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Trip Report: September 22 to October 19, 2003
by Ted & Sylvia Blishak
Fall Colors Coast to Coast - by Land and Sea
BOARDING AT HELPER, UTAH AFTER OUR UNSCHEDULED STOP
Sunday, October 19, 2003
TRAVEL TIP: When you plan your next Amtrak trip with us, be sure to ask about trip cancellation insurance, which covers expenses for trip interruption and cancellation, emergency medical transportation, and much more. Even if you're in robust health, the unexpected can happen. If we'd had a medical situation either shortly before our trip began or in its early stages, we'd have lost the accommodation portion of our Amtrak ticket for any bedroom space not cancelled within seven days. And we'd have lost 100% of the cost of the cruise. As it is, we'll be getting a large bill for ambulance and emergency room costs, and the travel insurance company will cover them.
The westbound California Zephyr is scheduled out of Helper at 7:26pm. I telephoned Amtrak at 5pm to learn it had left Glenwood Springs 1.5 hours late, but was expected into Helper at 7:51pm. This did not make sense to me as I could not understand how Amtrak could make up so much time. Sylvia asked me what kind of station facilities existed at Helper. According to information available to me on Worldspan, my reservation system, Helper is unmanned, and has no shelter, only a platform. Amtrak's web site contradicts this information, claiming a waiting room and restrooms. Perhaps nobody from Amtrak in Washington, DC, has been out here to check it out.
If Worldspan is accurate, when the Holiday Inn van dropped us off there, we would be waiting on an open platform, with perhaps no lighting, for a train that is delayed longer than expected -- not a desirable situation. I asked the Holiday Inn desk clerk what time their van would leave to get us to the Helper station for that estimated 7:51pm departure. His reply was that the Amtrak engineer had not advised him yet. The Amtrak engineer? Sure enough, there was an engineer staying at the Holiday Inn. He had come in on the eastbound CZ this morning, and was taking the westbound CZ to Salt Lake City. We could now relax. Lounging in our room, we received the call from the front desk at 8:15pm, and brought our luggage down to the lobby, where we met the engineer. We three were the only riders to the Helper station, 7 miles west of Price. The engineer explained that Helper is a Union Pacific division point, thus crews are changed here rather than at Price, which is a larger town.
Arriving at the Helper station, we found that, to our surprise, there was an unmanned waiting room with benches, restrooms, and illumination. The steam radiators were not running, as it was a warm night. We had less than 5 minutes to wait. The beauty of boarding with the Amtrak crew, is that they have accurate information about arrival times. The engineer explained that the Genesis locomotives are equipped with a Global Positioning System by Qualcom, which includes a two way data communication feature. So even if the crew is out of touch by radio and cell phone, they can still communicate by satellite. With this exact positioning information available to Amtrak, the crews can be advised as to exactly what time to appear at the crew change point. Why this same information is not provided to passengers is something that has not been explained.
No. 5 rolled into Helper about 8:45pm, with the 531 car stopping right beside our luggage. The conductor had been expecting us and was aware of our interrupted trip and lack of ticket from Helper to Winnemucca. He collected the voucher the conductor on yesterday's train had provided, helped the car attendant load our luggage into Room H and as we were off, the dining car steward announced that the dining car was now closed. Our attendant explained that we could still have dinner if we wished, but we had already had dinner at the Holiday Inn, so we set our watches back another hour and turned in for a good night's rest while our train carried us the last 500 miles from Helper to Winnemucca.
We received a knock on the door at 5:30am, as we had asked, and were told that breakfast would be served at 6:30am and arrival into Winnemucca was expected at 8am, two hours behind schedule. "So you'll have time to sleep in a little bit," our attendant suggested. Good news this was one of the times that being behind schedule was actually a bonus. Who would want to get off a train at 6am in a dark morning with temperatures close to freezing? We asked the conductor if he could call to have a taxi waiting for us at the station, then enjoyed another fine Amtrak breakfast as we rolled off the last miles of our four-week Amtrak and Crystal Cruise fall color expedition.
The taxi was waiting for us right at the door of the 531 car. He carried us and our luggage to Scott's Shady Court and charged us $3.00. As he had loaded and unloaded our luggage, I added a tip.
Even though our car was parked in a carport, there was a month of serious dirt on it. While Sylvia shopped for a picnic lunch at Raley's Market, I ran the Roadmaster through the $5.00 car wash, and we were on our way for the last 300 mile segment, the Winnemucca to the Sea Highway, Nevada 140 and Oregon 140. Ironically, we'd taken a fall color cruise to New England and Canada, hiked in the Appalachians, and now, on our last leg home, we encountered stands of electric gold aspens, glowing in indescribable beauty. Here at home in Southern Oregon were the most beautiful fall colors that we had seen on the entire trip.
So ends one of the best vacations we've ever experienced, and we hope you have followed along with us and enjoyed it too.
Please feel free to call us at 1 800 347 0645 if you have any comments or questions.
