And another dose of Kerouac, and I feel like writing again. I'm tired, my brain feels compressed and my journey is far from over, but I'm not worried. It's dark now, though it appeasr we're following some form of waterway according to my GPS. Many mesmorising lights are silently whipping by and my eyelids are starting to feel heavy. I hope it's all good.
And as I sat watching myself digitally, without any exact plan when this journey ends, I thought:
Holy Moly, I've gone across america on my own.
Somehow, so far, I've not quite comprehended it, but in the midst of blissfull uncertainty I realise it's all pretty cunning. Interestingly we just went through Richmond. Kudos to American originality. It's also a bit odd that we're going the fastest we've been all day through a built up area: 85mph.
Showing posts with label California Zephyr. Show all posts
Showing posts with label California Zephyr. Show all posts
Saturday, 1 December 2007
1st December, 16:53
I can't remember if I mentioned my ponderous predicament but I only booked a train to Emeryville, rather than San Francisco. Lukcily there is an Amtrak bus there but it leaves 15 minutes after we arrive in Emeryville. So in that time I have to get my baggage, find out if I can get tickets for it, and then where it is. Amazingly, though, we got to Sacramento an hour early AND no one is getting off at Davis so we're sailing through that. Plenty of time for me to get lost in Emeryville then.
I was going to write this in the lounge but there's some goth/emo kid in there who's completely drunk after drinking straight from a bottle of whiskey all afternoon. Sun is setting now, soon I can shower! Mwahahaha.
I was going to write this in the lounge but there's some goth/emo kid in there who's completely drunk after drinking straight from a bottle of whiskey all afternoon. Sun is setting now, soon I can shower! Mwahahaha.
1st December, 12:29
Wow, scenary is totally amazing. I have my GPS working now, which is highly handy, for instance I knew the lakes to our right were coming up before they did. We have some guides from a local railroad museum and apparently we're entering the cold water valley. We're doing soem crazy 180 degree turn to get through the valley. There's also a tunnel at some point. Last time we had a long tunnel some fool apparently pulled the stop train cord and then loads of foolish people had panic attacks in the tunnel, including Wade (who is also petrified of flying among other things). I had some coffee.
At this rate I'll need a new SD card, I may try and get on in San Fran. Whoa, an amazing lake view, the afformentioned valley I suspect.
Okay, this is phenominal, I can't describe the view, huge mountains, perfectly still lake. Thousands of straight, giant trees densely populate all the hill sides. It's very hard not to be a slave to my camera.
We're now going through the 2 mile long Tunnel 41, called the big hole. 11600 ft above sea level is our highest point, along the Sierra Nevada, which will occur at end of this here tunnel. And problem just when my mp3 player runs out. On that note I've just realised all of my multitude of gadgets are black. Awesome.
My handwriting has really deteriorated. And my spelling. I should really have brought more dollar with me, as I have about 3 cereal bars left. To make matters worse my GPS reckons we just derailed...
At this rate I'll need a new SD card, I may try and get on in San Fran. Whoa, an amazing lake view, the afformentioned valley I suspect.
Okay, this is phenominal, I can't describe the view, huge mountains, perfectly still lake. Thousands of straight, giant trees densely populate all the hill sides. It's very hard not to be a slave to my camera.
We're now going through the 2 mile long Tunnel 41, called the big hole. 11600 ft above sea level is our highest point, along the Sierra Nevada, which will occur at end of this here tunnel. And problem just when my mp3 player runs out. On that note I've just realised all of my multitude of gadgets are black. Awesome.
My handwriting has really deteriorated. And my spelling. I should really have brought more dollar with me, as I have about 3 cereal bars left. To make matters worse my GPS reckons we just derailed...
1st December, 06:47
As I sit, waiting for a huge ball of extraordinarily violent flaming gas to ascend the heavens from behind it's mountain bunker, I think to myself "Darn gosh, I wish I'd remembered to put my clock backwards". No worries though, I bought a coffee with my last two dollar bills and am munching strawberry nutri-grain bars. Look's like these's a ground frost, which would explain why I was cold last night while experimenting with new sleeping positions that cause overnight damage to muscles I didn't know existed.
Finally we're off again, and now the cloud's are hugging the ground tightly, barely giving us a few metres of vision. Jolly foggy.
Finally we're off again, and now the cloud's are hugging the ground tightly, barely giving us a few metres of vision. Jolly foggy.
Friday, 30 November 2007
30th November, 22:00
After a small stint practicing the art of contortion I managed to find a comfortable position curled up, as if hibernating, where I could get some sleep. I had some crazed half asleep, half reality dreams of scratching my teeth on each other, which was cringe worthy. After I woke up just after 9 I went down to the lounge and grabbed a ham and cheese sub plus a bud light for good measure.
I fear when I return to Angleterre, all I'll be allowed to eat is vegetables and drink orangensaft. The number of people aboard has reached crazy lows, and we lose more than we gain at our stops on the way. I've been told the scenery tomorrow, going into Cali, is the best yet. At the moment I can just make out cosy towns nestled down for the night, with enthusiastic christmas decorations tracing house edges. Then we get surrounded by blackness for a time, and sometimes a strange fabric burning smell comes to linger, and keep us company for a while. I apologise for my current writing style, old Kerouac has infected my brain.
I fear when I return to Angleterre, all I'll be allowed to eat is vegetables and drink orangensaft. The number of people aboard has reached crazy lows, and we lose more than we gain at our stops on the way. I've been told the scenery tomorrow, going into Cali, is the best yet. At the moment I can just make out cosy towns nestled down for the night, with enthusiastic christmas decorations tracing house edges. Then we get surrounded by blackness for a time, and sometimes a strange fabric burning smell comes to linger, and keep us company for a while. I apologise for my current writing style, old Kerouac has infected my brain.
30th November, 16:52
I gravitated myself towards the observation/lounge car with some music and my camera. But it's wet and gloomy now. So photos are a no no.
Lydia and Jayne are here again, Jayne is quieter than Lydia but they both seem to have a tranquil happiness that's calming to be around. I should really be writing postcards but I don't know whethere to rehash stuff on here, or how to approach them. They're currently a mountain I don't have to tackle yet.
My reflection in the window looks humourous. I think I might sleep well tonight, but it's far too early now so I'm not sure what to do. Lady at the end of carriage appears to be trying to sell or trader her daughter to a random guy. In a very odd occurance, I've run out of words that I care to babble.
Lydia and Jayne are here again, Jayne is quieter than Lydia but they both seem to have a tranquil happiness that's calming to be around. I should really be writing postcards but I don't know whethere to rehash stuff on here, or how to approach them. They're currently a mountain I don't have to tackle yet.
My reflection in the window looks humourous. I think I might sleep well tonight, but it's far too early now so I'm not sure what to do. Lady at the end of carriage appears to be trying to sell or trader her daughter to a random guy. In a very odd occurance, I've run out of words that I care to babble.
30th November, 16:06
This perpetual day does as it will, but I'm surprisingly dandy, to a moderate degree. The clouds are descending now but I'm not sure if that's the weather or if Grand Junction is particularly high. Train is surprisingly empty now, I've got two seats and there's loads more available. Air is extremely dry, but that's the odd air system they have here. For instance, we went through a tunnel and we weren't allowed to move between cars as fumes would choke us all. Good times.
30th November, 14:02
After much thought I finally worked out the right soundtrack to match the incredible scenery I'm witnessing through the Rockys. Sitting in the observation car, with a surprise lack of Eagles on my Zen, I remembered the good old Lynyrd Skynyrd, which suited perfectly. The whole trip so far seems to have lacked chronological sequence, so I can't even begin to construct a realistic narrative. I will, however, just keep writing. Before Jane got off at Denver, she gave me the latest Clarkson book to read, which was jolyl nice. I got her email as she may end up in San Fran on Monday.
I barely slept last night but I dosed in happy peace and somewhat meditively with The Postal Service gently drumming out simple sorrows. Wade slept in the Lounge car, which I was secretly glad of as I'd grown a bit tired of him and didn't quite trust in what he said. We hit the Rockys early in the day and so I've spent a good majority of my time up here. Met a guy from Cornwall and two nice women, Jane and Lydia, and we chatted about the scenery, from huge rocky mountains to gorges, rivers and streams. Many bald eagles and one or two deer were also spotted along the way.
I had a good, though slightly hard to escape from, chat with the cafe/bar man about Germany, the price of McDonalds in various countries and the such like. My diet of ceral bars is near excellent, though closer to worryingly nutritionally unbalanced.
We reach Grand Central, which is Wade's stop in 1 hour 30.
I barely slept last night but I dosed in happy peace and somewhat meditively with The Postal Service gently drumming out simple sorrows. Wade slept in the Lounge car, which I was secretly glad of as I'd grown a bit tired of him and didn't quite trust in what he said. We hit the Rockys early in the day and so I've spent a good majority of my time up here. Met a guy from Cornwall and two nice women, Jane and Lydia, and we chatted about the scenery, from huge rocky mountains to gorges, rivers and streams. Many bald eagles and one or two deer were also spotted along the way.
I had a good, though slightly hard to escape from, chat with the cafe/bar man about Germany, the price of McDonalds in various countries and the such like. My diet of ceral bars is near excellent, though closer to worryingly nutritionally unbalanced.
We reach Grand Central, which is Wade's stop in 1 hour 30.
Thursday, 29 November 2007
29th November, 23:17
Aha! and you had all thought some horrible catastrophe had enveloped me. No fear, I've been on the train for 9 hours now... out of 55. Luckily, I met a cool american guy called Wade, who is sitting next to me. By his own admission he's a bit red neck, but is really nice and chatty. He has teh sort of personality that he always repeats how he respects everyone and not to judge people, but at the back of your mind you suspect if you got in his bad books he could flip out. While the sun was gingerly creeping down the sky I relaxed with him in the lounge car and met a jolly nice American called Josh. We all chatted for a while where I found out nuggest of info like they had both been druggies but cleaned up etc. Wade had recently found his best mate dead from an overdose and that had had a profound affect on him. Josh in turn had lost people, but I liked Josh's outlook and he seemed pretty knowledgeable about Britain and History etc.
Wade's reason for travel (to Grand Junction) was to find work at a gas rig as teh demand for tree-climbing tree reducers had diminished. Josh seemed to be going to Sacramento, or there aboust, to join the army. But his shape and secretly Wade, begged to differ. After returning to our, once again, spacious seats we struck up conversation with an english girl, Jane, and Rebecca, and American, sitting to our right. After general chatting we headed to the bar for some beers, where after some depressing drug/death talk, and Wade trying to playing match maker with me and Jane, he headed on up to hang with some other people he met.
Jane (24), it turned out, had been travelling on and off for 5 years, taking a gap year before uni in Africa. When she was meant to go home she decided to stay and has travelling/worked all over the world ever since. Including working in New Zealand, Oz etc. she's now on her way to Denver to work down the country. One of the reason's wade was so up for matchmaking us was, obviously us Britishness, but also our love for Jack Kerouac, who ironically the two American's had never heard of. She also lives in Glastonbury, so we chatted about the festival for a while.
I garnered less info from the quiet Rebecca (23), she works on her family farm, I think. If she could do anything, she'd be a botanist in South Americ, and she has some crazy herbal drinks. She's really nice though and she also handed out some awesome dark chocolate, which Wade had never had and he pretended he like it, even though he hated it. He couldn't believe I loved it.
A few more interesting things to note about wade, he had this barbed wire tattoo around his bicep, which was surrounded by knife stab wounds, apparently done by guy who tattooed it!? He wore cowboy boots that he was very protective over, even though they'd been run over by his girlfriend. Who had also got a DUI and killed someone while drink driving recently. Twas a bit hectic.
In conclusion, journey is good so far, but I'm far too awake while veryone else is asleep. Wade has gone to stretch out somewhere up front and I've resorted to the sounds of Long Island's Brand New flooding into my ears. They guys asked me if I had enough money and could do whatever I wanted what would I do. For some reason I said writer. From this post's 3 page length, I can't for the life of me see why. Plus my handwriting is dreadful.
Wade's reason for travel (to Grand Junction) was to find work at a gas rig as teh demand for tree-climbing tree reducers had diminished. Josh seemed to be going to Sacramento, or there aboust, to join the army. But his shape and secretly Wade, begged to differ. After returning to our, once again, spacious seats we struck up conversation with an english girl, Jane, and Rebecca, and American, sitting to our right. After general chatting we headed to the bar for some beers, where after some depressing drug/death talk, and Wade trying to playing match maker with me and Jane, he headed on up to hang with some other people he met.
Jane (24), it turned out, had been travelling on and off for 5 years, taking a gap year before uni in Africa. When she was meant to go home she decided to stay and has travelling/worked all over the world ever since. Including working in New Zealand, Oz etc. she's now on her way to Denver to work down the country. One of the reason's wade was so up for matchmaking us was, obviously us Britishness, but also our love for Jack Kerouac, who ironically the two American's had never heard of. She also lives in Glastonbury, so we chatted about the festival for a while.
I garnered less info from the quiet Rebecca (23), she works on her family farm, I think. If she could do anything, she'd be a botanist in South Americ, and she has some crazy herbal drinks. She's really nice though and she also handed out some awesome dark chocolate, which Wade had never had and he pretended he like it, even though he hated it. He couldn't believe I loved it.
A few more interesting things to note about wade, he had this barbed wire tattoo around his bicep, which was surrounded by knife stab wounds, apparently done by guy who tattooed it!? He wore cowboy boots that he was very protective over, even though they'd been run over by his girlfriend. Who had also got a DUI and killed someone while drink driving recently. Twas a bit hectic.
In conclusion, journey is good so far, but I'm far too awake while veryone else is asleep. Wade has gone to stretch out somewhere up front and I've resorted to the sounds of Long Island's Brand New flooding into my ears. They guys asked me if I had enough money and could do whatever I wanted what would I do. For some reason I said writer. From this post's 3 page length, I can't for the life of me see why. Plus my handwriting is dreadful.
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