Chapter 239

I was on Spring Break last week so I decided to go to Albany to see JoAnn, Jenna, Payton and Carter. Since "everyone" says the train is the way to go and I've never been on our Amtrak, I happily made my reservations to Albany.  To coordinate with Bob's work schedule, I needed to take the hybrid train/bus route meaning I transferred to a bus in Portland.

To keep Bob from having to take any time off, we planned to drop me at the station about 6:45 and I would wait for my 8:15 train in the safety of the station.  We roll up to the station only to find that it doesn't open until 7:15. Since it's a rough neighborhood, Bob went all macho on me and decided I needed to stay in the car until the station opened. ..So we wait.

Finally, my chariot arriveth at Ninth platform and my first train-bus adventure beginnith.

I'd pictured myself riding on a big powerful train and arriving in Albany in style, but actually I felt like I'd ended up riding on this little train with the hope of ever reaching Albany merely a dream

We hadn't even gotten started and we already had to wait for a freight train to go through the single-lane tunnel under the Tacoma zoo. So we wait.

After passing through the tunnel, we pulled over for a freight train to get by. Ten minutes into the trip, the conductor informed us we will be late to the Portland station since we will be clashing with freight trains the entire trip. Freight trains make the money sooo...but not to worry...bus to Albany is guaranteed...So we wait.

Somewhere in here I saw this cute little neighborhood around a log mill pond. There are several of these little mill pond communities in the old logging areas. Astoria has a much larger, very cute one.

Sorry folks...the track construction crew has to clear the area so we don't run any of them over so both passenger and the freight trains can get through their area but they will hold the bus for you...So we wait.

Freshly cleaned bathrooms leave our car smelling like a rolling Sani-Can but JoAnn suggested this was better than another passenger's tuna sandwich. Meanwhile the conductor announces Amtrak can't hold the bus to Albany. They can't wait. It leaves without us. We may have to wait for transportation.

More construction on the track. More track workers to account for...So we wait.  It's announced that they are not sure about transportation to Albany and are looking into it. With no other options,  passengers in our car laugh and joke each time another delay is announced. ..and we wait.

Now we hit a "dark signal" (which is a fancy term for burned out light bulb in the train signal) so we have to wait long enough for any "unaccounted for traffic" to clear this portion of the track. Don't they know where their trains are??? Once time has elapsed, we need permission to move on...So we wait.

Announcement is made that we will probably be sent from Portland to Albany by taxi. JoAnn and I have the same horrifying vision: How many of us will they cram into a stinky Prius, and will the guy with the tuna sandwich be in there with us?

Ok, so we are sure there are no trains on our section of track but to be safe, we creep to the next signal 5 miles away slower than the guy fixing the light bulb is walking. I guess if we hit another train, it will be in slow motion. So we wait.

Good news. Taxi rides all around.

Four miles from Portland. ..Yay! We are going to make it! Then we find our train has to pull over for the northbound train to pass us...So we wait.

Then we told that the switch that directs us to Portland is broken and we have to wait while they send someone out in a truck to flip the switch manually. Everyone in our car agreed that none of us would mind hopping off to do that if they had asked. But they didn't...So we wait.

We finally roll into Portland! I look for non-existent signs or personnel to guide me to my taxi. I find it waiting for us with one passenger inside. We sit for 10 minutes, load the other 4 people, close the door and we're off. Wrong. The guy that's been sitting in the back of the taxi for the last 10 minutes announces he has to go to the bathroom and can't wait...So we wait.

Reason #1 why I thought I might die in this taxi:  The taxi driver thought the freeway was a high-speed obstacle course and I thought he was going to kill us all with his stunt driving. I actually ended up with a bruise from the seat belt fastener pressing into my hip at every lane change. I swear, if I arrive in Albany dead, JoAnn's  gonna be really unhappy with me.

 Traffic. Now we sit in traffic.

Reason #2 why I thought I might die in this taxi:  The guy behind me farts loudly, stinkily and constantly.

Reason #3 why I thought I might die in this taxi:  Mr. Stop the Taxi sits alone in the back seat laughing and talking to himself. If we go missing, the cops need to start their questioning with him.

Reason #4 why I thought I might die in this taxi:   I could hit by a car while I walk on the freeway shoulder trying to get away from the taxi.

I was reasonably sure I would not make it all the way to Albany in this taxi and would be downgraded to yet another form of transportation to finish the trip.

After 6 hours of the above activities I finally arrive in Albany and was greeted by someone that was happy to see me even though I wasn't purchasing a service from her.  JoAnn met me at the platform and we set out to paint the town of Albany red.  And I didn't have to wait. :-)

We started at the Carousel Museum where JoAnn volunteers her time. She gave me a wonderful tour of the different workshops. When she first started at the museum she was given a block of wood and knives and expected her to carve a flower. She soon informed them that she's awesome volunteer material but not awesome carver material as outlined in her own blog a few weeks ago.

The hand carved carousel critters here are absolutely wonderful. Check out the detail in this llama. It looks like he is ready to spit in your face like a real one!

And Neal. Someone loved their real Neal enough to have him carved into a carousel animal. Having your beloved pet carved into a carousel animal is way more palatable to me than the current trend of having your little guy stuffed and laid in his favorite spot in the living room. JoAnn, wouldn't that carousel look great with Kirby and Kimmi look-alikes on it? Raising Neal to carousel status also probably had something to do with the size of the donation Neal's family gave the museum.

Here's a partially carved poodle. You can see the finished drawing on the wall behind it. There is a long way to go.

We checked out a couple of children's resale shops in Albany and I caved to peer pressure and bought a few things. No sense wasting the expert grandmother coaching, and JoAnn demonstrated by picking up a few things as well, we we added to Chris and Carissa's already overflowing baby clothes. Since JoAnn bought a lot of what Jenna had passed down to Carissa, she coached me on what was and wasn't in the cousin-me-down bags so I felt safe buying the things I did.

You want to put those on my pretty kitty feet? I think not! 

The next day dawned sunny and beautiful so JoAnn taxi'd me, without incident, to Newport for some shopping,  ocean air and sea lion barking. While we were there, we found a squished penny machine and she squished her first penny ever. Get your penny box ready, Carissa.

No, this is not a sea lion Jonestown. These sea lions have actually engineered a dock takeover and hang out here all the time now barking and stinking and bringing all kinds of tourist dollars to town.

One of the sea lions was playing in the water and kept turning himself into a sea lion donut and would stay like that for quite a while. People would ooh and aah. He knew he was attracting attention!

There was all sorts of sea life to look at in Newport. Here an octopus tries to eat a scuba diver while the sea lions look on in amusement.

Another penny machine! I'm so glad Carissa collects squished pennies to keep the old ladies entertained!

After Newport, JoAnn took us up to Lincoln City to the outlet mall. It was fun for me since I haven't had a day out shopping like that in months and fun for her as well since JoAnn doesn't have big stores in her Shopping Zone in Albany. Of course had to check out all the baby stores too!

On our way home the sun was shining on the beautiful Oregon coast and the views were stunning.

While JoAnn was showing me around Albany, I asked her what industry had started the town and what all the old buildings used to be, especially those beautiful buildings on the road to her house.  She didn't really know so we headed off to the Albany Historical Museum to check it out.

While I was looking at the school display, I see a yearbook with a 1971 -1972 picture that required a double-take.  See any resemblance to anyone in our family?

While touring the museum, we learned that the old building near JoAnn was the original Albany College established in 1867. It covered 4 blocks (7 acres) and was designated "College Square".  In 1937 the college was moved to Portland and became Lewis and Clark College. The road behind this building is roughly where the road to JoAnn's house is. Anyone that's been to JoAnn's has had to pass the back of this building.

The building currently belongs to the Department of Energy and the whole place is a fenced off fortress so I couldn't get a decent picture of the front of the building and it hardly looks like the same building, but the front definitely looks the same, I just didn't want to get caught taking photos of a Federal facility through a razor-wired fence...but the trip home would be shorter. Here's the back of the building.

After the museum, JoAnn and I walked to lunch, all the while craning our necks and looking at the old downtown buildings through new eyes. A tractor was  driving through town just like they used to in Auburn.

Friday, JoAnn put me on the train with hopes that I would have a smoother northbound trip than southbound. Let's suffice to say that I was 15 minutes leaving Albany so that pretty much tells you how the rest of the trip went.

Since we were heading straight out to the cabin, Bob picked me up at the Olympia station rather than wait for me to get all the way to Tacoma then head south again. I'm glad he did! I was a half hour late  and didn't arrive in Olympia until after my original scheduled arrival time at Tacoma.  This time Amtrak had a whole new batch of reasons to be late...all of them different than the southbound trip. This time the passengers did not have the sense of humor the south bounders had.  I did take a  beautiful picture of Mount Hood (elev. 11,249 ft)  while we sat on the bridge over the Columbia River (Oregon-Washington border) you guessed it...waiting.

Fortunately I was not meeting a deadline anywhere so the train "issue" was just part of entertainment on my maiden Amtrak trip. Since I really don't like to drive, all-in-all I guess it "might" be a better experience than driving. I got a lot of other things done since I wasn't driving. We'll see how fast the scars heal from this trip...So we wait.