of like the effect.
And the dead-strait road through a forest is interesting.
This one looks to me like the tree to the right is trying to photobomb by leaping into the shot.
Sunrise from the dining car. I was seated with the guy between me & Thrashy McSwearsalot, and the guy in front of Thrashy McSwearsalot, so we got to trade notes. It was … theraputic.
Guy in front of me was heading back to LA, after driving up to Oregon with a relative to help them move into College.
Guy further in front was on his way back to SF after having through-hiked the Pacific Crest Trail; Took 4½ months, and it begins and ends at the borders. At the south, you can touch the border fence, or even reach under it to touch Mexico (though in some places the fence is inside the USA, I’m told) if you want to.
At the northern end, there’s a firebreak and a sign asking you to turn around if you don’t have a Canadian Visa.
The train only goes to Emeryville, so there’s a bus for the last bit; That’s where I took this one from, probably showing Alcatraz.
