[Posted from Kansas City, Missouri]
Tomorrow evening, we board the west-bound Southwest Chief to head back to GeneaBlogie Headquarters.
Despite the shaky start, it's been a good trip and we return with a treasure trove of information that we'll be analyzing and writing about in the coming weeks. One of the difficulties of a trip like this is that you spend so much time working that you lose the chance to do a lot of writing. (Or a lot of reading for that matter. I can't wait to get caught up on my favorite genea-blogs. I've missed you all!).
Photo Grrl has a lot more photos she took, and I spent considerable time with my own one-person Scanfest. A lot of these photos need some editing and retouching, and we'll be getting to that in the coming weeks as well.
I've also spent some time testing and re-testing the technology that I would use to stay connected so we could post from aboard the train. At this writing, it works; however, it is so slow that it may not be worthwhile. We'll keep trying, but this may be the last post for several days.
We'll be in Los Angeles by August 1.
Showing posts with label Amtrak. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Amtrak. Show all posts
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Friday, July 20, 2007
This Trip Has Got to Get Better Because . . .
. . . well, just because!
[Posted from the St Louis Public Library, St Louis, Missouri]--So just after I completed the last post from Kansas City Union Station, Amtrak announced it was time to board the train for St Louis. Except that this day, it wouldn't be a train, it would be a bus! Why? An Amtrak spokesman explained, "There's just too much freight on the line today. A passenger train would run four or five hours late. So we put on a bus."
For those who don't know, America's railroad infrastructure is owned by companies who move freight, not passengers. Amtrak uses the lines by the grace of those companies and freight has priority. An Amtrak train can be ordered to stop and allow freight trains to pass. That's the main reason that Amtrak runs late. An Amtrak employee told me that on one occasion going into Los Angeles aboard the Sunset Limited, the train sat near Palm Springs, California for eleven hours because "those freights just wouldn't let us in."
In any event, Amtrak thought is was doing us a favor by using a bus instead of a train between Kansas City and St Louis. After all, as they pointed out, the bus would actually arrive an hour and half earlier than the scheduled arrival time for the train.
So 65 St Louis-bound passengers boarded a bus hired by Amtrak.
I must say that this bus was a unique form of torture. Forget Guantanamo, let's have Congress investigate Amtrak's bus contractors! The seats were smaller than economy-class airline seats and the over head storage bins were as roomy as a residential mailbox. I sat holding some of my luggage on my lap for four and a half hours. And there was no room to get up and stretch your legs during the trip.
About thirty miles outside Kansas City, a monsoon struck. It rained so hard and the visibility was so bad that cars were sliding off I-70. Others simply pulled to the side and stopped. The bus kept on going.
The bus detoured off of I-70 to stop first at Kirkwood, Missouri. This added about thirty minutes time to our confinement. Then in St Louis, the bus driver bypassed St Louis Union Station. Why? Because the train station isn't in Union Station.
The St Louis Amtrak station is located a permanent shack of sorts several blocks from Union Station. Twenty years ago when I first visited St Louis by train, this location was described to me as "temporary." Oh, well. There is a freeway overpass just in front of the station. Since the rain was still falling in build-an-ark proportions, the bus driver and Amtrak personnel aboard the bus decided it would be best not to have people disembark in the unsheltered area near the station door, but under the relatively protected overpass. What they didn't count on was the fact that the area under the overpass had flooded and passengers stepped off the bus into ankle-high rushing water.
I had spied a lone cab sitting under the overpass. The GeneaBlogie staff photographer (more about this person later) lept off the bus, jumped ahead of a family with young children and commandeered the cab. [She felt bad about this, but as she pointed out, there were too many of them to fit in just one cab].
Once in the cab, we set off for our destination. [The cab driver opined that the Amtrak station was not a railroad station as much as simply a railroad track]. As we came off the freeway, the cab hit an area of deep standing water and the engine began to sputter. Miraculously, it kept going. But every time we came to a stoplight, we were uncertain as to whether the journey was going to end right then and there.
Well, we made it and after a good night's rest, I'm here in the St Louis Public Library, which has free wireless Internet service and a huge History/Genealogy section which I'm about to dig into. Tomorrow we're headed to Prairie du Rocher, Illinois, which figured prominently in the series on the French Negroes of Illinois.
So it's got to get better!
[Posted from the St Louis Public Library, St Louis, Missouri]--So just after I completed the last post from Kansas City Union Station, Amtrak announced it was time to board the train for St Louis. Except that this day, it wouldn't be a train, it would be a bus! Why? An Amtrak spokesman explained, "There's just too much freight on the line today. A passenger train would run four or five hours late. So we put on a bus."
For those who don't know, America's railroad infrastructure is owned by companies who move freight, not passengers. Amtrak uses the lines by the grace of those companies and freight has priority. An Amtrak train can be ordered to stop and allow freight trains to pass. That's the main reason that Amtrak runs late. An Amtrak employee told me that on one occasion going into Los Angeles aboard the Sunset Limited, the train sat near Palm Springs, California for eleven hours because "those freights just wouldn't let us in."
In any event, Amtrak thought is was doing us a favor by using a bus instead of a train between Kansas City and St Louis. After all, as they pointed out, the bus would actually arrive an hour and half earlier than the scheduled arrival time for the train.
So 65 St Louis-bound passengers boarded a bus hired by Amtrak.
I must say that this bus was a unique form of torture. Forget Guantanamo, let's have Congress investigate Amtrak's bus contractors! The seats were smaller than economy-class airline seats and the over head storage bins were as roomy as a residential mailbox. I sat holding some of my luggage on my lap for four and a half hours. And there was no room to get up and stretch your legs during the trip.
About thirty miles outside Kansas City, a monsoon struck. It rained so hard and the visibility was so bad that cars were sliding off I-70. Others simply pulled to the side and stopped. The bus kept on going.
The bus detoured off of I-70 to stop first at Kirkwood, Missouri. This added about thirty minutes time to our confinement. Then in St Louis, the bus driver bypassed St Louis Union Station. Why? Because the train station isn't in Union Station.
The St Louis Amtrak station is located a permanent shack of sorts several blocks from Union Station. Twenty years ago when I first visited St Louis by train, this location was described to me as "temporary." Oh, well. There is a freeway overpass just in front of the station. Since the rain was still falling in build-an-ark proportions, the bus driver and Amtrak personnel aboard the bus decided it would be best not to have people disembark in the unsheltered area near the station door, but under the relatively protected overpass. What they didn't count on was the fact that the area under the overpass had flooded and passengers stepped off the bus into ankle-high rushing water.
I had spied a lone cab sitting under the overpass. The GeneaBlogie staff photographer (more about this person later) lept off the bus, jumped ahead of a family with young children and commandeered the cab. [She felt bad about this, but as she pointed out, there were too many of them to fit in just one cab].
Once in the cab, we set off for our destination. [The cab driver opined that the Amtrak station was not a railroad station as much as simply a railroad track]. As we came off the freeway, the cab hit an area of deep standing water and the engine began to sputter. Miraculously, it kept going. But every time we came to a stoplight, we were uncertain as to whether the journey was going to end right then and there.
Well, we made it and after a good night's rest, I'm here in the St Louis Public Library, which has free wireless Internet service and a huge History/Genealogy section which I'm about to dig into. Tomorrow we're headed to Prairie du Rocher, Illinois, which figured prominently in the series on the French Negroes of Illinois.
So it's got to get better!
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Everything That Could Go Wrong . . .
. . . did.
In which our hero finds himself on an Indian reservation without an Internet connection and speaks to an Indian with reservations 5,000 miles away. There was good news and bad news:
Good news: On Monday, the GeneaBlogie research staff got a few hours' extra sleep.
Bad news: The reason we got some extra sleep was that the Coast Starlight was running four hours late.
Bad news: A component of our technology to allow us to live-blog from the train went missing.
Good news: Because of the delay catching the train, we had time to shop a couple of national chain electronics stores to replace the missing component.
Bad news: None of the stores had what we needed. In fact, the one store that should have had it if any did, referred me to the in-store rep of a third party service provider that we use who tried to convince me that there was no such thing.
Good news: The Coast Starlight arrived and we had a great trip to Los Angeles down the California coast. We saw sea lions in an estuary off Monterey Bay and light fog over the golden hills above San Luis Obispo.
Bad news: We arrived in L.A. at 1 a.m. and went to stay at the Comfort Inn City Center, 1710 West Seventh Street, a place so bad it merits its own Bad News.
Hotel Bad News: It was a hot night in Los Angeles, but the hotel had no ice. Nor was there anything in the soda vending machines. The night auditor said the soda vendor was a week overdue! (Smells like breach of contract to me. "Liquidated damages," no doubt. [That's a little lawyer pun!]). I spotted a cockroach.
Good News: The next day, Tuesday, we got out of the pit of a hotel early and had lunch in Pasadena with nephew Christopher Penny and his fiance Melissa Berrios. We went to a place called The Yard House in a mall called Paseo Coronado (or may be it was Paseo Colorado). Great food! As we were headed to the parking garage after lunch, I noticed a vendor with a little cart in the mall. And on the cart was the very component I needed to make our technology work! I purchased it and was again a happy camper!
Good News: We boarded to Southwest Chief at about 6:45 p.m. and headed east. Had a great meal in the dining car. Slept well.
Bad news: In the morning, I configured our technology and was ready to blog. And the Internet Service Provider (not our usual one) was down! I spoke to "Carol" in Mumbai from the middle of the high desert around Gqllup, New Mexico (the so-called "Indian Capital."). "Carol" kept saying "I am so sorry." In fact she began every sentence with "I am sorry." Eventually, Carol said, "I am so sorry, but you should have service by the next morning." She signed off with "I am so sorry I was able to help you."
Good News: The train ran better than on time, arriving in Albuquerque more than an hour early. Albuquerque is one of my three "hometowns", and there was time to get off the train and have a look around.
Bad News: The next morning, there was not a lot of time because we would be arriving in Kansas City. I tried the ISP to no avail because the computer was not recognizing its modem, although it had done so the day before.
Good News: The train continued to run on schedule and we got to Kansas City on time. We have a five hour layover before the train to St Louis.
Good News: I fired up the computer in the Amtrak waiting room at Kansas City Union station, and, lo and behold! The computer is telling me that it connecting to a network called Free Public WiFi! Hallelujah!
Bad News: Although the computer is indicating that it is connected to the network and the signal strength is good and it's acquired the proper IP address, I get bupkes from the browser.
Good News: I found another network called Union Station and now you're reading this! Keep your fingers crossed for more Good News.
In which our hero finds himself on an Indian reservation without an Internet connection and speaks to an Indian with reservations 5,000 miles away. There was good news and bad news:
Good news: On Monday, the GeneaBlogie research staff got a few hours' extra sleep.
Bad news: The reason we got some extra sleep was that the Coast Starlight was running four hours late.
Bad news: A component of our technology to allow us to live-blog from the train went missing.
Good news: Because of the delay catching the train, we had time to shop a couple of national chain electronics stores to replace the missing component.
Bad news: None of the stores had what we needed. In fact, the one store that should have had it if any did, referred me to the in-store rep of a third party service provider that we use who tried to convince me that there was no such thing.
Good news: The Coast Starlight arrived and we had a great trip to Los Angeles down the California coast. We saw sea lions in an estuary off Monterey Bay and light fog over the golden hills above San Luis Obispo.
Bad news: We arrived in L.A. at 1 a.m. and went to stay at the Comfort Inn City Center, 1710 West Seventh Street, a place so bad it merits its own Bad News.
Hotel Bad News: It was a hot night in Los Angeles, but the hotel had no ice. Nor was there anything in the soda vending machines. The night auditor said the soda vendor was a week overdue! (Smells like breach of contract to me. "Liquidated damages," no doubt. [That's a little lawyer pun!]). I spotted a cockroach.
Good News: The next day, Tuesday, we got out of the pit of a hotel early and had lunch in Pasadena with nephew Christopher Penny and his fiance Melissa Berrios. We went to a place called The Yard House in a mall called Paseo Coronado (or may be it was Paseo Colorado). Great food! As we were headed to the parking garage after lunch, I noticed a vendor with a little cart in the mall. And on the cart was the very component I needed to make our technology work! I purchased it and was again a happy camper!
Good News: We boarded to Southwest Chief at about 6:45 p.m. and headed east. Had a great meal in the dining car. Slept well.
Bad news: In the morning, I configured our technology and was ready to blog. And the Internet Service Provider (not our usual one) was down! I spoke to "Carol" in Mumbai from the middle of the high desert around Gqllup, New Mexico (the so-called "Indian Capital."). "Carol" kept saying "I am so sorry." In fact she began every sentence with "I am sorry." Eventually, Carol said, "I am so sorry, but you should have service by the next morning." She signed off with "I am so sorry I was able to help you."
Good News: The train ran better than on time, arriving in Albuquerque more than an hour early. Albuquerque is one of my three "hometowns", and there was time to get off the train and have a look around.
Bad News: The next morning, there was not a lot of time because we would be arriving in Kansas City. I tried the ISP to no avail because the computer was not recognizing its modem, although it had done so the day before.
Good News: The train continued to run on schedule and we got to Kansas City on time. We have a five hour layover before the train to St Louis.
Good News: I fired up the computer in the Amtrak waiting room at Kansas City Union station, and, lo and behold! The computer is telling me that it connecting to a network called Free Public WiFi! Hallelujah!
Bad News: Although the computer is indicating that it is connected to the network and the signal strength is good and it's acquired the proper IP address, I get bupkes from the browser.
Good News: I found another network called Union Station and now you're reading this! Keep your fingers crossed for more Good News.
Monday, July 16, 2007
America's Railroads
As of ten minutes ago, Amtrak's Coast Starlight was running three hours late. So The Big Train Trip has yet to commence. That's how it is on America's (Passenger) Railroads. I should add another caveat: this project, at least the blogging-from-the-train part of it, is dependent upon certain technology we've mapped out as well.
Sunday, July 15, 2007
GeneaBlogie's Mid-Summer Project!
Over the last four or five weeks, I've teased a bit about some great project that's on its way. Well, the teasing is over and our great project has begun! Here it is: we are headed to Missouri on a major research trip . . . but the deal is we are going via Amtrak and for the first time ever there will be live genea-blogging from on board several Amtrak trains! By the time many of you read this (probably Monday a.m.), we expect to be settling in on Amtrak's Coast Starlight enroute from San Jose, California, to Los Angeles. We will overnight in L.A., then on Tuesday evening board Amtrak's Southwest Chief headed from Los Angeles for Kansas City. We'll arrive in Kansas City on Thursday morning. After brief lay-over, we head for St Louis on Amtrak's Anne Rutledge. We'll spend several days in eastern Missouri and southern Illinois, with planned excursions to Ste Genevieve, Missouri, and Prairie du Rocher, Illinois, among other places.
We'll head back to Kansas City to research in Clay County, Platte County, and Jackson County in Missouri, and Wyandotte County and Johnson County in Kansas. Then it's back home the way we came.
We'll be uploading photos (and may be video) all along the way.
As I said, we'll be posting from aboard the train!
I hope you'll join us!
We'll head back to Kansas City to research in Clay County, Platte County, and Jackson County in Missouri, and Wyandotte County and Johnson County in Kansas. Then it's back home the way we came.
We'll be uploading photos (and may be video) all along the way.
As I said, we'll be posting from aboard the train!
I hope you'll join us!
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