Our Travel Blog
You know the greeting you get when you pick up your dog that had to spend a few days at the vet. Tail wagging! Peeing a little! Wiggling all over! Where have you been? I knew you wouldn’t leave me, but you were gone soooo long!
We are reunited with our little companion, the Wee Rover!!!!!!!
Tidbit: It is the same greeting we get every time we visit our good friend Sheba next door (she’s a dog, just in case you thought we had a human friend who peed everytime we saw them😁
We had experienced Union Station in Chicago from afar, who hasn’t seen the movie The Untouchables, but we weren’t prepared for its absolute grandeur when standing in the middle of the Great Hall. It took our breath away. I couldn’t take enough pictures to capture all the ornate details. The newly restored glass ceiling and limestone architecture made us feel like we had stepped back into the golden era of train travel. I fully expected a silver screen movie star to come sweeping down the stairs followed by porters and trolleys full of luggage, and a half dozen well groomed dogs, of course, didn’t they all have them back then?
Originally opened in 1925 after 10 years of construction, Amtrak has been slowly remodeling and restoring the station into a modern hub of transportation while keeping the authentic historic feel. I think they are doing a great job! Kudos! Boo to Penn Station in NYC who tore down their historic building and made a modern mess.
Tidbit: During WWII the glass ceiling of the Great Hall was blacked out so the station wouldn’t be a target.
When I was a child I spent hours in the car traveling to see grandparents. I would stare out the window watching the unknown worlds go by. Riding the train reminds me of those days. Hour after hour I stare out the train window watching houses, factories, schools, and cars go by. We’ve passed hundreds, thousands, maybe millions of people. Where are they all going? What are they doing? Dreaming? Wanting? Hoping for? Do we have something in common? Would they listen to my story or want to tell their own? If we met on the street, would we become friends? Foes? Or just pass on by? Since the train keeps moving, I guess we’ll never know.
Tidbit: While I may never know if I would find common ground with those outside the train, I do know that I met people inside the train, whether sharing a meal or a two minute conversation, that enriched and expanded my own narrow vision of the world outside.
We are now officially on instagram!!!!!!
Taaaa daaahhhhh!! Drum roll please.
mackenziesontheroad can officially be followed, liked, commented and whatever else you can do on Instagram.
Please bear with us as we wade through this new venture…we are old’ish and this is a whole new world. If you have any suggestions as we go, please let us know. We are going to need them!
See you there!
Another, legitimate?, form of artwork along the train route are the murals painted on the sides of buildings. These appear to be mostly commissioned pieces of artwork. Here are a few we were able to get pictures of.
Tidbit: A mural/billboard from a bygone era advertising Coca Cola
An unexpected treat while riding the train west was all of the graffiti seen on the rail cars, abandoned buildings, retainer walls and any other available flattish space. Fun, colorful, and amazingly artistic, they are eye catching. But, do the locals, building owners and railways view it as art or vandalism?
Below are a few we were lucky enough to catch (if a bit blurry), we missed most as the speed of the train only gave us a second to grab the shot. We apologize if any of the graffiti is offensive, we enjoy it for the artwork, not for the message it is sending.
We found it to be an an amazing art form.
Tidbit: If you look closely at the pictures above, notice how the artists go around important information on the rail cars like rail names and identifying numbers. Is this out of respect for the railway or preservation of their artwork so it is less likely to be removed?
Pennsylvania Station in New York City sees 650,000 people pass through it, and is home to one of the largest homeless populations, every day. A far cry from where we started where 6 total boarded for the trip to NYC.
Walking about, waiting for the train a Pink Floyd song came to mind.
“On the turning away
From the pale and downtrodden
And the words they say
Which we won’t understand”
“Don’t accept that what’s happening
Is just a case of others’ suffering
Or you’ll find that you’re joining in
The turning away”
So we passed out a few breakfasts to those taking shelter in the station amongst the Prada and Gucci passing by. Big cities are not our thing.
Tidbit: There was a Tim Horton’s in Penn Station! Those who have been following the blog know how much we love our Timmy’s.
An overnight train layover in New York City necessitated the finding of a hotel walking distance from Penn Station. A quick google map search showed several hotels in the area, the Fairfield Inn had great reviews…….perfect! We opened their website, put in our dates expecting a few very expensive options. Instead we got a ‘Sorry, there are no rooms available, please try different dates’. Assuming I had typed something wrong, I tried again…same result (turns out the Westminster Dog Show was in town). Hmmm…this isn’t going to be as easy as I thought. Another quick search showed several hotels nearby with questionable ratings, damn what are we going to do…we have very high standards as you all know😂. What’s this, wait…The New Yorker. Close to Penn Station, decent reviews and, glory be, availability at a reasonable NYC rate. Hallelujah we are saved! Okay, enough drama.
The New Yorker Hotel is one of the grand dames of NYC. She was built in the Art Deco Era much like the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building. Opening in 1930 and costing 22 million dollars to construct, she boasted 2,500 rooms, a ballroom, private dining rooms, a radio in every room with the choice of 4 stations and the snappiest looking bellboys in all of NYC. Over the years, she has hosted such notables as Spencer Tracy, Joan Crawford, Fidal Castro and the Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey Bands. Her most notable guest was Nikola Tesla who spent the last 10 years of his life on the 33rd floor, spending the majority of his time feeding pigeons. He passed away in 1943.
After years of glory she fell onto hard times passing from owner to owner until she was sadly shuttered in 1972. Three years later the Unification Church of the United States bought and began restoring the old hotel, investing millions. On her 75th Anniversary, the iconic sign was relit after being dim for 38 years. It was to that beacon we trudged last night in the pouring rain seeking shelter and warmth just like the notables of old, perhaps with a bit more emphasis on comfort food and hot showers and less on the glitz and glamor from the Glory Days gone by.
Tidbit: We were so soggy and vagabond looking, with our backpacks and disposable Xfinity bag, that the doorman didn’t want to let us in. We had to convince him that we were actually guests at the hotel🤣
(With apologies to Fantasy Island)
We currently await the train to NYC from an anywhere station USA. The station is small, warm, and nice, and has the melancholy feeling of lost youth. If only the walls could talk, the tales this station could tell from the Golden Era of train travel. The era when the rich and famous would arrive and head off to some resort or another, and the hobos would be camping further down the rail.
Now it is just M and D here with our wee backpacks! Back on the road/rails and heading west! Going to strike it rich? Going to find fame and fortune? The big question is…are we the lost youth, the rich and famous, or the hobos?
Well its been a long couple of months and we are ready to get back on the road. We have decided to make the trip back to Oregon a mini vacation by taking the train. We will be linking various Amtrak routes back to the Wee Rover in Oregon.
We are currently working our way up the coast north to New York City where Amtrak turns west. It’s off season at the beach and pretty much everything is closed.
