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Mr. Toy's Train Travel Tales

The Coast Starlight, May 2001

Page 3

Friday, May 25th

Afternoon

We finally got into Klamath Falls at 1:30pm, for a 15 minute stop. The station platform was on a curve, offering an interesting perspective of the train. I don't think I had ever seen this station in daylight before, and I didn't recognize anything familiar until the return trip when we arrived after dark.

Alongside the station was a white tour bus, waiting to take passengers who were transferring to the Empire Builder. The bus looked like it dated from the late '70s or early '80s. Little did I know I would be having dinner with one of its passengers on my return trip.

We were soon passing Klamath Lake, which was much larger than I remembered it. Mt. McLaughlin was off behind it. Suddenly I heard a thump behind me and when I looked I saw two men looking down at the seats behind Dave. Upon further investigation I could see that an elderly man had fallen down. I helped the other men pull him into the seat. Evidently he was trying to fill a water bottle from the spigot at the top of the stairs, and he lost his balance. The man seemed OK, but a little shaken. I saw Shelly was in the car ahead of us, so I went to get him. When he heard what happened he bolted to the man's aid. I assume the man who fell was OK as I heard nothing more of the incident after he returned to his seat.

Earlier I had seen a Railphone on the lower level of the lounge car, and because it was now evident that I would not make the concert, I felt I should go and call my mother. At $1.99 a minute I would have to make it a quick call, but at least she would know where I was. I was most grateful for the use of this. I agreed to call again after Eugene to let my sister Liz know how we were progressing, as she would now have to meet me at the station. I also called Heidi back home. I planned to call her when I arrived in Salem, but there was only a brief window when I would be able to catch her at home, and I would be on the train during that time. She was well and doing fine, but the cat, Squeaky Toy, was wondering where I was.

Around 3:00 I went to lunch. I first went to the snack bar as I thought the diner was closed. I didn't find anything I really wanted there, and to my relief I realized Von was still calling people to the diner for late lunch. I went up and Von greeted me. He directed me to a table at the far end with a nice looking younger couple. I sat next to Jeff, his wife Theresa was on the other side of the table. It took a little time to break the ice, but after a few minutes were were engaged in a pleasant conversation. They were from "the bay area" but they seemed reluctant to specify where. He was in the medical profession, and was going to work be working for Kaiser.

They were on their first train ride, en route to Portland. They agreed that it was a very comfortable way to travel, but not a very good way to get somewhere in a timely manner. They had a sleeper, but Theresa said she had some trouble sleeping with all the unfamiliar noises. I told her it did take a little getting used to. She was not very fond of flying, so this was a bit of an experiment for them to see if she liked this better. They would be flying home after their trip. Theresa couldn't decide if one hour of white knuckles was better or worse than 24 hours on a train.

I ordered the chicken pot pie, which was excellent. Jeff ordered a hamburger while Theresa had a turkey sandwich. They split their two sandwiches, each taking half of the other's. They both started on the turkey and got full enough on that that they barely touched the burger halves.

Meanwhile, Von was making announcements in the diner about dinner. He said there were some rules regarding dinner: "The first rule is you must have a reservation. The second rule is if you don't have a reservation...."

Someone interrupted him and said "...you won't get dinner." Von responded "Wrong! You will get dinner but you will get it LATE! And we will be serving dinner LATE!" He then turned abruptly to Theresa and asked loud enough for everyone to hear "And do you know WHY dinner will be served LATE?" Theresa gave him a blank stare and he finished with a clap of his hands "Because we're LATE!" His jovial attitude doesn't translate well to print, but he was able to relieve some of the tension about our lateness by making jokes about it.

Now it was time for dessert. My companions split an apple pie a la mode. I ordered chocolate cake. Theresa said she had thought of getting that, too. I said she could have a taste of mine, but she declined. Their pie arrived and they got all the way through it, but my cake still hadn't arrived. Theresa said they must have forgotten it. I inquired and our server suddenly began moaning "Oh forgive me Lord Jesus I forgot his chocolate cake!" He repeated that two or three times and added "My wife was makin' it, It's all her fault. Forgive me Lord." Then another server said "Will you quit prayin' and get him his cake!"

That's one thing I love about Amtrak employees. They're allowed to express themselves instead of having to follow some corporate friendliness formula. This man's down-home folksy humor made it easy to forgive his oversight. And, oh, the cake was to die for. It had several thin layers of cake with a gooey chocolate frosting between them. On the outside was a more solid frosting, coated with a layer of chocolate chips. It was worthy of being served in the finest restaurants on the Monterey Peninsula. Without my saying a word, Theresa could see that it was good, too. She kept watching it, drooling a bit. I offered her a clean piece from the back end, for I knew I wouldn't be able to get through all of it. She declined. But she kept looking at my cake! After a few minutes of her longing eyes, I cut off a piece and gave it to her. At first she resisted, but her will was weak and she consumed it eagerly.

In addition to my conversations with Theresa and Jeff, the woman who sat next to me at breakfast was just across the aisle. We spoke quite a bit here at lunch as well. She was beginning to realize I would not make it to my mother's concert, and she asked if she should write a note to my mother to explain where I was. I thought about it for a second and said "sure." And she did:

5/25/01

Dear Mrs. Toy,
Please excuse Jim from being late getting into Salem on Amtrac. We had breakfast together, and he told us what a wonderful chorus you belonged to. He would have taken the engineer's place when we stopped south of Klamath Falls, but they said "no"! Hope the program was a success.

Sincerely,
-M.F.

At 3:57pm we passed through the Summit Tunnel, and began our long, slow descent into the upper reaches of the Willamette Valley. I remember this part of the trip well, but I had forgotten just how deep this valley is, and how steep the walls are. We cling to cliffs and look straight down into evergreen forests far below. We passed through dozens of tunnels, some long some very short. Others are snow sheds, half tunnels designed to keep snow from coming down the hills onto the tracks. The forests here are lush and dense, quite different from those in Northern California. But the monochrome green, pretty as it is, does become a bit monotonous after awhile.

Evening

At 5:07 we passed through the town of Oakridge. A few minutes earlier we passed one of the longest surviving covered bridges in Oregon, and it was painted bright red.

At 5:50 we passed Train #11 as we got closer to Eugene. Fifteen minutes later Dave was reaching over the seat to shake my hand and say goodbye. He still had a bit of a trip ahead of him to get home to Grant's Pass.

At 6:10 we were in Eugene. I had a little time to get out for a few pictures. There were a lot of people boarding here! A few of them were in the vestibule of my car looking a little lost. I told them there were several seats available at the top of the stairs. One woman took the seat where Dave had been. At 6:27 we were on our way again, and I would be in Salem in a little over an hour. I called Liz to let her know.

The woman who sat behind me lived near Seattle, and she had taken the train between there and Eugene several times. Curiously, she had always taken the Starlight, and had not heard of the Cascades train that make the same run three times a day. Nor had she ever taken a train overnight. I suggested she might want to try the California Zephyr someday. I ended up in the seat next to her and we talked our way to Salem.

We stopped briefly in Albany at 6:10, and we finally arrived in Salem at 7:50pm, 5 hours and 43 minutes late. Shelly opened the door of the car and exclaimed "Dang!" I got out and saw we were about as far from the station as we could be while still having part of the train in front of it. Still, it was only about the distance from my seat to the diner. No big deal.

The station platform was one of the most beautiful I had ever seen. That means a lot because the last time I saw it, it was one of the ugliest! Some major restoration of the building had been done, and the platform had been beautifully modernized. New concrete, lamp posts, benches and trees were all put together in a beautiful arrangement that complemented teh station. The platform was high enough that Shelly didn't need to put out the step.

As I walked towards the station I saw Liz coming towards me. We paused to watch the train pull out, and I got my first real look at the roadrailers on the end. I got my suitcase within a few short minutes. It was dusty, much as our bags had been when we arrived in Denver last summer. Other than that, and the late arrival, I couldn't have been happier with the trip.

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