I drove 365 miles today and had some time to reflect on this long road trip.
Train Travel:
I had long wanted to take an extended train trip crossing several states and time zones. I never expected to ride four of the great train routes in one trip however. To recap, we rode the California Surfliner for 39 miles from Irvine California to the historic Union Station in Los Angeles. There we transferred to the Coast Starlight riding it to Portland Oregon's own Union Station a distance of 964 miles. At one point our train was running about an hour behind schedule so we thought we would miss our connection to the Empire Builder. Somehow Amtrak got the train back on schedule and we had about a 40 minute wait in Portland before we could board. We then rode the Empire Builder 2,206 miles to Chicago. After spending the night, we boarded the Capital Limited train and rode that to Washington DC's beautiful Union Station a distance of 594 miles. We covered a total 3,803 miles by train.
Would I make that journey again? I would, but instead of paying for sleeper cars, I'd buy a hop on hop off train pass. Having private accommodations on three of the trains was great especially with the coronavirus to consider. In a post coronavirus world, a train pass would allow me to see more places and sleep in more comfortable surroundings. It would also allow me more flexibility to change my plans during the trip. I'd love to stay for a few days in Glacier National Park for example.
Car Travel:
Renting a car and driving it the 2,785 miles we covered including side trips to Dayton Ohio and Santa Fe New Mexico was fine. I drove for all but about 10 miles. I wanted my wife to relax and take in the view and avoid the stress of driving. I noticed some interesting things. The highways in every state we visited are being expanded or improved. We saw lots of construction throughout the drive across the country. Drivers in Texas were probably the most aggressive while those in Oklahoma the most polite.
The Wearing of Masks and Social Distancing:
I noticed that two states stood far apart from the others when it came to not people not wearing masks or maintaining a social distance. Those were Illinois and Oklahoma. We saw lots of people in downtown Chicago without masks. When we stopped for gas in Springfield, we wore our masks and were stared at by the other customers. I only saw the gas station attendants wearing masks and they all had their noses exposed. In Tulsa and Oklahoma City we had similar experiences. We always wore our masks when we left our sleeping compartment on the train or left our rental car. We also took care to maintain a social distance from others.
Navigating Route 66:
As mentioned on a prior post, navigating old Route 66 was very difficult. I noticed in many small rural towns, many intersections had no street signs whatsoever. Route 66 signs were more often than not missing and instead another street name or highway number was displayed. Using the GPS unit we purchased for the trip was of limited usefulness as it typically wanted to guide us to the fastest route which was rarely Route 66. We also saw sections of Route 66 which were just closed for maintenance or permanently shut down, requiring us to resort to the interstate. I think better planning on my part is the answer here.
Would I Do It Again?
So after 6,588 miles, was it all worth it? Were this two weeks well spent? Absolutely! The most enjoyable thing was spending time with my family. Long, unhurried conversations with my brother-in-law were great and we laughted a lot. We all kept seeing interesting things and had the time to stop and look if we wanted to. I also got reacquainted with my camera equipment. I definitely packed too much stuff. I also pushed myself to meet and speak to more people. I found ready smiles and nearly everybody who asked "Where are you going?" seemed amused at my pointing vaguely at the western horizon as I explained "That way!" I loved not having a set schedule, not knowing in what city we would sleep in or where we would have our next meal.
Conclusion:
Coming home today, after following a long winding ascent, we crested one final mountain and found ourselves high atop a desert plain with the road now ramrod straight, descending and stretching out unbroken to the horizon. Not one cloud marred the sky, and we knew we had returned to the place we had started, California. While I'm glad to be home, I'm sorry this great adventure is over. For now, I'm too tired to post new photos. I'll add them tomorrow.