Those who know me are aware that I love to travel, especially internationally. Recently, I had a domestic travel experience that made me realize the journey can be as stimulating as the destination. My husband and I were to attend a Celebration of Life for a friend of many years. It was to take place in the beautiful small town of Sebastopol on the California coast, not far from our friend’s hometown of Santa Rosa. Once we marked our calendars the next step was to decide how we would get there: by road, air or maybe the train? Though I am a past lover of train travel, having had a father who worked for the Southern Pacific Railroad, I had not traveled by train in recent years. I digress. In truth, we took the train a couple of years ago while on the East Coast, from Washington D.C. to Baltimore, Maryland, where we were to meet up with my brother. He lives in Pennsylvania, but he advised us that Baltimore would be the easiest place for him to meet us to accompany us back to his home in Harrisburg.
The day came to board the train. We were unpleasantly greeted to a train that was dirty, with windows we could barely see out of, and trash on the floors (there were no convenient trash bins as we found in trains in Europe). Besides those inconveniences our train traveled at a snail’s pace, seeming at times to be almost tipping off the rails. All in all, we were saddened by the degradation of our American rail system comparing it to the ones we had experienced with great delight in Europe just a year before.
Back to our current dilemma: how to get to Santa Rosa, California in the most pleasing and economical way? How to make the journey as pleasant as the destination? Discovering the big price tag for round-trip flights, we ended up choosing the train after reading about Amtrak’s Coast Starlight, which travels from Seattle to Los Angeles. The Coast Starlight’s route description was enticing:
“From deep blue seascapes and sandy beaches to lush inland forests and majestic mountain ranges, the West Coast landscapes are ever-changing and endlessly impressive. Amtrak’s Coast Starlight offers a glimpse at some of this awe-inspiring Pacific-region scenery while traveling nearly 1,400 miles between the eclectic city of Seattle, WA, and Southern California’s crowning jewel, Los Angeles. The trip is completed in approximately 35 hours and includes two days and one night aboard the train.”
We learned we could get to our destination — well almost (we would debark in Martinez, California and find a bus waiting at the train station that would take us to Santa Rosa in a short amount of time). Though we had hoped to get what is called now “a bedroom,” meaning a small roomette with top and bottom beds, they were all booked. We ended up deciding to take the “sit up all night” seats, all that was available. We’d take along some good books to read, some snacks and hope for the best — that we would find the reclining seats comfortable enough that we would drift off to sleep and wake up refreshed as we pulled into our destination train station at 7:30 a.m. the next morning. Sadly, our hopes were dashed; we didn’t sleep a wink but admitted the “adventure” was worth it. The views along the way were mostly great, and we profited from meeting and engaging in long conversation with a few of our fellow passengers while we sat comfortably in the “viewing car.”
Surprisingly many travelers are choosing the train these days for various reasons: fear of flying with news of recent accidents and economic factors (in most cases, the train is more economical than flying; however, there are exceptions. When one wants the comfort of a “bedroom” or roomette, costs go way up, sometimes equaling the cost of traveling by plane). It’s best to check and compare the two, air and trains, depending on your destination way ahead of time.
Nostalgia for the “good ol’ days” when I traveled with my parents by train to Chicago to meet relatives, or up and down the California coast to visit aunts, uncles and cousins, helped make my decision and fortunately, my husband concurred, “Let’s try it!” Would we do it again? Sure! We’re already talking about making a cross-country train trip in the future. We’ll keep our fingers crossed that America catches up with Europe and creates faster, smoother train travel possible with accommodations that include some of the luxuries we experienced during our train travels in Sweden, the Netherlands and France.
One of my favorite memories which still exists today, is when the conductor blows his whistle on the station platform, and we hear him call out “All aboard.” The train whistle blows and we’re off on another adventure.
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