We made a decision - we are good at decisions - to abandon the relatively balmy Bay area and go try our hands at Skiing - This was my first mistake, you use your feet apparently.North Lake Tahoe was selected as the destination due to the gentle beginner slopes at Northstar (yeah, right) and I splashed out on the newly opened Ritz Carlton, telling myself that we hadn't had a holiday this year. (Look, I have been working, all the other stuff in this blog is a fabrication - just quit your bitchin).
Amtrak was going to take us in a super sleeper roomette. I was, to be honest, expecting less having travelled extensively by train in the UK. To my surprise, although the bonkete was tired and shabby, it didn't smell like a french pissoir, the staff were not surly, the toilet flushed and did not contain a huge turd - things were starting well.
The train departed with a satisfying hoot - and we were treated with some excellent views. I particularly like trains - you can see the underbelly of a country from a train - houses with abandoned trucks in the yard - trash everywhere . You don't see all this shit (quite literally) from 36,000 feet in a Boeing. It was all really very good, but sooooo slow. The idea of high speed rail doesn't seem to really have caught on - but if the velocity was 19th century, so, by UK standards, was the price at $40 for a 5 hour trip.
Conductor Dave kept us well supplied with coffee - and threw us out on a deserted platform at Truckee - the quaintest little gem for miles around (there is NOTHING apart from bear crap for 50 miles so far as I can see)
But all in all - a good trip - we saw lots - relaxed and it was more civilised than driving - we saw towering mountains and deep gorges - and the underbelly, groin and nether regions - all at a stately, Victorian pace.
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