Epic Journey East coast and back

Old Apr 19th, 2017, 04:33 PM
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Epic Journey East coast and back

The trip starts from home in central Oregon. We drive about 6 hours to Winnemucca Nevada.
I have a geocaching friend who will let us park free in a fenced lot in WNN.
We board the Amtrak California Zephyr a little after 7PM. We have a roomette from WNN to Chicago.
We have 4-5 hours in Chicago before we get on the Lake Shore Limited in Business Class seats.
The train arrives in Erie a little after 7AM. I have found a good restaurant not far from the Enterprise car rental so we can have a good breakfast before the car rental opens at 9AM Sat 5/20.
We will attend a geocaching Mega Event in Alegany State park in western NY near Salamanca .
Spend the night in Olean. On Sunday we go to church in Perry where a pastor friend of mine is now living and preaching. From there we go to see friends and family east of Rochester.
Tuesday we head east (probably NYS Thruway) to Albany and then into southern VT to find a geocache.
Next we go through southern NH to find another geocache and then into Southern Maine.
Wednesday we find geocaches in coastal Maine including an EarthCache near a lighthouse.
We then go west of Boston and find a couple of geocaches in Massachusetts. From there we find caches in Rhode Island (Providence). We finish the day in Groton CT. There are a couple of caches near the sub base. Staying in eastern CT Wednesday night and western CT Thursday night.
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Old Apr 19th, 2017, 05:56 PM
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I have currently found geocaches in 43 states in the past 11 years. With the 6 NE states that will bring the total to 49.
Early Friday morning 5/26 we leave Danbury CT on I-84 crossing New York State into PA at Port Jervis. I-84 to the Scranton area to pick up US 6 all the way to Wellsboro.
On Saturday I am attending a banquet at the Wellsboro Area Senior High School. This is my 50th HS reunion (class of '67)
On Sunday morning DW and I will take my fathers ashes to scatter on the farm where I grew up.
From there we go south through Williamsport to Lewisburg.
On Memorial Day we will attend at least 1 observance and see some of our friends from the central PA area.
On Tuesday we stop at my old office near Laurelton for a visit with my PA Bureau of Forestry friends.
We have to have the car back to Enterprise in Erie before midnight Tuesday.
We get on the Lake Shore Limited westbound sometime between 2 and 3 AM Wednesday (Business Class) to Chicago.
The westbound California Zephyr leaves Chicago at 2PM. We have coach seats until we get to Omaha about 11PM CT.
We transfer to a Roomette from Omaha to Glenwood Springs Colorado. We have coach seats from Glenwood Springs back to Winnemucca. Breakfast in Winnemucca before we pick up the car to head for home Friday June 2.
I'll stop at the USFS Ranger station in Silver Lake to see my boss. I'll be heading back to work at Hager Mt. lookout on June 12.
Any questions or concern for my sanity?
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Old Apr 19th, 2017, 06:39 PM
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I am totally looking forward to your trip report, Tomfuller! I didn't realize your grand adventure was next month
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Old Apr 19th, 2017, 07:33 PM
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Sounds like a trip! I hadn't thought about transferring between seats and roomette like that... I take it they are separat tickets?
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Old Apr 20th, 2017, 01:04 AM
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sounds like a great trip. We were on a group hike thru a Portsmouth wildlife area when someone in the group realized a geocache was very close. It was fun having her explain about it. May is beautiful in New England.
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Old Apr 20th, 2017, 08:39 AM
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The roomette from Winnemucca to Chicago is on an Amtrak Guest Rewards reservation (DW's points).
The Business class seats I paid cash for on another reservation.
The Business class seats are in the cafe car away from the traffic of the coach cars. The seats seem to be well padded recliners with 2+1 seating.
The return reservation is 1 reservation number from Erie to Omaha for cash. From Omaha to Winnemucca is a single reservation even though part is on AGR points and the final coach leg is for cash.
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Old Apr 20th, 2017, 08:43 AM
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I'm excited for you! You have more energy than me and I was born after you graduated HS. Safe travels sir!
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Old Apr 20th, 2017, 11:06 AM
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I'm guessing you are familiar with this site:


https://www.geocaching.com/local/def...spx?state_id=7

If not, hope you can use it.
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Old May 1st, 2017, 03:36 PM
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Counting down the days until the epic journey begins.To any of you geocachers out there, be sure to get a geocache tomorrow (5/2) for the "big blue switch" icon. It is the anniversary of the date when the "selective availability" was turned off (5/2/2000). The first geocache was hidden by Dave Ulmer on May 3, 2000.
There are now more than 3 million active geocaches in the world.
I am sticking with Enterprise in Erie even though it only gets me 50 AGR points per day and is slightly more per day.
Budget had a deal with 250 AGR points per day and about $5 less per day but I could not return the car when I wanted to (11 PM). The Erie Amtrak station opens at midnight and remains open until the westbound LSL leaves about 2AM.
The good thing about the station is that it is about 3 blocks from a 24 hour McDonalds.
The sad news for this trip is that I will be seeing my first cousin John who has double hit lymphoma and is not expected to live the rest of the year.
I will post to this thread at least once more before we head for Winnemucca on May 17.
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Old May 2nd, 2017, 07:44 AM
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In SE CT, if you want to add a few other tourist sites besides your geocache, visit Ft Trumbull in New London and / or Ft Griswold in Groton. Both are worth visiting. I am guessing that the geocache site near the sub base is probably on the USS Nautilus which would also be worth a visit.

Have fun on your trip!
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Old May 17th, 2017, 06:20 AM
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We're heading for Winnemucca in a couple hours. Wish us luck.
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Old May 17th, 2017, 06:54 AM
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Good luck and have fun!
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Old May 20th, 2017, 01:15 PM
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The past 3 days have been interesting. The train arrived 16 minutes early in Wimmemucca. It waited until the 7:08 departure time. By the time we got to Denver we were about 2:40 late. Thursday 5/18 east of Kremerling CO we saw cows in knee deep snow.
We arrived in Chicago about 3.5 hours late. Amtrak held 2 trains out of Chicago until the Zephyr arrived.
We had time for a good meal in Chicago before our 9:30PM departure on the Lake Shore Limited.
We did not sleep well on the LSL. Even with a late arrival in Erie we had to wait for the Enterprise to open at 9.
There were several hundred geocachers at the event we attended in Allegany SP NY. We are now in a motel in Olean NY. Tomorrow we see old friends near Rochester. Will add more on Monday.
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Old May 23rd, 2017, 07:14 AM
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tom, that May 18 Colorado snow storm was one for the books. As of this morning, May 23, there are still a few clumps not yet melted in shady areas of our neighborhood. This was an upslope storm where the high plains and Front Range mountains were hit hard, but not the western mountains.

Have a great rest of your trip!
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Old May 24th, 2017, 03:18 PM
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We are still alive and together. I had a nasty fall on rocks MRcoming back down from the oldest geocache in New York State.
After seeing my first cousin John who is not expected to live the rest of the year, we went to see some other friends.
Tuesday was a long day going across NYS mostly on US 20 to get on NY7 and VT9 to Bennington for a VT geocache.
We continued through VT into NH for another geocache.
We finished the day in York Maine.
We gathered the info for an Earth Cache near the Nubble lighthouse and then found a regular cache in Kittery ME.
We went and found a nice cache in MA before driving south to Providence RI. I found a nice ammocan cache just south of Brown University.
We are now in New London CT and will find several caches near the submarine base.
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Old May 24th, 2017, 03:30 PM
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Enjoy New London. I live across the bridge in Groton and work in NL.
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Old May 25th, 2017, 02:33 AM
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I hope the weather here in CT doesn't have you down today. Visit the Submarine museum for a little inside time.

If you are heading west again, stop at the steam train place in Essex. It probably won't be running mid week, but they might be on the weekend.
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Old May 26th, 2017, 07:43 PM
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We went to Norm's Diner for breakfast and then to Stonington to see the lighthouse museum,
We spent a couple hours at the sub museum including the self guided tour through the Nautilus.
We will spread my father's ashes on the farm tomorrow morning.
Tomorrow night is the alumni banquet in Wellsboro PA.
This morning (Friday) I found a geocache in western CT.
In the past 11.5 years of geocaching, I have found over 1800 caches in 49 states and the District of Columbia.
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Old Jun 3rd, 2017, 07:23 PM
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About 25% of my class of '67 showed up for the alumni banquet. We also had an after the banquet party which had wine, beer, margaritas and some snacks. We hung out there for about an hour.
On Sunday morning I met with my brother and he gave me my mothers ashes. After going to church, we went back to the farm and scattered mom's ashes in the spot where I had scattered dad's ashes.
We then went to Lewisburg and ate at the tavern where our DIL once worked.
I went and found a couple of geocaches on Memorial day.
On Tuesday we stopped at the Bureau of Forestry District Office where I once worked. There are a few of my old friends still working there. There was a thunderstorm coming so we left for Erie before it hit.
We did get hit by another thunderstorm on I-80 that had pea size hail.
Since we had a lot of time in Erie before we had to turn in the rental car, we headed for Presque Isle SP. We saw the 2 lighthouses and the Oliver Hazard Perry monument.
We had a leisurely meal at Eat'N'Park and then hung out in the 24 hour mcD's near the train station.
The Erie train station doesn't open until midnight. I dropped off DW with the luggage at midnight and had a taxi that had just dropped someone off follow me back to Enterprise. He brought me back to the Amtrak station. By the time the train arrived at 2:30AM, there were over 35 people waiting including 10 Amish.
We were about an hour late into Chicago but we had time for a good lunch at 5 Guys Burgers.
The California Zephyr left Chicago right on time at 2PM. We rode in coach as far as Omaha (11PM). We went back and had a roomette as far as Glenwood Springs Colorado.
Here is the Amtrak horror story you've all been waiting for:
We made it all the way across Nebraska. about 9 miles into Colorado, the California Zephyr made a sudden stop about 5AM.
The driver of an open top feed truck fell asleep at the wheel and dumped his entire load on the tracks. It took several hours to get the truck upright and get the load off the tracks. The tracks had to be inspected before we could proceed at 2mph to Otis CO. We got a replacement Engineer and Conductor at Otis since the ones that brought us from Lincoln NE had timed out. At this point we were about 5.5 hours behind schedule. The good thing about it was that I got a shower and shaved while the train was stationary.
Because of the delay, we had breakfast, lunch and dinner on Amtrak before we switched back to coach seating (lower level) from Glenwood Springs overnight to Winnemucca NV.
By the time we pulled into WNN, we were 7.0 hours behind schedule. Some of the extra delay was freight train traffic since the CZ was not in its regular slot.
We did manage to get back home before dark after a long drive across the Outback. We do recommend the Homestead restaurant in Paisley Oregon. We ate there on the way to Winnemucca and on the way back.
I do hope that the tuck driver was not too badly hurt.
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