Getting There Is Half The Fun!

By David

We’‘ve been sailing in Maine now for about eight years now. At first we came by air, but as the times have changed, we got tired of the intrusive, and often destructive security checks brought to you by the Department of Homeland Security. They don’t want us bringing along so many things we have to have; gas cartridges for our life jackets (in spite of the fact that their life jackets contain them), the flares the Coast Guard requires us to carry (and indeed requires them to carry as well) . Even our sextant has upset them. They have insisted on running our brand-new disposable cameras through the x-ray machine even though their regs say they shouldn’t, and when we objected, they subjected us to additional punative searches because we were ‘uncooperative’. When we asked to speak to a supervisor, they tried to refuse. All-in-all, we have found them arrogant and generally ignorant.

Next, we tried coming by automobile. It takes five days each way, five days of hot, pounding, nerve-wracking travel. When you factor in even the cheapest motels and meals, it costs as much as going by air and we arrived frazzled and we burned up ten days of our vacation just getting there and getting back.

Last year, we tried Amtrak. The contrast was amazing. We made Boston in 48 hours and Rockland the following afternoon. We arrived rested and overall, we had a very enjoyable trip. And the cost? About the same as going by either airline or automobile, cheaper if the price of gas stays above $3 per gallon.
There are a few tips.

First, GET A SLEEPING COMPARTMENT.
It makes you into a ‘First Class’ passenger. This entitles you to a private place to ride during the day and a real (if narrow) bed to sleep in at night.. It also entitles you to use the First Class Lounges in the stations where you change trains. In our case, this was Chicago on the way east and both Boston and Chicago on the way west. Denver has been talking about adding a First Class Lounge, but they haven’t done it yet. Most important, your First Class accommodations mean that your meals are complimentary. It’s amazing how pleasant it is to move down a car or two and eat dinner at table with a linen table cloth and have a nice glass of wine (you have to buy the wine) to go with it.

Second, bring a book or two. You may not need one but if all else fails, you can read. You can also wander (well, stagger) down to the observation car to watch the world go by and there’s a bar downstairs if you want to imbibe. Just hope you don’t find yourself traveling with the rock musician who was on our train. The man literally drank the train dry, but there are trains every day and there’s only one of him, so you should be safe.

Be friendly. You’re going to be traveling with about 200 people, many of whom are really nice to talk to. They will be from all over the world and from all walks of life. The fact that they’re on the train means that they have enough time to enjoy the trip. You may be sharing a dinner table with some of them or you may meet them in the observation car. Don’t be shy. They’re as much a part of the experience as the rolling stock and they don’t know anybody either.

Be nice to your Porter. The Pullman Porter is like the Steward on a cruise. There is one per sleeper car and it’s his job to not only make up your beds at night and put them away during the day, but to help make you comfortable. He provides you with ice and water; brings you newspapers and calls you when it’s your turn to go down to the Dining Car for meals. If you need another towel, pillow or blanket, see him. If you smoke, he’ll let you know when a station is coming so you can step off for a quick puff.

That brings up a point: heavy smokers might want to consider taking along some nicotine patches. The smoke stops aren’t that frequent or that long. It’s customary to tip the Porter. If he’s done his job right, he earned it. AMTRAK is vague about it, but giving the guy a twenty for pampering you for 24 hours seems about standard.

I understand that some trains have wireless internet available, but this year is our first trip with a laptop, so we’ll have to check that out. There are showers available in the sleeping cars and the john is down the hall about 50% of the time. From Chicago to Albany, the head is right there in your compartment with you. This is a two-edged sword. It’s handy and private (and exclusively yours), but unless you and your spouse are really into togetherness, that gives the other person a good reason to go down to the Club Car for a beer.

In the stations, the Red Caps are a godsend. If they know you’re a First Class passenger, they’re extra-helpful. Like the porters, you want to tip them. They’ll handle and watch your hand-luggage, pick up bags from the baggage check area, and make sure you and your bags get on the right car of the right train. In Boston, one of them even got us and our considerable gear over to the Trailways terminal for the trip to Rockland.

Speaking of luggage, let me extol the virtue of traveling light. I don’t practice this virtue myself you understand, but I admire it in others. We’ve become great fans of UPS, FedEx and DHL. If we don’t absolutely HAVE to carry it with us, it goes in a box and gets shipped ahead to the boatyard. We carry our ship’s papers, sextant, personal meds and bout three changes of clothes. If you believe that, I want to talk to you about some prime mountain real estate you should invest in. I keep trying to go light, but every year, Kathy expects to find the spare tire from the car when we unpack in Rockland.