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Amtrak Adventure on the Empire Builder

Written by wudman on February 20, 2012

Riding the The Empire Builder East

A Journal of a Train Journey From Seattle To Chicago
1/23/2012 - By John Wood

4:45PM Seattle, WA Waiting to launch…
Edited to include the first 40 or so minutes in 1:30.
Time-lapse launch of the eastbound Empire Builder. Sound is of the actual train, recorded separately.

5:30PM Edmonds, WA

Where the Washington leg of Amtrak's Empire Builder starts.

One thing I have found out is that you can’t judge a train trip by the train station. There are a few exceptions like Chicago’s Union Station, but Seattle’s King Station is a work in progress. That is one of the jumping off point if you want to experience the entire length of Amtrak’s eastbound Empire Builder. The train also starts in Portland and both trains are merged in Spokane, Washington. Some thirty odd years ago I heard about the Empire Builder, but a ride on that train had escaped me until recently. The King Street Station is being renovated, the damage done to it over the years is scheduled to be repaired, giving Seattle an appropriate jump off point for one of the countries remaining great train adventures.

I shouldn’t be on this train, but being the impulsive kind of guy I am, a flight from Sacramento to St. Louis was cancelled and re-booked to Seattle so I could ride the rails. For some odd reason, while booking the ride online, impulse struck again and I upgraded to a sleeper room called a “roomette”. That seemed like a reasonable expenditure for a train adventure of this caliber. Some might think it crazy to cancel one perfectly good, direct at 40,000, feet airline ticket for three times the expenditure on a train ride 40 hours longer! I suggest riding like “crazy”.

Categories: Travel, Trippin' - Tags: Amtrak, Chicago, Empire Builder, Glacier National Park, Montana, My Lens, North Dakota, Photography, Seattle, train, Wisconsin

My Lens – Guy A. West Bridge | Sacramento, CA

Written by wudman on February 5, 2012

Replica of the Golden Gate Bridge near California State University Sacramento

Geometry above a bridge that has cool geometry below.

Crossing the American River from CSUS to the other side of the American River is this cool pedestrian bride. It is called the Guy A. West Bridge and it was built to be a replica of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge. Scroll back a few posts to see what the underside of this bridge looks like. I can’t tell which is a more interesting.

Categories: My Lens - Tags: Bridges, California, CSUS, My Lens, Photography, Sacramento, wudman

My Kitchen – Wudz’ Wickedly Tasty Wings

Written by wudman on February 1, 2012

Midnight At the Spicy Chicken Wings by Wudman Oasis

From the kitchen in the wudz.

Hot but so tasty you can’t just eat one and when your finished, you look for other things to dip into the leftover hot wings sauce. Try anything, really, anything. This is the last wing of an impromptu batch of first day of February 2012 wings. Washed, rubbed with secret spice mix. Then rolled around in secret sauce that did include a touch of garlic, various hot sauces including Franks and Tabasco, and a top secret blend of spices. The result, heat you want to eat and it lingers nicely. Beware, let it age and it warms right up. Don’t take my picture’s word about how tasty they are. The title for these wings is now officially “Damn Good, Damn Good, Damn Good Chicken Wings” because that is exactly what he called them.

Categories: Wudman's Kitchen - Tags: chicken, food, kitchen, wings, wudman

My Lens – Adventure Road Trip

Written by wudman on February 1, 2012

Before the Train, One From everywhere

Three images, one from Vegas, Sacramento and Seattle.

Las Vegas: Forget the strip, the treasure you can bank on is in the desert. Odds are in your favor as well. Just watch out for rattle snakes and broken ankles. It appears I found two versions of this flower on the same mountain will taking a causal stroll up a rocky flank. Flower size is approximately 5/16 of an inch in diameter. This cluster is smaller than my fingernail, yet you can see if against the desert from six feet up! Read more »

Categories: My Lens - Tags: buildings, California, desert, flower, Las Vegas, man-made, My Lens, Nevada, road trip, scenery, Seattle, wudman

What I learned at 2012 CES…

Written by wudman on January 28, 2012

…that you already knew, but don’t yet care about understanding.

Be scared, really scared for the immediate future!
There is a revolution coming, but it a sense it is already here. Reach into your pocket and take a look at your phone. Pick up your Ipad, Android Pad, or Windows Pad, take a look at your “everywhere” computer. You hold it in your hand, you put it in your pocket, you turn it off and on, seemingly in control of the technology you opted into. So you think? You think you are the user and the device is the slave. I will suggest otherwise and that message was quietly the loudest one I heard while moving among the vendors at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas a few weeks ago.

For the most part, moving about the 2012 CES yielded nothing spectacular. After the first day I decided the show was more hype than substance. News on consumer electronics that matter can be found on any number of CE blogs. “4K” and “8K” televisions do nothing to do with reality since they are like those dream cars at the show, just for fun folks, the dreams of future technology. I saw some old demonstrators rehashed in new displays. For example Panasonic’s 150 inch Plasma, which I saw at the 2008 show, was no longer a stand-alone “ahh” moment. Instead it was built into a massive display of televisions that resulted in it looking unimpressively small. No thrills here folks, for the most part the technology was boring, repetitive and the irritation was compounded with high levels of noise. Read more »

Categories: Technology - Tags: censorship, content delivery, Freedom, Internet, PIPA, Privacy, SOPA

My Lens – Morning Winter Sky In Montana

Written by wudman on January 27, 2012

Photography From Amtrak’s Empire Builder

Eastbound in Montana near Glacier National Park
A few images, both color and black and white taken January 2012 while on the eastbound Empire Builder that runs from Seattle to Chicago. Amtrak’s Empire Builder passes through Glacier National Park as it traverses a rail route a stones through from Canada from Seattle to Grand Forks, ND. From Grand Forks, The Empire Builder cuts a pretty trail to Chicago by way of Minneapolis, La Crosse, Wisconsin Dells, Milwaukee and finally Chicago. The route is approximately 48 hours long.

Categories: Big Pictures, My Lens - Tags: Amtrak, Empire Builder, Glacier National Park, Montana