MY SCHEDULE IS NOT AMTRAK'S SCHEDULE

Well, this has been an educational week when it come to planning a trip on AMTRAK..  I am quite a novice at using public transportation especially Amtrak. I have traveled all my life but most of the time I have either driven myself or rented a car. Very seldom have I relied solely on public transportation. When I was in Texas recently I did take Uber and found that it was quite efficient.

As I said in a previous post I have made reservations for the first leg of my Amtrak trip from Roanoke to Arizona. The rest of the plan to continue my trip to the west coast and return on Amtrak's California Zephyr have hit a snag. As I said traveling Amtrak will be a new experience for me and make reservations and plans are more challenging that just buying a ticket and going.

Early on it became very obvious that my plans would not always conform to Amtrak's Schedule. Case in point. In order to continue my trip to the west coast on Amtrak, I would have to either depart Arizona on Thursday or Sunday. If I chose Thursday it would give me only three full days to spend with my friends. If I chose Sunday I would either have to take a cab or Uber from a Hotel to the Train Station as my friends would be flying back to Virginia on Saturday leaving me with only public transportation. The Maricopa Train Stations which serves the Phoenix area is some distance from Phoenix and doesn't open until 8 p.m. The westbound train is scheduled to depart at 8:52 p.m. which again limits my public transportation option.

I look at renting a car and driving from Phoenix to Los Angeles but that was cost prohibited. Renting the car, driving to Los Angeles and keeping it for a few days was over $600. Not an option.

Also since planning this trip I have been reading about other peoples tips for traveling Amtrak. One of the people that I have been talking to is a veteran Amtrak Traveler. He has written books and several articles dealing with traveling by trains. When I told him that I was planning on traveling from west to east on the California Zephyr his first reply was that he always enjoyed travel from East to West on the Zephyr as opposed to travel west to east. The reason being that Amtrak is often late. The eastbound Zephry is scheduled to arrive in Denver about 7:30 a.m. and depart about 8:00 a.m. Even if it is running late you will still be climbing and traveling through the Rockies during the daylight. The leg from Denver to the Utah border is some of the most magnificent scenery anywhere in America.

Traveling from the west if the Zephyr is running late you take a chance on traveling through this area after sunset and will miss the beautiful scenery.

Another tip that I have gotten over and over is Pack Light. If possible limit thing to ONE Bag. The last thing you want to be doing is lugging around 3-4 heavy bags while  getting on an off trains and moving around the station in search of public transportation. Another reason is that many of the Amtrak Stations do not offer the option of checking bags and you are limited to two carry on bags.

One other tip that I really hadn't thought of is it may be a good idea to break down you trip in legs. Amtrak is notoriously late some times and if you break down you trip in legs you more than likely take missing a connection out of play.  An example arriving in Chicago on the Texas Eagle I have a scheduled 4-hour layover there before I board the Capitol Limited for a return trip to Washington. If the Texas Eagle is more than 4-hours late then I miss my connections and will either have to sleep in the Station or head to a hotel.

One the way back I am looking at breaking the trip into a couple of legs.  One option may be to take the train from Tucson to San Antonio.  In San Antonio I can either continue on to Chicago or switch to the Sunset Limited over to New Orleans. Then catch the Crescent to Washington and return to Roanoke of the Northeast Regional.  Lots to consider but I have a few weeks to finalize my plans.

Another tip is I have three nights in a Superliner Roomette.  Everyone I talked too has advised to get an upper level roomette. There are a number of reasons behind this tip. The most common is there is less track noise upstairs. Another common reason is that being upstairs afford you better views.

So while my trip out to Phoenix is planned and paid for, the return trip is up in the air.

Rather than continuing on west it is looking like that after my friends head back to Virginia, I will just rent a car and explore Arizona for a week or so. I can rent a car for a week and stay in Arizona for under $200 with unlimited miles.  This will give me plenty of options including traveling up to the Grand Canyon (weather permitting) exploring Sedona and the area between Phoenix and Flagstaff.

My plans are every changing an no doubt these plans will change and become more refined as the weeks go by.

Finally, I am working on Texas Videos and have a couple of the Dallas Videos almost finished but first here is a short Video of my visit to the George H. W. Bush Presidential Museum in College Station.

 

IT'S A MISSION - NOT A PARTY

For 30-years the Run For The Wall has made an annual trek across the country. Starting in Ontario, California and ending on Memorial Day at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington, D.C.

Wytheville Mayor Trent Crewe

The entire trip takes about 10-day and is split into three different route; the Central Route, the Midway Route and the Southern Route. Since 2001 the Southern Route has entered Virginia on Interstate 81 at Bristol and made their way to Wytheville where they are officially welcomed and spend the night.

Over the years the town of Wytheville has welcomed the riders, turning their arrival in to a major event.  Each year when the riders roll into town the citizens of Wytheville line the streets waving American Flags, welcoming the riders with open arms.

This year as in years past the Volvo Plant up in Dublin built a couple of specially painted truck and have them on site to welcome the riders.  The graphic on these trucks are amazing and humbling.

The Riders enter Withers Park where an official welcoming ceremony is held before the riders are dismissed to check in to their hotel and then gather for a meal provided by the Wytheville Moose Lodge.

I have been driving down to Wytheville each year since 2013 and I am always amazed at the patriotism this this small town shows. They still stand for the Flag, they not only sing the National Anthem but do so with pride and enthusiasm and even the smallest child can recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

If you want a good dose of patriotism, visit Wytheville, Virginia about 4 p.m. in the afternoon on Wednesday before Memorial Day Weekend when the Run For The Wall Riders enter the town. It's an experience that you won't forget.

If you want to learn more about the Run For The Wall  please visit their website.

If you want to see the rest of the photo My Run For The Wall Flickr Album

THIS, THAT AND BASICALLY NOTHING

Well for the second time since I have been back from Texas one of my computers has gone belly up. It was an old computer that I bought 10-12 years ago at a yard sale. I liked it because his has the old Microsoft Movie and Photo Editor. I have used them exclusively for years and really like them especially the movie editor.  Microsoft has discontinued support of these two programs in 2015 but they still worked on my older computer. 

Eventually I am going to have to find another Video and Photo Editing programs but I have really struggling with finding one that I like and is as simple at the Microsoft Video Editor.  The so called replacement that Microsoft has installed on all new computers is really poor and virtually unusable. It always amazes me how Microsoft gets you hooked on using something and then discards it. In this case they have really left people hanging as they have not provided a suitable alternative.

Moving on, I am constantly amazed at just how rude and inconsiderate people are now days. Case in point. I was at my local Wal-Mart earlier this week and a young lady had just finished unloading her cart and had just began to push the cart back toward cart rack.  A middle aged man waked up and politely said, "Let me take that for you."  To his surprise  (and mine) she very rudely replied, "I can take my on F#$!ing cart, I don't need your help." I don't care who you are or what kind of day you are having there is just no call for being that rude and angry. 

I have commented before about making time for some of the simple pleasures that I had forgotten over the years. One of those simple pleasures is reading a good book. Each day while I am here at home I take time to read.  Basically I take about an hour in the morning to sit and read while I enjoy my coffee and then another hour in the afternoon. Currently I am reading a book called "The Last Stand," by Nathan Philbeck.  Like the title suggests it about George Custer and the 7th Cavalry's March to their death at the Little Big Horn.

I am about halfway through the book and while I had always though that Custer was an egotistical, self serving commander, I didn't know just how egotistical he was until I started this book.  Throughout his career he very rarely did anything for the good of his command. He would always put his own interests first and he was always prodded by his wife Libby. 

I am about halfway through the book and have discovered that neither Major Marcus Reno and Captain Frederick Benteen could stand Custer and had not faith at all in his leadership.  Custer was obvious to the fact that most of his officers thought him to be an egotistical idiot.

Finally, Recently I took a little day trip down to Kannapolis, North Carolina where I visited the Dale Earnhardt Plaza at the center of  Cannon Village in the Downtown area. I tried using a new video editor for the short video that I uploaded to my YouTube Channel. I'm not entirely happy with it or the new program, but it may have to do until I find something else.

SKYLINE DRIVE & THE CREEPER TRAIL

The weather for the last week has been great here in the New River Valley. So I decided to take advantage of it and take a couple of short day trips.

Last weekend I managed to take a little day trip and rode through the Shenandoah National Park on the Skyline Drive.  I got on at the top of Afton Mountain and travel the entire 105-miles to Front Royal. I was also able to get a couple of more stamps for my National Park Passport book. The views along the way were magnificent.

SKYLINE DRIVE

Monday (May 14, 2018) I was up early and got in a short 2-mile walk before Brittany and Georgia arrived and we headed down to Damascus. Brittany and Georgia are two friends that I worked with at my previous jobs.  They still work there and it is seldom that they get the same days off so we are taking advantage of the good weather and going to rent bikes and ride The Virginia Creeper Trail. The trail follows and old railroad bed that runs from the top of White Top Mountain all the way to Abingdon, some 34 miles away.  The entire 34 miles is probably a little bit much for us so we cut it in half and only rode from White Top back to Damascus. This is the easiest part of the trail as it is either all down hill or level.

VIRGINIA CREEPER TRAIL

We called ahead an made reservations at Creeper Trail Bike Rentals & Shuttle. These guys are great.For just a little over $28.00 we rented bikes and they shuttled us to the top of White Top Mountain where we began out 17-mile ride back to Damascus.  This is the easiest part of the trail as it is all down hill for the first 10 miles or so and then level the rest of the way to Damascus.

About 10-miles into our ride we stopped at the Creeper Trail Cafe for lunch. This is a well known spot for riders and hikers. The folks that run the cafe are friendly and the food very tasty.  They have great sweet tea and you can't leave with out trying a piece of their "World Famous Chocolate Cake." The cake was as good as advertised.

WORLD FAMOUS CHOCOLATE CAKE

After lunch it was just a 6-mile ride over level ground into Damascus. The entire 17-mile ride including a stop for lunch took us about 3-hours. It was a wonderful adventure through some beautiful country

Finally, I did find the time to edit a couple of more videos from my Texas Adventure. One has been posted on My YouTube Channel and the other should be coming up in the next day or so. I am in the process of getting a few more videos edited and ready to post.

In the mean time here is the first video from my stop in College Station Texas.

FINAL NUMBERS & NEW VIDEO

I got my computer back from the guy that was trying to recover my data after the crash. When all was said and done there was good news and bad news. The good news is that he was able to recover about 75% of the data that I needed off of the hard drive. He recovered all my photos, videos, and most of my documents. The bad news is the spread sheets and diary associated with my Texas Trip and some other documents could not be recovered.

The fellow that was working on the data recovery for me has a full time computer job and he is very good at what he does. He was doing me a favor by working on my computer in his spare time and didn't charge me a dime even though I offered to pay him he flat refused.  If I had taken my computer to a commercial computer repair store, data recovery would have cost me between $200 and $300. I can't thank him enough for all his help.

While I was traveling I did maintain a trip log using a couple of Apps on my phone and have gained some data that way. I also went back and pulled my hand written notes and was able to add those figures to what I already had entered. I also retrieved data from my bank account. So to make a long story short I was able to complete about 98% of the data for the compete Trip Log. So here are some of the final numbers.

Total Miles Traveled  -  6250
Total Gal. of Gas           171.619
Total Gas Cost              $398.00
Average MPG                36.417
Total Lodging Costs      $2,211.98 (Avg. $71.35/night)
Total Food Cost             $825.44 ($26.62/Day)
Total Tour/Admission    $190.49
Souvenirs/Misc Costs     $626.04
Total Cost of Trip            $4,965.12 ($160.16/day)

The  $4,965.12 is a final estimate as I didn't make notes on the final days of the trip be went back and pull the missing number from my banking statement.  This may be a few dollars high or low but it is pretty close to being the true costs.

When I started this trip I had some Idea of what I though this trip would cost. My initial estimates were that the trip would cost me between $5000 and $5500. I also estimated that I would probably spend somewhere between $150 and $170 per day.

Based on the final number I was right on the the mark as I came in right at a $5000 total and a $160 daily average.

One final note about these numbers. When I bought my new Honda Accord, the estimated Miles Per Gallon on the sticker was 36 mpg. On this trip I got just a shade over that and I am really very happy with that. Several times on the trip I got 39+ mile per gallon on a tank of gas which was extremely good.  The best leg of the trip, miles per gallon wise was between Alamagorda, New Mexico and Sayre, Oklahoma. This leg was a total of 540 miles and 41.93 miles per gallon.

Finally I have posted a new Tombstone Tourist Video from a couple of cemeteries in Beaumont and Houston Texas.