It is Sunday morning and I wake and feel the train moving more slowly now. The car is gently swaying back and forth instead of the violent motion of the night before. I open the curtain and the darkness provides a screen of massive evergreen trees just feet from the window. All darkness except for the brief times when the train sways and I can see the with the eyes of the engineer the landscape before and the yellow beams of the headlights. At 5:45 am pinnacles of light appear randomly between the trees. Suddenly I see a order menu from a some unknown fast food chain appear. Then darkness prevails once again and the train meanders up the narrow canyons of total darkness.
The darkness recedes and spikes of the sun's orange flashlight beams pierce the walls of the room. I took a quick shower in the downstairs show only room and then went to breakfast at 7:15 am. I was paired with a couple that was traveling with their family of brother and mother who was in a wheel chair back in the coach. We dined on omelets and scrambled eggs as the wetlands of Oregon started sliding by. We are now pulling into Klamath Falls, Oregon.
After a brief stop in Klamath Falls we pass through forest and fields eventually hugging Klamath upper lake. The lake lasts about 20 minutes with the top of mount hood showing snowy peaks in the distance. I sit in the observation car open to all passengers. Many of the people look tired and dis-shuffled from sitting up all night. After about an hour I move to the parlor car for a change of pace. The parlor car is available for the sleeper car passengers and has different feel to it. The crowd is older and the pace is slower. People sit and have conversations frequently.
I am starting to get into the rhythm of the train. Keep in mind that there are two worlds on the train. There is the coach seating that is a bit like the wild west. The pace is faster and people come and go from seats and cars frequently. The other end of the train is the sleeper car passengers. They tend to be older and more stationary. Sleeper car people stay longer in the cars and enjoy conversations with their friends. There is a world on the train that cuts a swatch through each world the train encounters. We twist and turn through the forest and fields slicing the sunlight with our whistle.
It is 11:24 am and we have been traversing the forests of Oregon on the way to Portland for hours. Most of the time we now see just trees along the side of the route. Just feet from my viewing window. At times we reach a ridge and take in a splendid view but the sight quickly evaporates and we run back to the forests.
I am reading Socialnomics by Erik Qualman. Great book and I can not help wonder if social media could help Amtrak. Most of the passengers in the sleeper cars will have passed on in 20 years. I see few people younger than 50 and the ones I do see are just train junkies. I was excited when I booked the coastal starlight because it lists wireless as a feature and benefit. When I arrived I tried to identify a signal and found none. I then noticed in the literature that wireless is a feature of the parlor car. So, I go to the parlor car and setup but still not signal. I get up the courage and ask the women that runs the car about the WIFI. She says “sure it is running”. I say “I do not think so”. So she takes me down to the movie theater and finds that the WIFI is turned off. She flips it on and says “there you go, but it does not work to good because there are not many cells”. Great, I try the WIFI again and there is a signal this time. We were sitting at the station at San Luis Obisbo so I am thinking that there must be a cell here. I connect and find that there is a communications signal but no internet connectivity. I gave up. This morning she asked me about the internet and I just told her to forget about it.
If Amtrak wants to move into the 21st century then they will need to have great internet connectivity. Not just good connectivity some times, but great connectivity all the time. Kids today that will become the parents of tomorrow will not ride unless they can communicate and text with their friends anytime and anywhere. The clock is ticking. It Amtrak does not move forward then their existing customer base, which does not appear to be that great based upon what I am seeing will continue to diminish to include only train freaks such as myself and a few others.
At Portland we receive a 50 minute reprieve. I exit the train and just walk for blocks in the hot sun not really knowing where i am going. I am just happy to get out and get moving. it must be about 80 degrees and the sun is very intense. We load up after the break and head off across the Oregon. Much is farmland, flat and simple compared to the rugged lands we have crossed.
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