Coastal Cruise

There is something strangely romantic about the open road; vast horizons that go on forever, blurs in the distance that slowly take shape as you get closer. That kinship with travel has been captured in dozens of classics like ‘Bound for Glory,’ ‘On the Road’ and many more tales from the road.

I wrote about my last road trip in ‘The Great Escape, April 21st, 2020. It was a three day, two thousand mile exercise in exhaustion, mind-numbing scenery mixed in with a sense of adventure on the open road. Fortunately, we had a land cruiser that made the miles go by easier but it was still not of my liking.

Train travel turns out to be another experience all together and one I find more to my liking. While the pandemic has curtailed my rail travels for now, I still have some very fond memories of past travels on those silver rails.

Closer to home, California has done a great job of laying track up and down the West Coast. One can travel from San Diego to their northern borders with Oregon with few layovers and reconnections. Riding in business class instead of steerage can make for a generally relaxing and interesting way to travel.

Along its southern border with Mexico and as far north as the community of Oceanside, they have a commuter rail line called the Coaster. It’s a nice quick trip between those ocean communities and San Diego.

Conversely, Minnesota is limited in its transportation options. We have a good bus system and the light rail is fast (OK, semi-fast) and efficient way to get around (parts of) town. But it’s not like California’s Amtrak service up and down the coast or the localized Coaster service. It’s a different way to travel and I love it.

There was an interesting article in the New York Times back a couple of years ago that spoke directly to me. It was entitled: “Why the West Coast is suddenly beating the East Coast on Transportation” by Ms. Camille Fink.

“It is an incredibly exciting time to be in urban transportation,” the New York transportation commissioner, Polly Trottenberg, told a breakfast gathering of powerful New Yorkers, pointing to California’s progress. *

The Los Angeles area, the ultimate car-centric region with its sprawling freeways, approved a sweeping $120 billion plan to build new train routes and upgrade its buses. Seattle has won accolades for its transit system, where 93 percent of riders report being happy with service – a feat that seems unimaginable in New York, where subway riders regularly simmer with rage on stalled trains.

“It’s a tale of two systems,” said Robert Puentes, the president of the Eno Center for Transportation, a nonpartisan research center in Washington. “These new ones are growing and haven’t started to experience the pains of rehabilitation.” *

While I’m hardly an urban kind of guy and big cities are more my nemesis than a friend, I did find the article scored a direct bullseye on my interest level in transportation. It’s not just my love of the bicycles or walkabouts that garnered that attention. Rail travel has always been on my short list of imaginative ways to get about.

Sharon and I have done the Amtrak commuter run from D.C. to New York several times.

The views along the way are always a wonderful snapshot of east coast living at its most normal.

It’s a great way to visit the ‘Big Apple’ and leave the driving to someone else.    

We’ve ridden the rails from San Diego to Santa Barbara and hopped the Coaster for a day trip to San Diego.

The San Diego Coaster is part of a much larger Amtrak network of rails that weave their way up and down the West Coast.

The Coaster’s normal run goes from Oceanside, just south of Camp Pendleton, down to San Diego. The ride from Oceanside to San Diego costs a little over six dollars round trip and takes about an hour. One glance at traffic on highway 5 morning or evening and its benefits can’t be denied.

The run up the coast from San Diego to Santa Barbara does the same reveal on the opposite side of the country. The Coaster is an amalgamation of the two with commuters, long distance rail riders, suburban Moms on a quick jaunt into town and a wide assortment of humanity in-between. I was just there to look, listen and sneak a picture or two.

Los Angeles plans to build 100 new miles of rail – essentially doubling the Metro system, whose first rail line opened in 1990. There are now six lines and 93 stations. “I made sure we included funding for long-term maintenance,” said Dow Constantine, the executive of King County, which is home to Seattle, “so you don’t get the situation we’re seeing in New York and Washington where the systems have been neglected and it’s expensive and inconvenient to rebuild.” *

There’s even talk of a rail line extending from downtown Los Angeles to the Coachella Valley sometime in the future. Having spent some time on highway 10 going into L.A., I can only hope it will come sooner rather than later. Until then, Sharon and I want to try more train travels up and down the California coast perhaps as far as Vancouver, Canada. It’s always a fun way to check out the sights along the way and let someone else do the driving.

Works for me.

**Excerpts taken from the New York Times article “Why the West Coast is suddenly beating the East Coast on Transportation” by Ms. Camille Fink, January lst, 2019.

It's All Theater

Hotel Kitano

 It’s 5:00 in the morning and I’m sequestered in a local Starbucks on Park Avenue half a block from my hotel in New York City. While most of the world is still sleep, I’m on assignment constructing my next play ‘The Last Sentinel.’ Aside from better tailoring, there is little to differentiate this bleary-eyed crowd meandering in from the same caffeinated patrons back in Palm Springs. If you focus on their eyes, they all have a story to tell. Some can be translated quite easily and others only guessed at  - but the stories are there none-the-less.

Philly Bridge

Yesterday afternoon we rolled up two hundred and twelve miles of Amtrak coach from Annapolis to Penn Station. It’s another whirlwind capture of three Broadway plays in three days plus other assorted ‘have to see’ ventures before we slip back out of town again.

Amtrak

Amtrak always provides a fascinating glimpse into another slice of Americana in its coaches, on the station platforms and through the backside of each city we pass by. East coast rail travel has a long tradition among these folks. For this Midwesterner and born-again Californian, it’s a comfortable cocoon from which to watch another tribe in all its colorful attire and rituals pass by.

Perusing a ‘New York Times’ pilfered from the hotel front desk, I see that the director of the FBI has just been fired. I read column after column and can only conclude that the D.C. theater season is in full swing. Patriots and pontificators alike all shout and push for their place on the printed page.

It would seem the news nowadays, true or otherwise; has been rarified, objectified, idolized, and criticized. No one can see that most of it should all be mummified. On page after page, the circus continues with empty headlines, fake news and accusations meant only to bait more reaction from readers and writers alike.

I think it all began to change back in the Seventies when the national television networks moved their news bureaus over to the Entertainment division. Their budgets were slashed and expenses put under a microscope. Cost-cutting became the norm.

Ever since then rating seem to dominate the news cycle and serious journalism has taken a backseat to anything else that garners ratings even if it is in lieu of meaningful information. Tough questions have taken a backseat to puffery and grandstanding on both the host and guest’s part.

At this stage of the game, only reality-adverse diehards still believe the character actors pretending to be our representatives on the hill. It seems so many of those clowns are reading from scripts that leave out common sense, social decorum and a concern for the common woman and man. I will give those politicians credit though. I watched incredibly talented actors on three different Broadway stages and I think many of the players in Washington could give those professionals a run for their money.

Avenue Q Playbill

Avenue Q Poster

Case in point, we saw a delightful play the first evening. It was a funny, sometimes crass, very insightful performance of Avenue Q. ‘Avenue Q’ was a musical about self-discovery with a rousing cast of irreverent, comical characters, puppets included.

New York Traffic

We rode an average of four cabs a day and I usually ended up riding shotgun in those little yellow bullets. Trying to communicate with the cabbies, many of whom spoke little to poor English, usually came down to hand gestures or pointing to an ad or brochure as our next destination. Their driving skills were beyond reproach and ability to face off with other vehicles a constant challenge. The problem for me was sitting in front with only a dashboard and tin fender between my knees and all the other bumper cars. Most of the time I felt like a kamikaze co-pilot without a helmet.

Come From Away

‘Come From Away’ was an amazing musical which drew its inspiration from a tragic event in U.S. history. In the aftermath of 9/11, 38 planes with 6,579 passengers were stranded in Gander, Newfoundland when U.S. airspace was unexpectedly closed to all air traffic. The play focuses on how the locals opened their hearts and homes, hosting this international community of strangers.

Joel and I

We had dinner with one of the lead actors before the play and then met him backstage afterwards to mingle with the entire cast.

Old elevated railroad - New York

The High Line, also known as the High Line Park, is an almost two-mile park built on an elevated section of a disused New York Central Railroad spur called the West Side Line.

Inspired by the Promenade Plantee in Paris, the High Line has been redesigned and planted as an aerial greenway and rails-to-trails park. The park runs from the Lower West Side of Manhattan through the Meatpacking District, through Chelsea, to the northern edge of the West Side yards. Real estate development has gone crazy on both sides of the elevated park which gets over five million visitors annually.

Beautiful Playbill

Our last play was’ Beautiful.’  ‘Beautiful’ (The Carole King Musical) is the true story of Carole King’s remarkable rise to stardom, from being part of a hit songwriting team with her husband, to her relationship with fellow writers and singers, to becoming one of the most successful solo acts in popular music history.

Riding back to Annapolis in the fading light of day brought back sharp memories of my midnight bus ride from Saint Paul to Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, and two years of military service. I tried to capture those same emotions and feelings in my book ‘Love in the A Shau.’

Annapolis MD Harbor

Annapolis harbor provided a welcome respite from the harried, hurried days in New York. The whole east coast exploration was a cornucopia of conflicting sights and sounds, emotions and attitudes and mayhem amid direction. It was an escape into a different way of life and only served to reinforce my comfort level back home. An interesting glimpse into professional theater and a storytelling standard I’d like to strive for. Here’s hoping.