Backpacking While Black

Coast Starlight Amtrak Train, June 2007: Day 2, June 9, 2007 (Northern California, Oregon and Washington…Are we there yet?!)

Day two aboard the Coast Starlight started with a beam of sunlight annoying me through the shades of my room. I got up to seal the shades, but couldn’t bear to do it after I saw the snow-capped peak of Mt. Shasta. Rising at 14,162 feet Mt. Shasta is an imposing figure in the Northern California landscape. The train rode through various towns and fields, but Mt. Shasta and the adjoining Three Sisters Mountains kept their watchful eyes on us until we crossed the California-Oregon Border.

On our way to Eugene and Portland, OR, I got a full view of one of the United States’ natural wonders, the dense forests of the Pacific Northwest. We moved slowly through the Cascade Mountains and the 22 tunnels in between Mt. Shasta and Eugene. For most of the state all we saw were trees, towns, trees, tracks, trees, lakes and did I forget to mention trees. I didn’t mind the scenery as I passed the time with books and more movies. As mentioned before, you get numerous opportunities to meet fellow passengers aboard a long distance train, but when it comes to being in a room on your own, you grow to not like it after a while. I recommend taking a loner trip to decompress, but trips as scenic, but as time consuming as this are best enjoyed in the company of either close friends and/or family.
Our passage through Salem and Portland was pretty uneventful. By this point in the trip, my ensuing flu symptoms and stir craziness had changed my mood. I spent the rest of the ride through Oregon sleeping, reading, praying and watching movies. We reached Washington with no big fan fair, but we had picked up immense speed as we headed downhill towards Puget Sound, Tacoma and Seattle. The adjacent roomette was taken so my view of the bays was nonexistent. Just under two hours late, the Coast Starlight finally pulled into Seattle’s King Street Amtrak Station. It reminded me of a busier version of Atlanta’s Amtrak station, but at this point I cared less about architecture and more about catching my red-eye flight out of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport back to Atlanta.

Traveling always excites me, but a marathon train ride along the West Coast of the United States alone made me realize that traveling for my own purposes isn’t fulfilling. With a fiancée, family and good friends at home, I realized that I don’t need to travel to escape, but to share the experience with others and “reconnect.” Even though the trip was over 40 hours aboard a train, I see how families, older couples and the occasional young couple enjoy the time together. Where else are you, for lack of a better word, confined with those you care about, enjoying the scenery, alright food and the opportunity to meet some new friends? Amtrak has all that and more. There’s a large part of the population who don’t agree with “faster is better” when it comes to their travel plans. To those same people, it’s about the quality of the trip; the opportunity to enjoy what traveling should be – not a means to an end, but an experience.

Labels: Amtrak Coast Starlight, biz trip

posted by Dre' @ 6/09/2007 11:45:00 PM