crossing the country by train
I spent a fair bit of time out West for work this fall. First up was a conference held in super-scenic Incline Village, Nevada, on Lake Tahoe.
My coworker Sam and I flew into Reno, where we got to visit one of our fave sales reps, Jonas, and his wife, Kate. And don’t forget Mabel and Penne!
[[Penne not pictured]]
I snuck in two early morning excursions: a run along the lake, and a dawn patrol hike with my pal Rebecca to Monkey Rock.
Complicating these adventures: 1) my sea-level self sucking wind at elevation 2) the Monkey Rock hike was on November 1, which is the day after Halloween, which I celebrated with a pretty legit Ziggy Stardust outfit, several cocktails, and a casino hot dog dinner.
i regret nothing!
A few weeks later it was time for Textile Exchange, my fave sustainability conference. I roll deep with the best environmental nerd crew there, and shenanigans inevitably occur. Last year the conference was in Dublin, so there little hope that TE Colorado Springs could compare. We tried our darnedest.
My repeat conference besties Carol, Zack, and new conference bestie (and fellow Olivia Rodrigo fan) Ravi stopped at Garden of the Gods en route from Denver to Colorado Springs. It was really cool!
The conference was held at The Broadmoor which I assured my coworker is NOT the usual conference hotel vibe.
bourgeois dunkies
The sessions were great, per usual. Also per usual, had one very late night line dancing at the Whiskey Baron Dance Hall. I corralled a group of 30+ to this absolutely immersive cultural event, and am very proud of it. Every time I go line dancing, I remember I need to do way more line dancing.
yes, all those people are line dancing!
With feet tired from bootin’ and scootin’, Carol, Zack, and I left the Broadmoor with plenty of time to grab bubble tea en route to DIA. It had snowed two inches overnight. This would have been fine if it hadn’t iced over, and if the stupid GPS hadn’t taken us down a hilly shortcut to bubble tea. The car started to slide… as did a bunch of other cars going both up and down the hill. We kept it cool and glided Carol’s brand new car to a safe stop in a driveway, but were officially stuck. Zack and I had planes to catch, so we abandoned Carol to wait for a tow, skittered down the slope with our baggage, and nabbed a very expensive Uber.
it doesn’t look steep but i promise it was
While the conference was a blast, somewhere between sessions with hundreds of attendees and line dancing with the entire teenage population of Colorado, Covid finally caught up with me. I had a pretty mild case, but my sense of smell was gone for several weeks.
a fond farewell to my 2 year no-covid streak
After I was out of quarantine and recovered, I headed out on my final trip of the year in December for the Green Science Policy Institute Outdoor Industry PFAS Day in Berkeley, CA. Along with it being a useful training, I was introduced to the awesome work of Arlene Blum, a pioneer in green chemistry and women’s mountaineering. Highly rec her books. Another lady hero I got to connect with for dinner was Spogs, who is San Francisco’s newest firefighter.
and Professional Pizza Pulverizer!
So, as you can see, did a lot of travel this fall… not great for a Sustainability Director. A mix of climate guilt, weird calendar dates, and my undying love of bad ideas led me to considering Amtrak for my trip back east to DC for a lobby event. I noodled on it for a few weeks (do I actually want to be on a train for three days?) but then realized the answer was “ya DUUUUH!” Which is how I found myself at the Emeryville, California rail station, boarding a 72 hour train.
There’s several long-distance routes run by Amtrak. To get from SF to DC, I would take the California Zephyr from Emeryville to Chicago, then the Capitol Limited from Chicago to DC. I decided to layover a night in Chicago to eat some deep dish and break up the journey.
There’s three fare classes on the long distance trains. Cheapest is coach, which is comparable to flight prices. Next up is a roomette, which is a private ~7x4foot space with two chairs that fold down into a bed. Three meals a day are included, along with a shared shower/airplane-style toilet. Most expensive is a room, which has more space, a double bed, and a private bathroom. I ponied up for the roomette.
We departed the Bay in the pouring rain. The train chugged westward, climbing the Sierra Nevadas to Truckee, where the rain turned to snow.
This was my absolute favorite part of the whole adventure. The snow was stunning, with huge trees towering over our little locomotive.
Lunch was our first meal of the day. They have menus for you to choose from; the food was somewhere between “airplane” and “dorm.” Even if the cuisine was a bit hohum, the company was not. They sit you with fellow train riders, and I loved meeting folks from all over the country. The standard conversation: “Where’d you get on?” “Where you getting off?” “Why’d you pick the train?” (Many, many people I chatted with have a flying phobia; there were also quite a few joyriders. One man declined to answer, so he must have been running from the law).
Darkness fell as we entered Nevada. The train stopped between Reno and Salt Lake City right before quiet hours. The conductor made an announcement that we were stuck behind a freighter, and didn’t have an estimate of when we’d be moving again. They were also not going to make another announcement until 8am. So, I got snuggled up in my tiny train pod, and fell asleep while we were still at a halt.
I woke up, moving, as the sun rose over the salt flats of Utah. This was super beautiful, but not something I was supposed to be seeing, as we should have passed SLC at 3am. The freighter situation had delayed us 6 hours!
Many gripes were griped, but this is pretty standard in train travel land. And what’s another 6 hours when you are already in for 72?? Hahahaha!!
We wound our way through the Wasatch, and found ourselves in Grand Junction at dusk. The canyons were beautiful with the setting sun.
An unfortunate side effect of our delay was arriving at Rocky Mountain National Park after dark. I could see a bit with the full moon, but turned in early for night two on the train. I slept well, and woke up in Nebraska. It was beautiful and empty… but a bit repetitive, so I caught up on some Netflix I’d downloaded on my tablet.
We were supposed to get into Chicago in the early afternoon, but didn’t get in until almost 9pm. I was very happy with my layover decision, enjoying some late-night Giordano’s at my very cute hotel.
The next morning, I met up with my buddy Nico for brunch at an Elf-themed bar. (Chicago really leans into the holidays- there was a whole block of these pop-up Christmas bars). Nico and I studied abroad together in New Zealand, and it was awesome catching up!
My next train wasn’t until 6, so I spent the afternoon booping around Chicago at Christmastime. I found a Holiday Market at Wrigley Field:
And an ice rink at Millennium Park:
This was only my second time to Chicago, and I hope to be back.
My final train leg was an overnight journey to DC, which at 18 hours… felt very quick. I made it with plenty of time for OIA dinner, and a productive couple of days on the Hill.
I’d definitely do more train adventures! There’s a long distance route that passes through Glacier National Park… hmmmmmmmm….
where [current name, traditional lands of]
incline village, nv//cayuse, umatilla, and walla walla
colorado springs, co//cheyenne, ute, and lipan apache
berkeley, ca//ohlone, miwak, muwekma, and confederated villages of lisjan
chicago, il//peoria, potawatomi, myaamia, kaskaskia, and kickapoo
washington, dc//piscataway, anacostan
when: december, and it was a real mixed bag. RIP to my fave puffy i left on a train platform
how: amtrak californa zephyr + capital limited
