Great American Train Ride

 

A mid-winter dilemma

It was mid December, I had the rest of the month off, the feet were itching after a year spent indoors and I was looking for ideas. Europe had closed its borders and a blizzard was threatening to dump freezing temperatures and a couple of feet of snow and on a New York that had just decided to close its restaurants, bars and cafes a second time in response to a new wave of Covid infections. I couldn't travel to Europe or hang out in cafes; short, cold days precluded the long urban hikes that had sustained me through the close-down. 

I discovered that I could buy a pass on Amtrak for two weeks of travel. Hmm, here was a chance to escape short, cold days, and the blizzard. I could catch up some much needed reading while watching the many geographies of the continent sweep past my train-window. Plus here was a chance to forage through those as yet unexplored nooks of the country.

Restless feet, a nostalgia for trains -I'd grown up with my face planted on train-windows as my dad used to work as a railroad engineer- and a curiosity about the country made me impulsively buy the two-week Amtrak train pass. Pass in hand, I now had to decide where to go. More news of the impending blizzard made warm sunny climes sound very appealing, so the next day found me and a trusted backpack stuffed with a sleeping bag and tent heading South to sunny Florida.

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New York - Miami, 12/16, 1,400 miles

 

It was a 27 hour train-ride starting at three in the afternoon. The dusk saw the familiar sights of New Jersey slip by the windows on the way to Philadelphia. The train was nearly empty and the seats large and comfortable.  I managed to curl up on the wide, reclined seats to wake up the next morning rushing by the flat plains of sunny Savannah, GA. Watching flatlands, marsh, tall grass and brush sweep by for a few more hours brought us to the larger than expected urban conglomeration that is Miami.

Miami (Dec 17-18)

Miami was quite different than my mental image of a tourism-driven beach city. I realized that Miami's economy is quite diverse, combining tourism, leisure, finance, shipping with Latin music and the entertainment businesses. While there was evidence of a beautiful-people lifestyle, there were other aspects that added to the mood and aura: the influx of money, leisure and creativity has painted the city in lovely pastel and white-wash art-deco architecture that merged beautifully with the sun, sand and water.

Newer buildings have adopted elements this art-deco style: eyebrow-shade shrouded corner windows, curved eaves,  flowing vertical and horizontal lines, decorative railings, intricate masonry and stylized tiled-imagery. The adoption of these elements blended the new larger buildings organically with the older smaller structures creating a pleasant stylistic balance compared to the jarring mishmash of styles one often sees in older cities.

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Miami - Key West, Dec 18, 170 miles

 

The Florida Keys (Dec 19)

Looking at a map of Florida, the keys look impossibly thin and improbably habited. How on earth does one connect a necklace of islands that stretch a hundred and fifty miles into the sea? My curiosity was piqued, so I decided to go investigate.

The keys stretch for a hundred and fifty miles, tiny island after tiny island linked by 42 bridges. The narrow US Route-1 that connects the keys, in many places is protected from the sea and ocean by only a few yards of chalky white limestone on either side. Reading about the geography of the regions finally shed light on its skinny nature: the keys were an just-under-the-surface coral reef that got exposed when sea levels fell during the last ice-age. Key West, the island at the edge of the chain became a important naval base for the US, so an airstrip was built on it. An enterprising railroad magnate then decided to link it to the mainland by constructing more than forty bridges through the islands. A large hurricane then swept through and knocked numerous bridges into the Caribbean, and the railroad got abandoned. The US government then decided to step in and connect Key West to the mainland using the remnants of the railroad to build US route-1.

 

 

 

 

Getting to Key West from Miami was a fun, informative four-hour Greyhound bus-drive on the US Route-1. The mid-islands gave off a laid-back seashore vibe that made me feel like I was driving through the Jersey Shore in Summer: sailboats, low-riders and small seafood-stalls were constant companions. 

 

 

 

Key West, the island at the Western end of the keys was a revelation. While the other islands in the Keys were sparsely populated and felt remote, Key West was a strange juxtaposition of charming old buildings that hinted at leisured money and curio-shops with prices that targeted hefty wallets: tourism, leisured money, a naval port and sun-seekers had created an oddly eccentric and upbeat town at the southernmost tip of the continental US.

 

 Kitschy establishments catered to frat-boys and partying women.

With its interesting geography, I got to see the sun set in the evening over the Caribbean Sea and then rise the next morning over the Atlantic.

It was mid December and  I was the only person wearing full-length pants in the keys. After making a mental note, like Hemingway likely did half a century ago,  that this was an excellent place to escape from city-life, winter-storms and intense earnestness of NYC, I decided to continue exploring the country. The South seemed a good place to spend Winter and the South-West was a part of the country that I was yet to explore. Arizona and New Mexico seemed like good candidates, but sadly Amtrak had cancelled the train that took people from Miami to New Orleans and further West. Reluctant to abandon train-travel, I found that the only practical way to get to the south-west was to fly to Tuscon, Arizona.

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Florida - Arizona, Dec 20, 1,600 miles

 Tuscon, Arizona (Dec 20)

I had little to guide me on what to expect of Tuscon. I knew it was a college town in the desert bordered by mountains but I knew little little beside that. When I got there, I found Tuscon to be a wind-swept small town in the desert surrounded by small hills. While the city-center looked decidedly American, the dirt-swept outskirts with crumbling, low buildings were what I'd imagined the Mexican rural areas to be like. Not surprising, I guess, given that we were just a few miles from the border. The cacti-populated Saguaro National Park with its campsites beckoned, but it was clear that this was a place that did not believe much in public-transportation: there was no way to go watch giant Saguaro cacti without renting or hailing a car. Disappointed at not being able to spend a few days camping under star-swept big skies and waking up to giant cacti, I realized that I'd have to move on West. I jumped on the only train in Tuscon that was heading West and found myself waking up in Southern California

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Arizona - Oregon, Dec 21, 1,700 miles

The San Joaquin Valley, CA (Dec 21)

A delayed train took me to LA, and then headed North. We first climbed over the Santa Clara mountains and then descended into the San Joaquin valley, USA's fruit-basket and the source of a large fraction of the country's fruits, vegetables, legumes and nuts.

 

While chugging North through the San Joaquin valley, as far as eye could see was a flat alluvium, planted with miles of citrus, vines and other crop.  Something that puzzled me was the lack of streams and rivers that crossed out tracks. It was puzzling that such a productive area did not have many rivers that were the sources of water for the plants. Delving deeper, the crops are apparently irrigated from the slightly saline groundwater.

Since I'd visited CA extensively in the past, I decide to keep going,  and continued north to Oregon.

 

Oregon (Dec 22)

Our train crossed over from California into Oregon early in the morning, and almost immediately started climbing the thickly snow encrusted Cascade mountains. These hills, with their miles of pines and firs reminded me of the mountains of northern New York state and New England. It was clear that, unlike the North-East,  logging was still a big industry in Oregon from the numerous timber-laden freight-trains we passed.

After slowly cutting through the Eastern Cascades the train sped through the less flat central valley where the arable land, streams and lakes had created the agriculturally based towns of Eugene, and the capital Salem. 

 

 

Portland, Oregon (Dec 23-24)

I'd always wondered why Portland featured so prominently in clashes between police and citizens. After visiting Portland I think I have a semblance of an understanding. The city has an anti-establishment, liberal vibe that I associate with the Berkeley and Columbia in the 60's counter-culture: it also felt more sincerely live-and-let-live liberal than the partisan, tribal progressive attitudes I've encountered East.

Some things stood out in Portland: it had the largest number of street-people living in tents I've seen anywhere, easily eclipsing SF. Interestingly, unlike other cities, I did not see signs that the urban middle-class were actively try to push them out of sight into sanitized tenements using the police. 

Food and Drinks

The second thing that struck me was the quality of the beer and food. I visited Breakside Brewers, a local brewery that had a huge multi-floor outlet in the middle of town. Despite being someone who is fairly particular about his beers -I invariably only like simple pilseners made with the the most basic of ingredients, and find strong flavors distracting- I enjoyed their home-brewed pilsener. So much so that I bough myself a large growler of beer for my train-journey. 

 

They also had a superb creamy soup with a caramelized onion base. It reminded me to make myself some French Onion Soup -also made with a caramelized onion base- when I got back home. During my wanderings I also stopped by a small local ramen place, and was warmed by some excellent creamy tonkotsu broth, with pickled ginger and cucumbers adding to the texture.

Green Spaces

Portland is home to two of the loveliest and best maintained parks I've come across in the US. The smaller  and more manicured Washington Park is home to a rose-garden that experiments with rose cultivars and promotes rose-growing in city homes. It also houses a tranquil Japanese garden and the Hoyt Arboretum.

The larger Forest Park is nearly ten miles long and the largest urban park I've visited outside Ottawa's Papineau-Labelle Park. It was soothing and invigorating to spend the day wandering around trees and plants after many hours in a train.

One can even see Mt. Rainier in the distance from the hills in the parks.
 

Bridges

A big feature of Portland is the Williamette river that winds through it and the multitude of bridges of all shapes and ages that cross it. 

 

After a couple of very enjoyable days in Portland, I decided to visit its bigger Northwest sibling Seattle.

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Oregon - Washington, Dec 24, 200 miles

 

Seattle (Dec 24-25)

Seattle was half small-town, half big-city. It had the trapping of a big-city: a city center with many tall buildings and interesting architecture, but it also had suburbs within city-limits which to me is a decidedly small-town phenomenon -nobody in New York live in homes except in the outer peripheries of the city. Alongside charming homes and lovely green spaces -that it is constantly drizzling helps keep the whole place verdant- the city had a fair amount of homelessness.

One did sense a little of the idealism of Portland in Seattle, but it was clear that these utopian ideas were secondary to the wealth that big-tech has brought to this out-of-the-way corner of the country.  Here are some pictures I took that exemplify that: the first is a poster that proclaims a utopian future right next to the reality of a homeless man. The second has a homeless man on the street typing away on his smartphone.

 

 

Seattle's isolation and cold wet weather made me wonder what caused Boeing, Microsoft and Amazon to base operations off this wet corner of the country. 

 

 

 

Mercifully the city has not become boringly one-dimensional like SF.  Walking along the park that abuts the Puget Sound, I came across an old rowdy produce-sellers market that was a welcome change from the hip farmer's markets out East; an outdoor sculpture park full of normal people not trying to be cool; a quiet rambling path along the Puget Sound that boasted a small rose garden; grain-silos and functioning piers. 

 

I then cut across town and walked through the affluent Queen Anne neighborhood full of charming homes with gardens. Despite it looking like a semi-urban family neighborhood, I read that the neighborhoods demographics had become more and more single, so much so that the last of the areas' schools had to close down. All no doubt of the tech-boom and its affluent young.

 

I then walked over to the irreverent Freemont area via the Freemont Bridge that unexpectedly swung up to allow a sailboat to pass -apparently it is something that happens a couple of times an hour!

Lenin leading the proletariat to XMas

 

 

Lovely Washington Park and its Arboretum

I had no idea what an arboretum was until I visited one in Portland and a second in Seattle in quick succession: I learned that they are tree nurseries that transplant, cultivate and experiment with trees found in the region and elsewhere. The Washington Arboretum in Seattle was a lovely oasis of magnolias, sequoias, oaks and other trees. Interestingly both those arboretums were influenced by the Olmstead brothers who designed Central, Prospect and Riverside parks in NYC. 

 

Seattle, like Portland, seems to place a large emphasis on good food, drink and books. I lost myself for a while in the yard and yards of bookshelves that the block-long bookstore "Powells City of Books" hosted. There were breweries and coffee-shops everywhere; the place I went to get myself a cappuccino provided no sweeteners or other additives: clearly they expected you to enjoy the unspoiled aroma of the perfectly brewed cup of fresh coffee.

After a dose of the foggy drizzles, utopian ideas, homelessness, fab food, drinks and books of the Pacific Northwest, I decided to start heading back eastward. I'd never visited Pittsburgh and decided to make it my next stop which resulted in an epic 2,700 mile train ride. On the way I got to get out and stretch my legs in Chicago along Lake Michigan and take in some surreal color-shows the setting sun put up with the moon. 

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Washington - Pennsylvania, Dec 26, 2,700 miles

 

Montana (Dec 27)

On the way to Pittsburgh, I realized that Montana is huge, and is more than 600 miles across. We woke up to the trail crawling up the mountain-passes of Glacier National Park, and we saw the sun setting over the plains and badlands of the state in the evening.

 

 

Minnesota (Dec 28)

After Montana, we passed through North Dakota in the darkness and woke up in Minnesota. Little did I know that the Mississippi river is already a wide presence in Minnesota. 

I spent my time, when the train was passing through Minnesota, in the observation car of the train reading. While we were stopped in Winona, MN, I suddenly heard German being spoken, and was surprised as I had not encountered any people from other countries during my train ride. I looked around and noticed that the German was being spoken by a group of people wearing frocks, smocks, cotton hats and hair-styles I'd only seen in portrait-paintings. There was a group what I took to be Pennsylvania Dutch people in the car in their traditional garbs, ostensibly heading home to Pennsylvania via Chicago. 

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Pittsburgh

I spent a day exploring Pittsburgh, as has become my habit, by walking randomly through the city. Like the state of Pennsylvania the city is built on rolling hills. So while I found excellent views, my feet felt like lead after the six hours of wandering. 

 

 

One can tell that the confluence of the Alleghany and Monongehena rivers and the resulting shipping was what got the city started. Signs that it became a steel town still abound with the names Carnegie and Frick adorning many institutions and buildings throughout. The wealth that steel brought the town is evidenced by ornate buildings, well funded institutions and revival architecture.

 

The South side of the city features a 300 foot incline and quaint streets with many small houses. This is where the workers from the steel-mills and the railroads had lived.

There are signs of the decline in parts of the city when steel manufacture moved away from the US.

However there are signs that the institutions that Carnegie, Frick and Mellon left behind were paying dividends. There were sporadic signs of a new prosperity born off the tech revolution. 

 

 

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Pittsburgh to NYC, Dec 30, 450 miles

Dec 30

I suddenly realized that I had used up the 15 days of my Amtrak train-pass; how time flies when you are having fun! I briefly contemplated further travels, but then decided that I needed a respite from a life on rails -unfortunately I did not own a railcar laid out with kitchens and showers as we had growing up- and decided to take the train back to New York from Pittsburgh. Amtrak's Pennsylvanian winds its way to Philadelphia alongside the broad and swift Susquehanna river affording lovely views of rapid waters and many farms and hamlets on its banks and of steam-clouds puffing out of Three Mile Island's helical cooling towers. 

What a fun way to spend two-weeks: circumnavigating the country; discovering geographical and cultural nooks and corners while racking up nearly 7,000 miles cuddled up in the observation-coach of a train with a book; watching a multitude of landscapes whiz by large, warm windows!