UMTravels

Disturbing news when I checked my news feed today. A slide in Southern Oregon took out the baggage car of the Coast Starlight last night… that would be the same exact train I’m supposed to board this afternoon. 1-800-USARAIL. Booked on the 6:15pm Cascade train, in coach. No business seats available.

Brunch with the boys and their father at Gravy. I was good and didn’t get the Rueben, but went for the two eggs and sausage, the rest of the gang had planned to split two omelets and an single order of the biscuits and gravy. Waiter misheard and only one omelet came. Just as well, with the size of their portions, two would have killed them.

After brunch we went to the restoration store where I spotted this mini-toilet — apparently out of a kindergarten, the seat was only a foot off the ground:

Wish I could have moved it next to a full size one, but you can kinda see the height in the one next to it. Why do I want one. And at $90, not cheap. And how useful since I don’t have children, and don’t really want to add another 4″ drain to my house.

Afternoon spent hanging around the house shooting the shit until I left for the train station. I was hoping to have enough time to go to the ticket counter, pick up the new ticket, then go next door for some high class grub. What happened was:

• Got there later than I wanted
• Exchanged ticket to find out that the Coast Starlight DID run today, and on-time (I really wanted the steak in the dining car for dinner)
• And that there wasn’t enough time to get anything other than a dog and a salad at the gift shop

Here is that is weird. There were no business class seats, but they seated me in a car that was laid out like business class (seat size) that was in the other half of the café car. No bistro coupon, but still comfortable. Another advantage: wifi. And $84 in a refund to my VISA card and an override so that I got the same $29 fare.

Train was running late. I heard over a conductors radio that there had been a truck accident several hours earlier that they referred to as a “Darwin” winner. That made me and several other passengers chuckle. Click here if you don’t know what I’m talking about.

Home by 10:15. Just enough time before bed to deal with snail mail, email, and today’s paper.

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