An inauspicious start to the trip as I realised that when I had sorted out my wallet before the trip, removing useless things like my Nectar card, I had also removed my driving licence! I emailed Paddy, trusting that firstly he would agree to get into my flat to copy it and secondly that the car hire company would accept a pictorial version. The flight was relatively uneventful apart from prolonged periods of rough weather, I don’t recall any flight being quite as rough. I spent quite a bit of marking on board, I was surprised how much snow there was still lying on the ground, Newfoundland was completely white and evidence of patches of lying snow was still evident in New Jersey.
We landed on time and despite the worst efforts of Homeland Security I was on the station for the short ride to New York within an hour of landing. The weather was chilly but pleasant – about 3 or 4 degrees but bright sunshine. I had never planned to spend any time in New York before boarding the Lake Shore Limited for Chicago, so I checked my mail in the lounge provided for sleeping car and first class passengers, a strange place that probably has changed since the fifties. Wood paneled walls with sofas and easy chairs. An advantage of the lounge is that you get priority boarding onto the train.
The sleeping cabin arrangements were strange, two seats which convert into a bottom berth whilst the top one can be dropped from the ceiling, however both berths were narrower at the foot area so that a toilet and sink could be accommodated – no privacy if there were two occupants – it reminded me of the loo in a prison cell (or what I understand a cell is like as I have no personal experience!)
The line runs along the bank of the Hudson River and it was fortunate that my cabin was on the river side. I was really surprised how much ice there was along the shore and as we headed north it became thicker and thicker. It was a beautiful trip to Albany, the state capital. We spent about an hour in Albany waiting for the Boston half of the train to join us. I had a very pleasant steak in the dining car. It was sad to note that 100% of the staff on board were black whilst the vast majority of diners were white.
When it got dark, I completed the marking I had downloaded in New York and read before turning in around 10pm – I slept well waking at 6am (10am UK) in Toledo, Ohio. There had been a heavy fall of snow overnight, everything was covered including the steps from the train. I started to compare the Lakeshore with the Trans Siberian Express. Both trains have an attendant per cabin, the Lake Shore did more for you, making up your beds each night. The food was good on both, but surprisingly there was more choice on the Russian train – the menu, which was the same on the Californian Zephyr, only had 5 choices. All food, however, was included if you had a sleeping berth. The view from the window had similarities, there were birch forests in Ohio too, though not as extensive. What did surprise me was the housing, the impression I got just from the train was that Russian houses were better looked after. Most of the US rural homes were made of wood and many were not in good condition. Similarly the stations were often just isolated platforms with no buildings and few people in evidence, unlike the Russian stations which were mostly well populated, often with vendors selling food, cuddly toys or whatever! Russian Trains are noted for their punctuality, Amtrack is not !– we arrived in Chicago 45 minutes late.
I had about 3 hours to wonder round the centre and managed to find a place to print off some colour copies of my licence – they look good to me!
The Metropolitan Lounge in Chicago Union Station was similar to the NY one but much larger, the wifi was weird – extremely fast but several times it just disappeared!
The California Zephry has double deck sleepers, similar to the LAKE Shore one but no toilet, I was actually pleased with this. The toilets were very close, spotless clean and flushed aircraft style. There was also a nice shower on the lower deck, There is hot water, coffee and juice on tap all free plus a café to buy from if you get hungry between the provided meals. There is an observation coach which I certainly plan to spend some time in when we get to the Rockies. We have been travelling three hours, and are already 30 minutes late!
The station platforms are strange, in New York they are level with the train – no steps needed, the platforms gradually got lower and lower, Albany was similar to UK platforms and by Chicago they were like Russian ones – only a low platform with steps from the train to help you board. By the time we reached Iowa there was no raised platform at all, just lines painted on the ground.
The train continued to get more and more behind schedule, when I went to bed it was 2 hours late and this morning more than three. It seems down to two things, most of the track is single line so we have to take it in turns with trains heading the other way and in the States commerce is king so freight trains take priority over passengers!
The land is very varied the Mid-West being the expected, vast arable fields with homesteads dotted here and there. This morning in Nebraska and Nevada much more barren, tumbleweed blown around and vast yards containing thousands of cattle, presumably still on winter feed.
No sign of snow since I woke and the mountains are ahead – if we ever get out of Denver! One surprising things, as we were crawling through Denver, or sitting in a siding doing nothing, a strange wifi signal appeared - it was definitely on the train but was switched off when we left Denver. Maybe it was to keep people amused ! I had a long chat with the train conductor (the guy who’s in charge of the train). They are completely subject to the whims of the railroad track owners and Amtrak can’t compete with the quarter of million dollars a day which some of the private “for profit” coal trains pay. Still the good news is that he reckons there shouldn't be many more delays once we are out of Denver, I was expecting that as we were over 2 ½ hours late half way we’d be more than five hours late!
A beautiful journey over the Rockies, bright sunlight and awesome scenery. One of the most memorable was plunging into a 6 mile long tunnel, built to cut 120 miles off the route. When we entered there was a light covering of snow, when we exited we burst onto an Alpine style ski resort with more than a foot of snow. We descended through two canyons alongside the Colorado River, one had no road access and was a class one rapid. Sadly we still had two seemingly pointless waits and are now running just over 3 hours late.
When I awoke I discovered we had made up a bit and were only two and half hours late. The track ran straight over the Utah desert surrounded by lovely snow-capped mountains. I was surprised to pass by several, what can only be described as shanty towns – a few down at heel houses, lots of decrepit mobile homes and quite a few small touring caravans, similar to the one my parents used to own but being used to live in!
The last stop before Reno was Winnemucca who’s one claim to fame was that in 1900 Butch Cassidy and the Hole in the Wall Gang stole $2000 in gold coins. Being Nevada casinos are everywhere and I saw one advertised as “Butch Cassidy got rich in Winnemucca, so can you!”
We eventually arrived in Reno two and half hours late. Minor disaster struck in that they would not accept a copy of my licence, so despite all the hard work of Paddy Vickers I had to reschedule the next part of my holiday. I am spending two days in Reno before flying to Las Vegas to continue with the plan before flying, rather than driving to LA when I will be back on schedule. Finding a positive out of my stupidity! I had previously regretted not being able to visit places like Yosemite and Yellowstone, my trip through the Rockies was stunning so I am determined to come back and drive down the section I have missed plus at least those two national parks!
Reno is, to put it politely, a dump. Evidence of the depression was everywhere with many stores closed in the city centre and a comparatively high number of people sleeping on the streets. I also found the casinos rather depressing. That said, I have enjoyed my stay, wondering around, observing. It is in a beautiful location just beneath the snow-capped Sierra Nevada and I don’t know if it’s anything to do with the recession but it has the most efficient and cheap bus system. Bendy buses (Boris’s rejects ) travelling very regularly with a fare of $2 whatever the distance or $3.95 for 24hours – the buses even have bike racks! I had a lovely Chinese meal and was interested to note that I was the only non-oriental there, maybe that explained the good food
From Reno I flew to Las Vegas by Allegiant Airways, according to the reviews, America’s answer to Ryanair! However, although the booking was annoying - I even had to pay extra for my rucksack as carry on, and at every stage there was an advert “wouldn’t you like to also buy….” – the actual flight was fine.
Vegas was fascinating, I enjoyed my two days there but I am not sure if I'd want much longer. It was so over the top, everywhere was full go every hour of the day. My hotel – the MGM Grande - was ginormous, it took about 15 minutes to just walk from one side to the other, there were about half a dozen pools and a dozen restaurants. The downside was you queued for everything - airline type queues with winding roped off areas to check in, check out, get a buffet ticket, get a table etc. I walked the full length of the strip though Venice, Paris, New York ending up at the Pyramid of Luxor – funny I thought the pyramids where at Giza, I don’t remember one at Luxor
It was a complete contrast to Reno, much nicer – although there was still the down side, lots of people sleeping rough and what seemed to be poor American Indians constantly handing out invitations for anything you want – or didn’t want! Once, to be polite, I put my hand out to take one and was ignored J I am sure not deliberately, they were just on automatic
I then flew down to LA on Virgin Atlantic, plush and cheap, staying overnight before continuing to El Salvador. San Salvador, the capital, is a strange mix of suburban USA and Central America. I have never seen so many fast food outlets but the next block was often straight into shanty towns, stalls on the road etc. Plush, air conditioned shopping malls were often almost completely hidden by the stalls outside.
It is overlooked by the Volcan San Salvador which last erupted in 1917 and it also has frequent earthquakes, the last in 2001. There are over 18,000 security guards outside everything but basic local shops – virtually all packing pistols and many with M16 rifles, I have never encountered a country with so many firearms. There are several military barracks in the city and I saw troops parading in the main park. This is reportedly to counter the presence of the many gangs financed from Mexico, however I didn’t feel unsafe, even when I got lost on the first night and had to ask a pistol packing guard for directions!
I walked into the city centre and watched a pre-Easter procession of the cross, it was notable that the locals weren’t paying much attention to the procession, possibly reflecting the fact that nowadays only 50% of the population are Catholic with more and more influence from evangelicals.
As an attempt at being more security conscious I stayed at the Sheraton, I was amused that after I had managed to long walk into the city centre (it was over 80o and humid) I decided to catch a cab back - the first two had never heard of the Sheraton so I ended up using my phone to direct the third one .
I caught a first class bus to Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. It only cost $35 for an 8 hour trip and it certainly was first class. A full size coach with only 30, plush, leather, 180o recliner seats, far nicer than airline business class seats. There were ten rows of three so plenty of width too. We had a hostess and were provided with a meal and two snacks. The El Salvadorian part of the journey was fairly quick and smooth, the 250 km took about 4 hours, at the border passport officials came on board to check our passports so we didn’t have to stir.
We didn’t have to stir on the Honduran side either, our passports were collected and stamped but the moment we crossed the frontier I noticed the lack of lighting – even at the border only dim bulbs. There were long queues and while the El Salvador side took about 20 minutes it was nearly 45 minutes, mainly queuing before we started on the road. Even then it was extremely slow going, reasonable road surface but about the width of a UK country road, climbing into the mountains and pitch black. There were lots of trucks so we had to go at their pace, often as slow as 20 kph. The 80 km from the border took nearly three hours – still it was a comfortable three hours!
I caught a taxi to my hotel, which I suspect was not in the best of nick, it was an old Lada and I am fairly sure there was a lot of play in the steering!! No problems though but I had to knock on the hotel door to gain entry. Tegucigalpa has a worse problem with gangs, there were even more armed guards and everything shut up or was strongly guarded after dusk. It was an interesting town to walk around but made me feel more uneasy than San Salvador. I read a CBS article - “Inside the world's deadliest country: Honduras” – so resolved to take care. I actually encountered no problems but ensured that before I took out my phone to check directions, I was standing near an armed guard. It’s amazing how soon you could get used to them. Returning to my hotel I passed the local police headquarters, it seemed quite normal to walk past about 8 – 10 fully armed combat troops with machine guns and one even wearing a balaclava for some reason. They were smiling and pleasant no one avoided walking past as I have seen with single armed guards in other countries and the locals were laughing and chatting with them!
It was a little chilling later though, I decided to get a take away for my evening meal so I wasn’t out after dark. I left while it was obviously daylight and returned at dusk. On the return trip every shop either had an armed guard or was serving though a small hatchway in the shop front and again my hotel front door, which had been open all day was locked and barred!
An interesting day but I won’t be sorry to move on, I have a taxi booked for the airport in the morning.
I spent a day in Houston before heading home. An enjoyable day – again I found good public transport. The centre of Houston is strange, very modern but – for example – the only Mall I found consisted of a large food court, about 8 health care shops/offices and 4 or 5 retail shops. Presumably everyone does their own shopping in out of town Malls.
The main lesson I have learnt from this holiday is to make sure I take my licence
A few pictures - it's not easy to shoot through the train window - at
North & Central America
An inauspicious start to the trip as I realised that when I had sorted out my wallet before the trip, removing useless things like my Nectar card, I had also removed my driving licence! I emailed Paddy, trusting that firstly he would agree to get into my flat to copy it and secondly that the car hire company would accept a pictorial version. The flight was relatively uneventful apart from prolonged periods of rough weather, I don’t recall any flight being quite as rough. I spent quite a bit of marking on board, I was surprised how much snow there was still lying on the ground, Newfoundland was completely white and evidence of patches of lying snow was still evident in New Jersey.
We landed on time and despite the worst efforts of Homeland Security I was on the station for the short ride to New York within an hour of landing. The weather was chilly but pleasant – about 3 or 4 degrees but bright sunshine. I had never planned to spend any time in New York before boarding the Lake Shore Limited for Chicago, so I checked my mail in the lounge provided for sleeping car and first class passengers, a strange place that probably has changed since the fifties. Wood paneled walls with sofas and easy chairs. An advantage of the lounge is that you get priority boarding onto the train.
The sleeping cabin arrangements were strange, two seats which convert into a bottom berth whilst the top one can be dropped from the ceiling, however both berths were narrower at the foot area so that a toilet and sink could be accommodated – no privacy if there were two occupants – it reminded me of the loo in a prison cell (or what I understand a cell is like as I have no personal experience!)
The line runs along the bank of the Hudson River and it was fortunate that my cabin was on the river side. I was really surprised how much ice there was along the shore and as we headed north it became thicker and thicker. It was a beautiful trip to Albany, the state capital. We spent about an hour in Albany waiting for the Boston half of the train to join us. I had a very pleasant steak in the dining car. It was sad to note that 100% of the staff on board were black whilst the vast majority of diners were white.
When it got dark, I completed the marking I had downloaded in New York and read before turning in around 10pm – I slept well waking at 6am (10am UK) in Toledo, Ohio. There had been a heavy fall of snow overnight, everything was covered including the steps from the train. I started to compare the Lakeshore with the Trans Siberian Express. Both trains have an attendant per cabin, the Lake Shore did more for you, making up your beds each night. The food was good on both, but surprisingly there was more choice on the Russian train – the menu, which was the same on the Californian Zephyr, only had 5 choices. All food, however, was included if you had a sleeping berth. The view from the window had similarities, there were birch forests in Ohio too, though not as extensive. What did surprise me was the housing, the impression I got just from the train was that Russian houses were better looked after. Most of the US rural homes were made of wood and many were not in good condition. Similarly the stations were often just isolated platforms with no buildings and few people in evidence, unlike the Russian stations which were mostly well populated, often with vendors selling food, cuddly toys or whatever! Russian Trains are noted for their punctuality, Amtrack is not !– we arrived in Chicago 45 minutes late.
I had about 3 hours to wonder round the centre and managed to find a place to print off some colour copies of my licence – they look good to me!
The Metropolitan Lounge in Chicago Union Station was similar to the NY one but much larger, the wifi was weird – extremely fast but several times it just disappeared!
The California Zephry has double deck sleepers, similar to the LAKE Shore one but no toilet, I was actually pleased with this. The toilets were very close, spotless clean and flushed aircraft style. There was also a nice shower on the lower deck, There is hot water, coffee and juice on tap all free plus a café to buy from if you get hungry between the provided meals. There is an observation coach which I certainly plan to spend some time in when we get to the Rockies. We have been travelling three hours, and are already 30 minutes late!
The station platforms are strange, in New York they are level with the train – no steps needed, the platforms gradually got lower and lower, Albany was similar to UK platforms and by Chicago they were like Russian ones – only a low platform with steps from the train to help you board. By the time we reached Iowa there was no raised platform at all, just lines painted on the ground.
The train continued to get more and more behind schedule, when I went to bed it was 2 hours late and this morning more than three. It seems down to two things, most of the track is single line so we have to take it in turns with trains heading the other way and in the States commerce is king so freight trains take priority over passengers!
The land is very varied the Mid-West being the expected, vast arable fields with homesteads dotted here and there. This morning in Nebraska and Nevada much more barren, tumbleweed blown around and vast yards containing thousands of cattle, presumably still on winter feed.
No sign of snow since I woke and the mountains are ahead – if we ever get out of Denver! One surprising things, as we were crawling through Denver, or sitting in a siding doing nothing, a strange wifi signal appeared - it was definitely on the train but was switched off when we left Denver. Maybe it was to keep people amused ! I had a long chat with the train conductor (the guy who’s in charge of the train). They are completely subject to the whims of the railroad track owners and Amtrak can’t compete with the quarter of million dollars a day which some of the private “for profit” coal trains pay. Still the good news is that he reckons there shouldn't be many more delays once we are out of Denver, I was expecting that as we were over 2 ½ hours late half way we’d be more than five hours late!
A beautiful journey over the Rockies, bright sunlight and awesome scenery. One of the most memorable was plunging into a 6 mile long tunnel, built to cut 120 miles off the route. When we entered there was a light covering of snow, when we exited we burst onto an Alpine style ski resort with more than a foot of snow. We descended through two canyons alongside the Colorado River, one had no road access and was a class one rapid. Sadly we still had two seemingly pointless waits and are now running just over 3 hours late.
When I awoke I discovered we had made up a bit and were only two and half hours late. The track ran straight over the Utah desert surrounded by lovely snow-capped mountains. I was surprised to pass by several, what can only be described as shanty towns – a few down at heel houses, lots of decrepit mobile homes and quite a few small touring caravans, similar to the one my parents used to own but being used to live in!
The last stop before Reno was Winnemucca who’s one claim to fame was that in 1900 Butch Cassidy and the Hole in the Wall Gang stole $2000 in gold coins. Being Nevada casinos are everywhere and I saw one advertised as “Butch Cassidy got rich in Winnemucca, so can you!”
We eventually arrived in Reno two and half hours late. Minor disaster struck in that they would not accept a copy of my licence, so despite all the hard work of Paddy Vickers I had to reschedule the next part of my holiday. I am spending two days in Reno before flying to Las Vegas to continue with the plan before flying, rather than driving to LA when I will be back on schedule. Finding a positive out of my stupidity! I had previously regretted not being able to visit places like Yosemite and Yellowstone, my trip through the Rockies was stunning so I am determined to come back and drive down the section I have missed plus at least those two national parks!
Reno is, to put it politely, a dump. Evidence of the depression was everywhere with many stores closed in the city centre and a comparatively high number of people sleeping on the streets. I also found the casinos rather depressing. That said, I have enjoyed my stay, wondering around, observing. It is in a beautiful location just beneath the snow-capped Sierra Nevada and I don’t know if it’s anything to do with the recession but it has the most efficient and cheap bus system. Bendy buses (Boris’s rejects
) travelling very regularly with a fare of $2 whatever the distance or $3.95 for 24hours – the buses even have bike racks! I had a lovely Chinese meal and was interested to note that I was the only non-oriental there, maybe that explained the good food 
From Reno I flew to Las Vegas by Allegiant Airways, according to the reviews, America’s answer to Ryanair! However, although the booking was annoying - I even had to pay extra for my rucksack as carry on, and at every stage there was an advert “wouldn’t you like to also buy….” – the actual flight was fine.
Vegas was fascinating, I enjoyed my two days there but I am not sure if I'd want much longer. It was so over the top, everywhere was full go every hour of the day. My hotel – the MGM Grande - was ginormous, it took about 15 minutes to just walk from one side to the other, there were about half a dozen pools and a dozen restaurants. The downside was you queued for everything - airline type queues with winding roped off areas to check in, check out, get a buffet ticket, get a table etc. I walked the full length of the strip though Venice, Paris, New York ending up at the Pyramid of Luxor – funny I thought the pyramids where at Giza, I don’t remember one at Luxor
It was a complete contrast to Reno, much nicer – although there was still the down side, lots of people sleeping rough and what seemed to be poor American Indians constantly handing out invitations for anything you want – or didn’t want! Once, to be polite, I put my hand out to take one and was ignored J I am sure not deliberately, they were just on automatic
I then flew down to LA on Virgin Atlantic, plush and cheap, staying overnight before continuing to El Salvador. San Salvador, the capital, is a strange mix of suburban USA and Central America. I have never seen so many fast food outlets but the next block was often straight into shanty towns, stalls on the road etc. Plush, air conditioned shopping malls were often almost completely hidden by the stalls outside.
It is overlooked by the Volcan San Salvador which last erupted in 1917 and it also has frequent earthquakes, the last in 2001. There are over 18,000 security guards outside everything but basic local shops – virtually all packing pistols and many with M16 rifles, I have never encountered a country with so many firearms. There are several military barracks in the city and I saw troops parading in the main park. This is reportedly to counter the presence of the many gangs financed from Mexico, however I didn’t feel unsafe, even when I got lost on the first night and had to ask a pistol packing guard for directions!
I walked into the city centre and watched a pre-Easter procession of the cross, it was notable that the locals weren’t paying much attention to the procession, possibly reflecting the fact that nowadays only 50% of the population are Catholic with more and more influence from evangelicals.
As an attempt at being more security conscious I stayed at the Sheraton, I was amused that after I had managed to long walk into the city centre (it was over 80o and humid) I decided to catch a cab back - the first two had never heard of the Sheraton so I ended up using my phone to direct the third one
.
I caught a first class bus to Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras. It only cost $35 for an 8 hour trip and it certainly was first class. A full size coach with only 30, plush, leather, 180o recliner seats, far nicer than airline business class seats. There were ten rows of three so plenty of width too. We had a hostess and were provided with a meal and two snacks. The El Salvadorian part of the journey was fairly quick and smooth, the 250 km took about 4 hours, at the border passport officials came on board to check our passports so we didn’t have to stir.
We didn’t have to stir on the Honduran side either, our passports were collected and stamped but the moment we crossed the frontier I noticed the lack of lighting – even at the border only dim bulbs. There were long queues and while the El Salvador side took about 20 minutes it was nearly 45 minutes, mainly queuing before we started on the road. Even then it was extremely slow going, reasonable road surface but about the width of a UK country road, climbing into the mountains and pitch black. There were lots of trucks so we had to go at their pace, often as slow as 20 kph. The 80 km from the border took nearly three hours – still it was a comfortable three hours!
I caught a taxi to my hotel, which I suspect was not in the best of nick, it was an old Lada and I am fairly sure there was a lot of play in the steering!! No problems though but I had to knock on the hotel door to gain entry. Tegucigalpa has a worse problem with gangs, there were even more armed guards and everything shut up or was strongly guarded after dusk. It was an interesting town to walk around but made me feel more uneasy than San Salvador. I read a CBS article - “Inside the world's deadliest country: Honduras” – so resolved to take care. I actually encountered no problems but ensured that before I took out my phone to check directions, I was standing near an armed guard. It’s amazing how soon you could get used to them. Returning to my hotel I passed the local police headquarters, it seemed quite normal to walk past about 8 – 10 fully armed combat troops with machine guns and one even wearing a balaclava for some reason. They were smiling and pleasant no one avoided walking past as I have seen with single armed guards in other countries and the locals were laughing and chatting with them!
It was a little chilling later though, I decided to get a take away for my evening meal so I wasn’t out after dark. I left while it was obviously daylight and returned at dusk. On the return trip every shop either had an armed guard or was serving though a small hatchway in the shop front and again my hotel front door, which had been open all day was locked and barred!
An interesting day but I won’t be sorry to move on, I have a taxi booked for the airport in the morning.
I spent a day in Houston before heading home. An enjoyable day – again I found good public transport. The centre of Houston is strange, very modern but – for example – the only Mall I found consisted of a large food court, about 8 health care shops/offices and 4 or 5 retail shops. Presumably everyone does their own shopping in out of town Malls.
The main lesson I have learnt from this holiday is to make sure I take my licence
A few pictures - it's not easy to shoot through the train window - at
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