Tag Archives: trains

Amtrak Pass #3: New York and the Crescent Train to New Orleans


Had a great time in New York seeing friends (including Neil Greenberg, see photo!) and my aunt, though was only there for a couple of days which is too short.

The Amtrak Crescent goes from New York to New Orleans in about 30 hours. Major stops included Philadelphia, Wilmington, Washington, Charlottesville, Charlotte, Atlanta, Birmingham and New Orleans – plus a ton of smaller cities. Talk to me sometime about kids on trains, though! Earplugs, a great invention! I will say, though, this train was on time and had the best climate-controlled environment so far on my 30-day pass (read: it was not freezing on this train. Yay!)

Enjoy the pix and the video – which includes clips from D.C. which include the Washington Monument, Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham (which those of you who know the “Ghost Hunters” shows will recognize) and pulling into Birmingham station itself. I liked that there was a truck parked there labeled “Dixie.” Indeed, I’ve arrived in Dixie. I’ll be here in New Orleans till Friday – more pix and videos coming.

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Kevin & Jim’s Garden Railway in Mukwonago, Wisconsin

Yesterday, I went out to Mukwonago to visit old college-era friend Kevin Ylvisaker and his partner Jim Hunnicutt. They live in a 120-year old farm house complete with a barn. One of the more entertaining things we did was examine the still in-process (for the summer season) Garden Railway. Pictures above of some of it – though there are better pix on their own site here (Rocky Lights Railroad). Their project was also the cover story for the December 2006 Garden Railways magazine, which also has pictures.

Kevin showed me some embarrassing pictures from the 1970s which he’s promised to post to Facebook, so I guess we’ll see. . . they seemed harmless enough and brought back some good memories. Then we went to lunch a local biker bar Mustang Shelly’s – no doubt there are similar places everywhere but it reminded me so much of the Midwest in the summer.

I love this area of Wisconsin, the rolling hills, small farms, small towns with old Victorians, etc – especially in the summer with the crops in the fields and the leaves on the trees. I was reminded that the next town over is Genesee Depot, which was the home of Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontanne. It’s the gateway to the Kettle Moraine, where the glaciers stopped in the last ice age and deposited all the rocks and melted into all the lakes (that dot Wisconsin and Minnesota).

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Amtrak Pass #1: Southwest Chief, Los Angeles to Chicago

Started my 30-day Amtrak Rail Pass on Sunday, July 1. The first leg of my trip from Los Angeles took me on the Southwest Chief to Chicago and then on the Hiawatha to Milwaukee (more a commuter route, a very short 86 miles).

In short, train great, but hard to sleep. At least for me. A lot of the people I saw looked like they were out like a light, but this was not the case for me in my coach seat. It was pretty darn uncomfy for sleeping. Also, the A/C was cranked way up so although most of the landscape we passed through was burning up in record heat waves, it was freezing inside and I had to wear a sweatshirt.

But really, those are my only complaints. I loved the diversity which included a bunch of Asian teenagers from a Bible study group (I think), a Muslim family in traditional garb, a troop of smelly boy scouts coming home from a camping trip (and who apparently didn’t have time to shower before they got on the train) and an Amish or Mennonite group. I also met a gay couple from England who were looking forward to the Olympic Games in London next month. Most of the people who worked on and ran the train were African American, as expected. So it was kind of perfect for just prior to the 4th of July – and confirming the fact that we’re potentially great because of our diversity.

Enjoy the pix, some of which are Instagrammed; the video as well,  and hopefully there will be more coming. I get back on the train July 13th: next stop, Cleveland.

 

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