It’s not the years…
So, I mentioned that I should be heading east in October. Taking a ride along the route of Amtrak’s California Zephyr to Chicago for a start. When it comes to this, I have only traveled between Reno/Sparks and Denver twice. And beyond to Chicago, never.
It is a fair number of miles crossed in the three days between the San Francisco Bay and the Windy City. 2438 of them to be precise. With some of the best scenery that Amtrak has to offer along the way.
In the fall of 1980, I celebrated my first anniversary of employment with AAA. The first of what would become 26. And back then, it entitled me to a whole week of vacation. Careful planning would allow just the right amount of time to enjoy most of those seven days on the rails.
Departing on a Thursday, I rode Amtrak’s San Francisco Zephyr with brand new Superliner equipment from Martinez to Ogden. Friday morning saw a limousine (a.k.a. a van) ride to Salt Lake City and onward to Denver aboard the Rio Grande Zephyr – the last non-Amtrak intercity passenger train operating in the country. At that time, Amtrak followed the route of the Union Pacific over the Great Divide crossing through Wyoming and down into Denver.
Saturday was an excursion organized by the Rocky Mountain Railroad Club aboard a chartered train from Denver to Sterling and back – pulled by the Union Pacific’s last operational steam locomotive. I had a coach seat in the last car in the train, which happened to be in aboard the only dome car in the consist. A fun day, to say the least! (The UP operated the lounge car and the dining car for the trip. And they managed to run out of beer before the train got to Sterling. So, a few of us chipped in and bought a case of Coors for the ride home. I traded a cold one for a roll of Kodachrome slide film, which I then used for extra photos on the remaining photo run-by’s along the Platte River.) The day ended with a beer in the newly restored cocktail lounge at the Denver station and dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory in a former Denver Tramway power house.
Sunday I had plans to head off to Golden and visit the Colorado Railroad Museum. A miscue on my part put me on the wrong bus. (This was in the pre-Internet days, so I can be forgiven.) I did manage to salvage the day by visiting the Forney Transportation Museum instead. Really enjoyed visiting with the HO scale model railroad folks there
Monday was another chance to ride the Rio Grande Zephyr. Truly magnificent ride up the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. Also picked up several Rio Grande hats at the station at Grand Junction – as well as a California Zephyr tablecloth purchased from one of the coach attendants. And who could forget a meal in the Silver Banquet, the dining car on the RGZ?
Tuesday, it was back aboard the San Francisco Zephyr for the ride across the Great Salt Lake and back across Nevada to home at Martinez. While riding aboard new Superliners was nice, I had enjoyed quite the renaissance those days before on the Rio Grande and the Union Pacific. Wednesday was a chance to catch up and be ready for work the next day.
So… what does this year’s trip hold in store? Frankly, a much quieter, less hectic pace. At least to start. If all goes as planned, a Saturday in October will see a mid-morning departure from Emeryville, headed east. Seven days later we’ll roll to our first destination and the fun will really start.
But that’s another story!
No Movie Tie-In Here
With the success of Carsland at California Adventure, plenty of folks are speculating what the next move is for Disneyland.
Sure, there is plenty of space ready for something new. Or a look about other areas of the Park can lead to screams of “replace” this and “bring back” that. Making the final call on what will come to pass will be one tough decision.
The history of Disneyland is littered with ideas that never became reality. Everything thing from Liberty Square to Westcot and then some. A whole bunch of great ideas that never got to the construction point. Do I hear a reference to Discovery Bay or the Western Rivers Expedition?
Right now, the next generation of kick butt theme park experiences in Southern California will probably have a wizard flavor to them. Meaning Harry Potter and company with their expanded presence at Universal Hollywood. All from the books, er… the movies, with plenty of ready made fans waiting to experience it all for themselves.
Knowing Disney and the folks at Imagineering, I have to doubt if they will surrender this battle and simply roll over, giving Universal it’s moment of glory. It is very unlike them to do so. No, there has to be something that keeps the guests coming back. Keeps them renewing Annual Passes at the high dollar rates.
But what will be the inspiration for this? Likely, it will have ties to something else. Something the public will have to part with their disposable income for. Probably a movie tie in. Safe to say, something that Disney owns. But right now? What could that be? Other than the Avengers and the Marvel world, there is not a whole lot that really sets that pace. And don’t forget, Disney can’t step into that world quite as fast as it wants to. Because who owns the rights to use those characters in a theme park setting? Universal.
Some of Disneyland’s best and most love attractions did not begin as movies. Take for example, Pirates of the Caribbean. It dates back while Walt was still alive and keeping his park going. Sure, it has since spawned 4 films and given Johnny Depp millions – with a 5th film lurking out there. Or the Haunted Mansion? Again, goes back to when Walt was alive. Generated one mildly forgettable comedy with another film in the works. Jungle Cruise? Same story.
And the image today? Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room. No movie behind the story presented here. No talking bird film inspired this attraction. Yet, still a guest favorite.
Movie tie-in’s are not a bad thing, as the Indiana Jones and Star Tours attractions prove. Same goes for all the Pixar spin-offs now in the Park, and around the world at other Disney parks.
One could write a dissertation on the in’s and out’s of what works and what does not work when it comes to attractions. Why some find favor with guests and other don’t. For my money (spent on AP’s over the years), Disney succeeds most when the guest becomes part of the experience. When your perspective becomes that of a character, you are invested in the experience.
Be it flying over London with Peter Pan or racing through the hills of Radiator Springs, being the focus of the events going on around you makes a connection on a level that works. Sure, it is easier if you have somewhere to start that connection from. Tying into a movie world is a great start. But it does not have to always begin there.
Somewhere, someone waits to share that next great idea that will become the next “must do” guest experience. A part of me wants to be blown away. Taken someplace new and exciting, off on an adventure that I haven’t seen or done before and in a way that I can’t experience any where but Disneyland.
One can only hope that it comes to pass.
Cool…
As the temperatures climb near the century mark, today’s image takes you back to another time of year. A time decidedly on the cooler side.
Crossing Donner Summit in winter, one gets snow at some point. Even if it is just on the ground, the product of recent storms. But more often than not, the white powder (or heavier Sierra cement) manages to fall from the sky at some point.
I have lost count of the number of times I have made this trip. Not as many times as some folks I know, but it gets to the point where I can look out the window at any moment and know where we are.
Yet some of the most refreshing times have been stepping from a hot kitchen onto the open platform as the cooling snow flies through the air with the passing of the train. Bracing? You bet, but feels great after working in the heat.
So, buck up! Winter and snow fall? Not all that far away…
20 games of note
So, this weekend, the Oakland Athletic’s baseball team pay tribute to the team that did the unthinkable a short ten years ago. A 20-game winning streak. Complete with a walk off home run by first baseman Scott Hatteberg, in the bottom of the ninth inning against the Kansas City Royals on September 4th, 2002.
Thanks to a very generous friend, I had the good fortune to attend the home games of the Streak. It was one exciting time. That 20th game found me in one of the A’s luxury box suites. It was some downright exciting baseball that night. Having a lead of 11 runs and having blown that lead was one thing. Being tied 11 all in the bottom of the 9th was downright painful. (Sorry, Giants fans. That’s real torture.)
So, when the opportunity came to relive that moment during the filming of “Moneyball”, I and my wife spent one night at the Coliseum. Managed to sit in a whole bunch of places around the stadium, including the Diamond level seats as well as the right field bleachers where the final home run ball landed. If you see the film, we managed to show up on screen, just to the left of Jonah Hill during the 20th game sequence. If you blink, you’ll miss us. But there we are.
And this coming Saturday night, we’re off to the Coliseum again, as the team pays homage to the players and coaches who made history 10 years ago. Some of those players are still playing the game, though none for the A’s. Different directions have taken them in other ways on other teams.
The moment captured for the film is exciting. Meant to be. Drama highlighted on screen. Scott Hatteberg the unlikely hero.
Not as I remember it, but a nice attempt, captured in time. At least the bobblehead being handed out Saturday includes the late Bill King calling the moment as it happened.
Now that’s timeless.
A ride into the past
If all goes well, sometime in October, I hope to be heading east. By train, of course.
That’s not unusual. Several times a year, I find myself making the occasional day trip out of the Bay Area. Los Angeles or Reno as the destination. Good rides with good folks.
No, this trip has a different destination. One which you will probably read about here as it unfolds. But part of the way, I’ve ridden once before. And there lies today’s tale.
My great-grandfather (Christopher Cameron Walker) started his employment career riding on various ranches out in the Pine Valley. He went to work as a locomotive fireman for the Southern Pacific at Wadsworth, Nevada on December 1st, 1900 (and never rode a horse after that). His job took him east, along the original route of the Central Pacific. The railroad was pretty much as it had been since it was constructed in the late 1860’s as part of the Transcontinental route. Ties in the alkali dirt across the Silver State.
Nevada was a pretty rugged place in those days. Towns were not what one would call developed by any means. The pleasures of running water, electricity and indoor flush toilets were limited to the bigger cities. Roads were dirt and at best a chancy proposition. If you traveled, it was by train or by horse (and wagon).
Over my own years, I have been out to visit some of the places that Chris Walker worked and lived in. In some, the only difference between now and then is the passage of time. In others, where once was a community along the railroad, it takes a good eye to find remnants. In only a few, progress has brought prosperity and growth. Yet in all of them, it only takes a bit to leave civilization behind and find yourself out in the open with nothing but the sagebrush for as far as the eye can see.
Nevada east of Reno is hardly flat. And contrary to popular belief, it is not all desert either. In some years, I have seen so much green along the way, you would think you were a lot closer to the equator than you are. And in others, dry doesn’t being to describe it. Water has a habit of being found where and when it wants to. Ask the people who live out here and they will share all about it. Be it the snows of winter or the rains of summer. Water is life and death, too.
In later years with the railroad, Chris was number one in seniority out on the Salt Lake Division. His usual trip was aboard the City of San Francisco one way between Sparks and Carlin and the reverse aboard another passenger train. I have several train register books from a station in the middle of those two right after World War II.
When he retired, his last trip east to Carlin was on the Streamliner (powered by a diesel locomotive). West, he brought the “Gold Coast” to Sparks, aboard a steam locomotive. It was 51 years with the railroad without a day sick or without an accident to his credit.
In the fall of 1980, I rode the train east of Sparks for the first time. Making that trip, I was making a connection to Chris and all of the times he rode the same rails between there and Carlin. It was pretty thrilling then, and I’m looking forward to it again later this year. Crossing the Silver State by train as passengers have for more than 143 years isn’t as dull as one might expect.