A Slight Catastrophe

When I planned my Amtrak adventure, I was fully aware that plans could change as a result of natural catastrophes, failed alarm clocks, train wrecks, or Charlie Sheen. I just didn't think they would have a domino effect. Of course, I should have known that any minor glitch would cause multiple delays (which would require lots of repair) in my back to back travels. And I think I did know that, I just chose not to think about it.
The original plan in Gabbie's Big Train Ride said I would get on the train on March 24th in Sacramento around 11:00 am (leaving me plenty of time for beauty rest after a few busy days visiting my Aunt Cat and Uncle Rudy) and arrive in Salt Lake City around 3:30 am on the 25th, where I would retreat to my youth hostel and crash until sunrise, when I would wake up and do whatever you're supposed to do when you visit Salt Lake City. 
 Except someone messed up. I won't way who, mostly because I don't know who. But they messed up big time. Because whoever was supposed to put the Flanders (snow equipment) on the train and inspect them didn't do their job, because when we got to Colfax (a town about 2 hours east of Sacramento), they discovered that the snow equipment did not work. So the workers had to call a crew up from Sacramento to fix them, which takes a few hours. 
This would have been great, had Mother Nature not decided to take advantage of the situation. Because as we pulled into Colfax, the steady rain that had soaked Northern California since sunrise turned into snow and ice. Well guess what happened then? They had to shut down the freeways for "safety issues." So the maintenance crew couldn't fix our giant snow plow.
So the conductor had another brilliant idea. We were going to wait for the Number 5 train (which was coming from Chicago to California) to come over the mountain pass. Then they would just give us their working snow equipment. This meant waiting a few more hours in COLFAX: Population 1750 (according to the sign outside the lounge car window). I was cool with that because Colfax feels the need to provide its residents with public Wi-Fi everywhere. I could not complain. 
Unfortunately, plan #2 didn't work. Because after train Number 5 passed through the mountains there was a slight avalanche. Scratch that. There was a massive avalanche. One so bad that they wouldn't be able to send trains over the pass for at least a week. Since the beginning of my travels, I've totally been cheering on the trains when we cross the mountains, you know, the whole "I think I can" deal. But this darn train just couldn't. So when train Number 5 finally arrived in Colfax, we hooked up to them and rode back to Sacramento, arriving around 11 pm. I spent 12 hours on a train watching the rain, and I now consider Colfax one of the cities on my "Been To" list. 
The next morning I spent hours on the phone with lovely Amtrak customer service representatives. They are wonderful, let me tell you.  They booked me on (what they thought) was the next train out, to leave on Tuesday. With this new arrangement, I would skip my Salt Lake and Denver stops and go straight to Omaha. Then I would cancel my stops in Los Angeles and Tuscon, only stopping in Iowa, Albuquerque, Houston, and New Orleans. 
So with the entire weekend to spare, I went back to San Fransisco to do what I do best: wander around eating local junk food and imagine myself living there. (I really do this fabulously, by the way.) I also had dinner with the marvelous Chandra Lowe, one of my friends from Portland who was in SanFran on business. As I returned on Sunday night to Sacramento, my father informed me of the call from Amtrak. My train was cancelled for Tuesday! I wanted to jump off my train in frustration, but I did what I do second-best, which was smile really big at the lounge car attendant who sold me my Snickers bar, told him to have a good day, and put my change in his tip jar.
Further delaying my trip to the mid-west would mean I would have to cancel one of my family/friend visits in either Omaha, Iowa, or Houston. Not wanting to do this, I booked a flight to Omaha since all rail and road traffic through the pass was terminated. Now I'm going to rant. I'm not one to complain about the airlines' bogus security procedures and the days I've wasted waiting either in line for security or for planes to take off or taxi to the gate. But after taking trains for a few weeks straight, hopping on a plane was quite maddening. First of all, I had to check a bag, which I never, ever do. And I had to pay for it, a service which is normally free on Continental Airlines. This meant I had to wait in line for my boarding pass and for my bag to be checked. Then I had to wait in the security line for a good 20 minutes, where they found the snow globes I had bought for my friend, Erin, to be a threat to national security. Deep down I knew that snow globes couldn't be carried on. I just forgot when I was packing my bags. So after convincing them that the glitter was actually glitter and not some explosive metal that would kill everyone on board, they allowed me to walk back down to the check-in desk, beg for my checked bag to be pulled, repack all my underwear in front of the staff, and put the snow globes in my suitcase. 

I'm done venting now. Because once in Omaha I had a marvelous visit with some old friends. For those of you who don't know, I was born in Omaha because my parents lived there while my mom was in residency. So with mom and dad working 23.5 hours a day, they dropped me with the day care miracle from heaven: Sally. 
Sally was (and still is) one of the coolest old ladies around. She is the one responsible for my health and safety for the first 4.5 years of my life. She's basically like my fifth grandmother (I have a lot of grandmothers). So I went back to visit her. We did all sorts of stuff, but the first thing she made sure to do was show me my old house. It's green now. I don't seem to remember it being green before. We also went to the Air and Space Museum, the DeSoto Wildlife Reserve, the Capitol Building in Lincoln, and the Jocelyn Art Museum. We also watched half a dozen chick flicks that were made in the 90's. 
Air and Space Museum: Just a bunch of big, retired military planes. (But still neat.)
DeSoto Wildlife Reserve: Only if you like looking at tons of bare trees searching for a few wild animals. But they did have a really cool exhibit about a sunken ship from Civil War times that lost all the artifacts in the mud. Then, when they finally dug them out a century later, the lost cargo was perfectly in tact. Of course, the oxygen actually corrodes the artifacts, so they have to preserve them now that they discovered them. But seeing 500 pencils that were supposed to go to a schoolhouse in California perfectly in tact after a century in the mud? Well, now I can say I've seen it. 
Capitol Building in Lincoln: Oh, this was good. Somehow we managed to visit on the day that 80 fourth graders were visiting, and we were part of their tour. Whoopee! Actually, what was more entertaining was seeing the tour guide ask a bunch of questions, and then see Sally try to beat them all out for the correct answer. That woman could write a history book on Nebraska. 
Jocelyn Art Museum: This was great, too. There was an exhibit at the Jocelyn about the art from Ukraine, stuff that dates back to 5th century BC. I would tell everyone to go see it, but the exhibit isn't going to be there much longer. Basically, if someone wanted to impress me, they could steal one of those million dollar pieces of jewelry from 2000 years ago and give it to me for Valentine's Day. But just a warning: I'm sure if you were caught, you'd be punished by the US and by Ukraine. But you'd still impress me :)
Eye-Oh-Uh!
I never thought anyone lived in Iowa except my awesomest, bestest friend, Erin Geist. But guess what? More people live there. Shocking, I know. But it's true. I went there. They have real civilization, like McDonalds, Targets, and Starbucks. Although Erin informed me that if a town really wants to become a "town," it needs a Casey's Convenient Store. If it has two Casey's it's a big town. And three or more? Well, we're talking about New York City. 
During my visit we went to Ames (she goes to church there), Marshalltown (that place has a cute coffee shop with good cheesecake), and Des Moines (which has a shopping mall). We also went to State Center, which is where she resides. Let's talk about State Center. You know those movies where the entire town consists of three blocks on one street with a restaurant, a store, a lawyer's office, an accountant, and a library? Well, those exist. At least, one does in State Center. I was amazed. We toured the town in about 27.38 seconds. And that's not the record. 
Anyway, I had a fabulous few days to visit with Erin and her family and see a little bit of Iowa before hopping back on the train. They're a pretty awesome family, I'm not going to lie. We watched Tangled (which is adorable!) and shopped a lot. They totally got me addicted to the Food Network. Did you know that cake makers can screw up a cake's color palette? Yeah, me neither. Oh, and we watched the NCAA Championship game! I'll just throw this out there, I was all for UConn after Carolina dropped. Too bad I didn't bet on them...
I got on the train Wednesday morning and went to Galesburg, Illinios, where I would spend about 5 hours and take another west-bound train to Albuquerque. This part of the trip went smoothly. I walked around Galesburg for about 20 minutes with my cup of coffee, then sat down in the park and read my book for the next 4 hours. I only did this because spring has already arrived in Galesburg and is there to stay. It keeps teasing Omaha and Iowa with the whole, 80 one day, 50 the next game, making it very hard to go to a park and read a book all afternoon. 
Speaking of books, they're expensive! Now that I can't just pick up a book from the library, I actually have to buy them. I'm pretty sure I've spent more on books this trip than I have on food. Okay, that's a lie. But I've spent a lot on books. Maybe it's time for me to get an e-reader.


And next time I'll blog from Albuquerque! That is, if no corn avalanches decide to cover the tracks in Kansas....




Note: Every stop in this blog had wonderful friends and family who took me in, fed me, and let me have a hot shower or two. So a huge shout out to my Aunt Cat and Uncle Rudy, the Geist Family, and Sally and Jerry Linquist. 
Note #2: I totally forgot to take pictures of the mid-west. Forgive me. Erin and I were going to take Senior Pictures on Monday, but Mother Nature decided to drop the temperature and add wind, so we decided against it.