Seattle Vacation: Gold Coast & Home (Part 4)

Okay, I've decided to make the end of this already long story somewhat shorter. My departure from Seattle was uneventful. The ride on Amtrak's Coast Starlight was fantastic -- excellent service and amenities, befitting the rail carrier's premier service route. I had a really nice (and cute!) seatmate named Patrick on the trip from Seattle to San Francisco. Patrick got off at Frisco and my seatmate for the remainder of the trip to L.A. was a dour, middle-aged guy who sat listening to his portable radio the entire trip.

There was one small problem. Two more days sitting and sleeping in a train seat undid all the good to my back a couple of nights in the hotel bed had accomplished. By the time I got to L.A., my back was wrecked all over again. Throughout this leg of the journey, I had been thinking about flying back home and saving myself the pain of three more days on a train.

When we got to L.A., I made some calls, booked a red eye from L.A. to Chicago (I couldn't get to Cleveland that night and even if I did, my Explorer was still at the Cleveland train station) and cancelled my train reservation from Los Angeles to Chicago, keeping the trip from Chicago to Cleveland booked. (And I got a voucher for a future Amtrak trip, which I didn't expect from the cancellation.) All this finagling was much assisted by my friend Chris, who lives in L.A. and met me at the train station for lunch. Alas, lunch was not to be as Chris whisked (as much as one can whisk in the City of Angels) me off to the airport. I owe ya one, bubby!

The flight was uneventful. Because my reservation was last-minute, I ended up in a center seat. After a week of roomy Amtrak seats, the 737 seat felt like a jail cell. I flew into Midway, took Metra downtown to Union Station and just barely made it onto my train.

The trip from Chicago to Cleveland aboard the Capitol Limited was nightmarish. Just like the previous trip aboard the Lakeshore Limited, the crew was nasty and short-tempered. On this trip, I got to listen to annoying announcements from the purveyor of the snack car every ten minues. My favorite: "Attention Ladies and Gentlemen. Ladies and Gentlemen, your attention, please. I still have 5 of these beautiful Amtrak souvenir blankets for sale. Now, I don't want any of you coming to me later and saying the air conditioning is too cold. You have a chance to purchase one of the warm blankets right now, so no complaining later. Thank you."

There were two dinner seatings and, as on other trains, seating way by reservation. The steward came to you to and gave you a little ticket with the time of your seating. There were two seatings, with limited seats. If both seating filled up before he got to you, you didn't get dinner. The seatings were at 7:30 and 9:00. There were only a few seats left in the 9:00 seating when the steward finally made it to me. I took one, then later thought better of it and bought a sandwich and some pretzels from the annoying announcement guy. Good thing I did -- the 7:30 seating didn't clear out on schedule and the 9:00 seating wasn't made until 10:00. At night. For dinner. 11:00 Cleveland time. Nonsense.

I finally got to Cleveland around 2AM, sore, bleary and ready to be home. After retrieving my luggage, I hopped in the Explorer and made the one hour drive home from downtown Cleveland. I slept until almost noon the next day (Sunday) in my own bed (well, sofa) and my back was practiclly brand new! I picked Jake up at the kennel and still had one full day off work to get back my equilibirum.

All-in-all, a pretty terrific vacation, back problems and surly Amtrak attendants not withstanding. I'll do the train again -- I'd still like to try the Southwest Chief -- but in a sleeper car where I can get horizontal. Maybe by the time I'm ready to do that, I'll have someone special to get horizontal with...