Planes, Trains, and . . . Waymo

Rather unexpectedly, having been ensconced in KC for well over two months, Cute and I decided to take a good ole USA trip.  Words I’ve not been inclined to say recently.  So, with little thought or planning, we said, “Let’s go on the train.”

That means Amtrak which, it turns out, can serve as a complete tour provider. We flew to Washington D.C., then trained to Chicago, Seattle, and lastly to San Francisco from where we would fly home.  Amtrak provided train rooms, hotel rooms, food, and sightseeing locales in the big cities where we stopped overnight. 

Those overnight stays proved very important because they made up for the semi-sleepless train nights, despite having beds.  Bunk beds.  And noise.  And more turbulence than an airplane in a tornado. But there was humor every night as I watched Cute fold and unfold his 6'4" frame into the top bunk whose ceiling was about 10 inches above the mattress.

We’d never done a train trip of any length and pictured smooth, fast and luxurious bullet train-like conveyance swooping through the scenic countryside. 

Not quite what it was.

Unable to score a “full-sized ”room for the first leg due to our late, aka spontaneous, booking, we had a "roomette." This would be just fine we were told, being assured it was the same as a full sized room minus the bathroom, which was just down the hall.  Not exactly true. We immediately discovered that only one of the two nearest bathrooms was working.  Since I have a total aversion to airplane bathrooms, which usually are at least cleaned during a 12 hour trip, I was in bathroom hell before I  ever sat down in my roomette seat.  Enough about that.  Let me just say it was a loooong sleepless night.  And worse, me with my toothbrush packed who knows where.

Yes, those are touching knees from opposite sides of the "roomette." And one chair was broken.

Washington was beautiful with some cherry trees still in bloom although the big display was over. Everything was lush, with the planters full of spring blossoms. We learned, too late, that one now pretty much must have a timed reservation for the museums but D.C. friend/resident Jane told us to try the National Museum of Art, which was an excellent choice.  Planet Word (a whole museum devoted to words!) was as cool as remembered.

On the way there, we were surrounded by well-mannered but spirited protestors and a plethora of police.  There is clearly a lot to protest right now and sometimes the different protests would merge together, the commonality being many people are VERY unhappy with local and world events. We watched, listened, and walked. 

That night we had an evening tour of monuments (conceived and built while the designee was alive) and memorials (built after the honoree was dead  ).  That was lovely and many people were out to admire them.

OK, back to the train trip. 

Nope, details to follow. Sorry.

OK, just one detail?

No wi-fi in Amtrak trains btw which has made doing a blog difficult.