What Happens Downtown ... - 4/13 - 4/25 - Solo, Semi-Live

Stumbled across this TR and it really has been a wild one. What a great read!

I really want to take a long-distance train trip in the future, so please keep this going and include pics of the train, dining car, observation decks, etc. Thanks, and hope the rest of the journey is safe and fun!

 

Dinner at Ad Hoc. As good as I remember from a decade ago - although I wish it was fried chicken night.



Bread


Salad


Roasted chicken


Mushrooms


Crab gnocchi


Polenta


Apricot mule


Cheese course


Dessert

 

Tasting #6 - Round Pond

 

Tasting #6 (and final) - Hamel Family



Cheese custard, mushroom jus. Paired with a Cabernet blend.


Candies carrots with a 2017 valley floor cab.

Lamb loin w/ mint and green garlic sauce. Paired with 2017 high altitude cab.


Ribeye with chorizo paired with a 2012 valley floor Cabernet.

 

Hopmonk Tavern Ale

 

I’m loving all the Napa pictures. Beautiful!

 

Just catching up on your report. Enjoyable following you through Vegas and now the Napa Valley portion has really put it over the top. Thank you for taking us along.

 

Goodby Napa. Hello Amtrak. The Martinez Station is quite nice and in a little downtown area. About 30 minutes from where we were staying in Napa. If I didn’t have all my bags, I’d wander the town for a bit because I am an hour early.



I’m on the 9:54 Zephyr to Chicago.

 

They will hold your bags for you. We did it when we went on our trip and the Amtrak check in person had no problem with it at all. We tipped her when we came back and she was really surprised.

 

Thanks for the heads up. Good to know for next time.

 

Home for the next ~50 hours.

 

Route Guide for the Zephyr service to Chicago

http://emountain.tur.ar/amtrak/0imagen/amtrack-zephyr.pdf

I’ve been reliably informed that Martinez, CA is the birthplace of the martini. I’ll have to go back to verify at some point. Mmmm. Martini.

 

Lounge car is nice - and not too crowded yet, but I’m sure it will be packed tomorrow as we go through the Rockies.



Plans for the trip include watching the world go by, napping, consuming my contraband wine, and reading. So much reading. I downloaded Middlemarch. My favorite thing about the Kindle is being able to carry an entire library with you. Between my kindle and some audiobooks I downloaded I have enough media to fill a couple weeks on the train.

 

Smooth sailing so far. Docents from the California Railroad Museum joined the train in Sacramento and are travelling with us to Reno. They have a commentary going in the lounge car pointing out items of interest. The views through the Sierras were stunning. Just pulled out of Truckee (Lake Tahoe) - one hour to Reno.

Historic mission-style train station in Davis,CA.


Tiny town of Colfax, CA looks cute.


Some of the scenery through the Sierras.


The lake shore where the Donner party got stuck for the winter.


Truckee (Lake Tahoe) - both Lake Tahoe and Reno are on my gambling to visit list - I’m sure I’ll be back.

 

I have enjoyed your whole trip, just outstanding!

 

First opportunity to step off the train and stretch in Reno, NV. Which is the least photogenic train station in the history of transportation.



The Nugget - I’m sure I’ll end up losing money here at some point.


Still some great scenery - it’s almost constantly a great view out of at least one side of the windows.


And ... I’ve broken into the contraband wine.

 

Stretch break at Winnemacca. Which is really fun to say. Sadly there wasn’t time to run across the street and see if the dive bar was closed or just deserted.




I was hoping to show you a picture of a mediocre $25 steak. Unfortunately all dinner reservations were full when they got to me -so I was on the wait list and told they wouldn’t be able to seat me until after 8 PM at the earliest. When 8:30 came and there hadn’t been any announcements I went down to follow up. The car was almost empty and they claim they called us (others in my car were on the waiting list as well) multiple times and now they were closed. Definitely weren’t any announcements in our car so either PA is down, they never actually called, or the gremlins did it.

Instead, please see my picture of a slightly (but only very slightly) better than mediocre $7.50 turkey flatbread thing. Luckily the lounge car is open until 11 PM. It had turkey (lots), it had cheese (a little), it had one (teeny tiny) strip of bacon, it had flatbread (way too much). I removed half of the flatbread and added mayo. And now I’m full. So it got the job done.

 

We found that the vegetarian options were much more flavorful than the other items on the menu. I really disliked the steak, found it to be very bland. If I take Amtrak again it won't be because of the food!

 

Just got caught up, thanks for taking us along, it’s been a wild ride.

PS, if you like the root beer and vodka, try Captain Morgan and Ginger Ale with a lime wedge. Enjoy!

 

Thanks for the link to the train route info. Having driven a lot of that, it was very interesting!

GG