Category Archives: travel

June 15 Chicago

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John K met me at the station. It was quite busy with commuter traffic. We walked a few blocks, salmon like against the afternoon commuters to get to the Brown Line, took it around the loop and met up with the Red Line which we went a little north to the Addison stop near Wrigley Field.

From there it was a moderate walk to John and Marsha’s place. I took a well deserved and needed shower after 3 days on a train, and we went out to dinner at Goose Island Brewery near the ballpark. The quietness in the neighborhood belied what the following night was going to be: the only night game of a three game interleague series between two Chicago teams, the White Sox and the Cubs.

We had tickets for the second game which was in the afternoon, and would be slighty more tame… we hoped.

After dinner we went by Chicago’s Gingerman which was in no way like and is not related to the Houston original or its cousins. One beer was enough to convince me of that, and then we went to Marsh and John’s local: Joe’s.

It was a small dive and we hung with the locals till almost midnight. I had to sample the Hamm’s and the Blatz to complete the regional experience.

A nice walk home to a very welcome air mattress and I was out like a light.

June 15 California Zephyr

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The guy next to me was off the train in Lincoln, and the spot was soon filled by 1 of a group of 3. I was soon back asleep.

I awoke around 7am, it was raining in Iowa. It remained overcast and puddled throughout. A while later I went up to the lounge car and got a cinnamon bun and some orange juice for breakfast.

Not having slept well, and with the help of the overcast mood, and the monotony of farm land, I napped a bit.

Afternoon we passed over the Mississippi River into Illinois and more farmland.

I moved up to the lounge car, read a central Illinois paper, and grabbed some lunch.

I found it odd that as the sun broke through the clouds and I rode the train through a pre-suburban countryside somehow so near to Chicago that I was reminded of Liz Phair.

As I came into Chicago, we went into a switchyard that was under the station.  It was the end of the line and with all the unpacking of checked baggage and old-people movers, it was slightly difficult to make it down the narrow, dark, and loud platform.  When I made it into the station, John K was right there waiting for me.

June 14 California Zephyr

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I woke around 7:30 pacific time, but the train was now in the mountain time zone. The scenery was an ever changing collection of typically stark mountains that Utah is known for.

The engineer commented that the type of rail we were passing over would lead to a rougher ride than normal, and he was correct.

I got up to get a cup of ice from the lounge for my Dr Pepper and was then tempted by the Prairie City donut holes only to realize I had left my wallet at my seat and the attendant was about to take his morning break.

However the attendant gave me what I wanted if I would bring him the money later on account it would make his comment easier to produce: “if Paul Giamanti and David Crosby could produce a child, I belive it would be you.”. Made all the more humorous for his resemblance to Ray Liota.

We took a brief break at Green River along the foothills of the longest east-to-west mountain range in the US.

Did a bit of reading, watching, listening, and working for much of the day. The guy who had sat next to me in the middle of the night found an open seat after we stopped in Grand Junction, Colorado.

I decided to skip lunch since I wasn’t doing much to burn calories.

We stopped in Winter Park just before 4:00p, and soon thereafter passed through the Moffat Tunnel that goes under the Continental Divide, over 9600 feet in altitude.

After that we passed through some amazing views into a canyon and passed through 44 tunnels in total. The approach into Denver was fabulous, with nice weather and amazing views.

We were early into Denver and had about an hour to kill. Unfortunately, I had dinner reservations on the train only an 30 minutes later. Fortunately, there was a brewpub across the street.

I went across and had one beer, and checked my email. Suspiciously, I had only 7 emails after a day and a half on the train. Twitter API didn’t work, but the website did.

I got back to the train to hear that the 7:30 reservations were running late. Luckily I wasn’t seated with any of quite a few oddball groups. They sat me with a very interesting British journalist who had flown to San Francisco and was heading to Boston via train. All the while stopping at the oddball small towns on the route.

He had actually stayed in Winnemucca (sp?) and said the nearby hotel had a fabulous Basque restaurant, and they were having a Basque festival (as well as a rodeo) the few days he was there.

He was disembarking the train in eastern Colorado.

After dinner I hung out in the observation car until after dark, enjoying a book and an apertif. I suspected that I had gathered a travelmate since my absence, and indeed I had.

While many of the other single occupancy seats were being maintained by what seemed like bag ladies, my spot was relatively clean on top of being unoccupied through several stops.

When I returned at 10p the car was dark and the spot wad occupied; luckily he was still awake. He was disembarking at 4a in Lincoln, Nebraska.

I sat down, finished my wine, read some, and listened to a Skeptics Guide to the Universe podcast I had managed to download to my iPod Touch at the brewpub.

June 13 California Zephyr

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I began the day with a 5:45 wake up call. Not on my list of favorite ways to start the day. But I had already checked the bedside clock several times through the wee hours; I got out of bed and turned on the lights.

I had done no prep the day before, so I picked the clothes to wear, packed my bags and took a shower to last for three days. I checked out, and had only to walk across Market street to wait for the Amtrak connector bus.

It was scheduled for 7:15 on the schedule I had, and it was only 6:40 when I arrived. The bus came, loaded 4 of us and luggage and was gone by 6:50. Good thing I was early.

A few more stops and then it was over the Bay Bridge to Emeryville. There’s another bridge under construction next to the second half of the current bridge. It will include a pedestrian walk with periodic benches. It’s seven miles across the bay.

I waited over an hour and through several other train arrivals and departure before boarding the Number 6 train, the California Zephyr once again. This time for a three day / two night trip to Chicago.

After being awake for 4 hours I was getting a bit sleepy. I took a small nap over the familiar path with a variety of stops.

Later I had lunch with three Californian’s in the dining cart. An older couple was headed to Chicago and going to drive Route 66 back. The other was heading to her hometown in Nebraska. She implored us to check for the Morman Trail Museum arch early in the morning. She was slightly defensive about her home state and sprung to its defense before it could be attacked.

I read for a bit after lunch and listened to some podcasts. We passed through some dead dirt looking places. Playas?They looked like they had received some recent rain. There were also, oddly, some marshlike wetlands.

Later we passed through sagebrush with mountains in the distance most of the way. By the time the attendant came through for dinner reservations all that was left was 8:30, which is fine with me, though last time some of the items were no longer available.

We stopped about 8:00p in Winnemucca Nevada. It’s the first real town we had seen since leaving Reno, and it seemed rather small. There was no station to speak of, just a bus shelter and a parking lot. There was a hotel a block away that didn’t seem much larger than a house.

It was just a brief smoke and/or walk on Terra Firma break and we were once again headed east (northeast?) as the sun set over the mountains to our left.

I had dinner with a mom and son heading to Utah, then Idaho, to help her daughter pack and move back to Nevada. And a married lady with several kids but traveling alone. Her husband and sons had flown to Michegan for football camp. She has grown weary of flying and was going to meet them there.

I retired to my seat where it was mostly dark. Watched some video podcasts from the past week and was trying to sleep by midnight.

We had two latenight stops, and a guy had claimed the seat next to me around 2:30 in Salt Lake City.

June 7 Back to San Francisco

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I got up Sunday morning and it was sunny with blue skies. Chad and Summer drove me to the train station.

Chad explained Reno’s “big dig” – the fight to take the rail line subterranean in downtown. Inside the old station there is an exhibit describing it as well. Residents voted against it, city council did it anyway. They were right.

I picked up the bus extension tickets from Emeryville into San Francisco and back I had booked.

The ride back over the Sierras was a little bit more annoying with the same exact dialog as the first time. I’m not looking forward to the third time.

We arrived in Emeryville almost an hour early. I got on the bus with very apparently clueless tourists. The bus driver proceeded to drive us all over the place after the stop at the ferry building and the Aquarium rather than proceeding to the third stop which was mine. I got off at the last stop which was the general vicinity of my hotel.

I didn’t really know which direction it was in, but guessed well and after a few blocks I was at the Powell Hotel. Bill Dudney, an old friend and coworker and my roommate for the week hadn’t checked in yet, so I called up Mike and Mike (fellow FlipSide5 developers) and went up to their room.

They were “testing” one of our apps over the new Bluetooth protocols (poor performance). They hadn’t RSVPd to the party I was heading to at Jillian’s, so I left them behind.

I checked in at the Moscone West and went across the street to the party. I met a variety of interesting people. Some guys from U of Michigan among them. Then ended up playing pool with two guys from Dublin who had been awake for 23 hours.

Ends up that Damien had been following me on Twitter. We were about to head over to the Thirsty Bear for another gathering and I looked around for Dudney (who was supposed to be there by now) and easily found him and he was planning to head to the Thirsty Bear as well. He had also transferred my bags to our room.

The gathering there was dwindling as everyone was feeling their original time zones weigh on their eye lids.

I got to the hotel around 10:30p. The following morning was WWDC Keynote at 10:00a and the other guys were planning on heading out aroud 4:00a. I planned on sleeping in.