Eye-Opener: Memo

Where in the U.S. is Michael B. Diezmos?

The semester ended for me when I turned in my final papers and my students' grades. I only have three weeks of vacation before the summer session begins so of course I want to make the most of it. So to start off my "summer vacation" I rode the Amtrak train (instead of the airplane) from Utah all the way to Pennsylvania. This was a very tiring endeavor but very rewarding (beautiful scences, cities, and lots of stories). I had some time to spare and it was now or never.

I left Logan, UT on Thursday afternoon on the first day of May. Can you believe it? It was still snowing. It looked as if the winter semester just began (so I was glad to go somewhere snow-free in MAY [I know snow in May is possible- I once saw flurries in Greensburg PA, also on the first of May- nonetheless, there is a difference between flurries and snow)...

Clue #1 of first city stop: The 2002 Winter Olympic was hosted by this city...

If you said, "Salt Lake City" UT, then you're CORRECT!

Can you believe this? I've almost lived in UT for a year, and this is the first time I've actually explored Salt Lake City (SLC) [I've been in the airport several times though].

Here's the story: I had a choice of paying $126+ for a shuttle to drive me to SLC on the day of my Amtrak departure at 4:25 a.m. OR I could pay $32 for the SLC express shuttle to drive me 12 hours earlier. I opted for the latter and explored a bit of SLC (used some of the money I would have spent for the expensive shuttle for sightseeing instead)... the only awkward thing was ME lugging my green rolling luggage around the city (a person thought I had just arrived in town to settle- al contraire, i had arrived to leave). I heard a story that "tourists" were often approached by missionaries to be converted. Nobody approached me and tried to convert me (in my situation the rumor turned out to be FALSE)...
the shuttle dropped me off at the Conference Center. I found door 15 and asked for direction (I had a map but I didn't know the ratio of distance to depiction of picture). The guy was nice, he helped locate the address of Amtrak and told me about the UTA 'trax'... he offered a tour of the conference center but I had other agendas (I was surprised that some of his co-workers didn't know where the Amtrak station was located [let me tell you something, the SLC amtrak station is not a "30th Station" of Phila. or the "Grand Central Station" of N.Y.C.]).

After situating my self, I went first to the Information center and then to the Art Center (next to it). Gaylen Hansen's, a contemporary artist of the 20th century, work was displayed. I enjoyed the exhibit (sample of works). After this I rode the "trolley"-- I didn't have to pay for the fare because it was in the "free zone" area. Riding this led me to the Amtrak station. I then went to the Gateway Mall, bought my bro a souvenir for his b-day, I walked around, window shopped, ate at the food court (panda express), and drank a starbucks (I tried to drink a starbucks at every city I visit)...

I returned to Temple Square, went to the LDS Church History and Art Museum, and then at 8, I went to the Tabernacle and watched and listened to the famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir practice singing (held and open to the public every Thursday 8-9:30 pm)... I took lots of picture of the SLC temple and the surrounding art and area...

I watched "Iron Man" at the Gateway Megaplex at 9 p.m. (I had to ask the movie people if I could leave my luggage at the guest service area- they concurred and I watched Iron Man)... this ended around 11 p.m. from here I took the trolley to go to the Amtrak station. I got my tickets.

when I arrived at the station, I got coffee (amaretto flavored), my plan was to stay up till 4:25 a.m. and then as soon as I get inside the train, I'd sleep. Plans changed especially in this type of adventure. My train- the California Zephyr- was three hours delayed. The cashier left and put a sign "Will be back at 3:30 a.m.", I was left in the station with one other person (the situation could have been scarier). The pot-belly man with dull blonde and unkempt hair, wearing a baseball cap with a phrase "Jesus is my boss", started talking to me and I learned some info about him- he just came from Idaho and he's diabetic (he also smokes). A couple of hours later he fell asleep- he snores, his head would bob/lumped down and head straight up jerkily. It took me a while before I couldn't hold my eyes open any longer... I moved to the wall so I could rest my head along the wall (i didn't want to do the "bob")... sun started rising and more people started appearing and finally the train arrived (the double decker type that have "sleeper" compartments- I just got regular coach to save $800+)-

I asked the lady cashier if this delay would affect my schedule (missing my connection)- She LIED, she said that "delays" were configured in the scheduling equation (there was time allowance)...warning- if you have to be at a certain place at a certain time: DO NOT take AMTRAK across the nation. I sort of expected the delays, but not the magnitude that I experienced. It was one delay after another (and I started losing the spirit of Adventure)...

the first delay happened somewhere in Nevada before SLC and other delays occured on the way...

On the way to Colorado, we passed by Bryce Canyon, Soldier's peak of the Wasatch mountain and we went through a 6 mile tunnel in one of the Rocky Mountain chain (pine trees, snow on the ground instead of snow falling, wild animals). Originally, i took this trip so I would have time to "reflect" and to start reading an epic novel, "The Tale of Genji" (considered to be the first novel in the world)... but I was so distracted by the delays that I couldn't get myself to reflect or to read. When i did start reading, I still found it difficult (tip- only bring beach books or something a bit lighter or bring novels, which one has already started [reading in media res])... I stayed at the lounge car, and there was a bunch of old ladies playing cards... they were having a blast (hearing them laugh cheered me up)... people from New Zealand talking with an American student...

lunch and dinner time-
Con- eating overpriced cafeteria food
Pro- being forced gently to sit with strangers (just to fill the table and to encourage socializing). During lunch, I sat with this old couple- they wore clothings with similar color schemes (shades of purple, marroon, mauve, and grays). The lady had curly brown gray hair and brown eyes, the man had blue eyes and fine whitish hair... at the end of dinner they argued in the typical fashion- "I told you shouldn't have taken that..."

During dinner I sat with three other people, a lady who had a son, who is teaching English in Thailand, a blonde-haired middle -aged man (who looks like a "William or Bill", he has a beard and later on in this adventure, he'll be known as Mr. Information Guy), and a old guy, with hazel eyes and a hunched back... there was talk in our table and it wasn't strained... I mostly listened and if asked I answered...

We made other stops in Colorado, and we heard more bad news when we reached the state capital of Colorado.

If you said, "Denver" then you're CORRECT again!

We picked up more passengers at Denver (we arrived and it was dark already). They told us that one of the bridge that span across the Mississippi river is damaged.

Con-
Communication between crew and passengers wasn't that great. Sometimes the crew doesn't have all the information and sometimes they withhold information (which irks the passengers)... in the middle of the trip, the intercom started malfunctioning (word of mouth has to be employed)...

Pro-
certain crew members especially those in the dining service started being more personable- making the situation better by having high spirits, telling jokes, and just being troopers...

Sleeping-
was not easy especially in the coach section, the good thing was that the train wasn't full, each person can occupy two seats, lay diagonally in fetal position (advantage of being short)... sometimes the motion of the train can rock one to sleep or wake one up....If one is not careful, one can strain one's neck depending on sleeping position... I eventually fell asleep and if I was lucky, I slept in intervals of 4 hours...

I woke up one morning and I was in Lincoln, Nebraska - a soft golden orange sunrise... we stopped at a station and locals were setting up for a craft fair (Con- Amtrak encouraging smoking by saying "next stop, you'll have time to smoke"- the first thing that they usually say) and more bad news was received in this city in Nebraska, which is the main setting in the novel "Alas, Babylon" written by Pat Frank.

If you said, "Omaha" then you're on a ROLL!

The damaged bridge is confirmed. Passengers heading to southern Iowa had to transfer into a bus, and the rest would go on to Chicago using the northern route of Iowa. Prospect didn't look good. We were way behind (no chances of making the connection). Passengers were pissed and a decision had to be made.

Because the northern route shared the track with freight trains, we had to stop often to let the freight trains go first. Boiling points were reached when we stopped in the middle of nowhere Iowa, surrounded by empty fields and an occassional farm house here and there (because of the culminating inconveniences, the dining service decided to give passengers free beef-stew dinner [a funny dinner, I sat with three other people, one was a 29 years old guy, very taciturn, another guy from Michigan, and an older guy, who seem to ramble. the Michigan guy asked the Rambler where he was going, and the Rambler told him New Jersey and then he continueed with his mini-biography])...

Later that night, the decision was made... they called us by our connecting train number. They told us that we would be staying overnight in CHICAGO and that they'll give us a voucher for a hotel and some cash for the cab and food. SWEET! This decision was clarified as we crossed the famous U.S. river which has 4 "i"s and 4 "S".

If you said "Mississippi" river, you're dead wrong. JUST KIDDING!

After the assistant conductor explained to me the situation, I continued to hang around the area and chat with other excited passengers... after all the inconvenience we were rewarded a free overnight stay in Chicago (maybe at the expense of a butchered schedule)... William aka Mr. Information Guy was the calmest out of all of us. He'd been in Chicago, and he'd experience similar events. I asked him questions about Chicago... I wanted to make the most of my brief stay in Chicago (my rescheduled train would leave at 7 p.m. the following day)...

We arrived at the Union Station Chicago at 2 a.m. and I got a voucher to stay at the Swissotel, at East Wacker Drive (this hotel was the bomb!). The first thing I did when I got my room was take a hot bath and shower and then slept on the bestest bed on the planet (it was soft and firm at the same time), all those hours sleeping on the train, this was a humongous difference. The next day, I woke a bit earlier than the alarm because of housekeeping. I still had a restful night. Check out was at noon and I had six hours to roam around Chicago.

The great thing was that I didn't roam Chicago by myself. I met a friend in the the train and coincidentally she's also a photographer, her name is Audrey Michelle. We walked up and down Michigan Avenue taking pictures (she brought her camera pack and I brought my digital). There were a lot of tulips and windmill-esque outdoor art. We searched for a Chicago hotdog (we had a hard time locating it in the Northern end of Michigan Avenue but later on in the southern side near the Sears tower, we found several), I drank starbucks, we saw a lot of toy dogs (pets), I bought Rushdie's "Shalimar the Clown" at borders with my gift card to read in the train on the way home, we stopped by Millenium Park (took more pictures), we were planning to go inside the Chicago Art Institute, but we ran out of time... the art museum closed at 5, it was already 4 in the afternoon. An hour wasn't enough to look at art so we went straight ahead to Sears Tower (funny story- we were pressed for time so the first souvenir shop we saw, we did a spending splurge)...

It was an awesome day until our cab driver had the effrontery to ask for a tip even though he was rude, and when the train station told us that our new train will not be able to go all the way to Washington D.C.; we had to stop and transfer to a bus...

We were exhausted from walking so falling asleep on the train wasn't difficult.

When I woke up, outside, we were under a bypass of some sort. It looked vaguely familiar.

This city is the home of the baseball team, the Pirates, and this city is the biggest city near the famous university in Greensburg called, Seton Hill University (SHU).

You're a genius! How did you know that the answer is "Pittsburgh"?

The Amtrak people told us that we would be switching to bus in Pittsburgh. When I awoke, I doubted the familiar sight because the conductor didn't say anything. The train was just sitting there and I thought that they would have announced our arrival. I started thinking about SHU. I was hoping that the bus might pass by SHU but it stayed in the main highway. We were on our way to D.C. (in the bus, there was a baby crying) and when we reached the D.C. area, the driver gave a mini tour. He pointed out Camp David, the Washington Monument, White House, and others. He dropped us off in Union Station D.C. I waved good bye to Audrey Michelle, got my green luggage, and went straight to the waiting area for my train to Philadelphia (while waiting, I read "Shalimar" and drank a starbucks).

I left the snowing Logan, UT on May 1st, and I arrived in Sunny (70 degrees) Philadelphia, PA on May 5th (an extra day was added, and it was okay with me because I was on vacation). It took more than 52 hours to go across the nation (from UT to PA anyway). The landscape changed from the Mountains into farmlands into urban dwellings with tall skyscrapers. In the middle of the journey, when delays and other obstacles seemed to pop up, I just kept thinking about Rick Sebak's words about unexpected invitations as dancing lessons from God. There was a skeptic part of me which kept taunting me with "I told you so", "You should have taken the plane", and "Are you happy with your adventure." There was also the grateful part of me who could boast "YES I did it!". I travelled through Southern Utah, passed the Rockies of Colorado, saw the farm lands of Nebreska and Iowa; I roamed around Chicago (saw many art and climbed the Sears Tower), and revisited some favorite cities such as Pittsburgh and D.C. (even if very briefly). In the end I have a better appreciation for my own home and city, Philadelphia, and I met many types of people, interacted with them and heard their stories.

Posted by Michael Diezmos at May 6, 2008 12:21 AM