22Aug11: The Coast Starlight: Day 1 (Rail Day 6)

The fourth leg of our journey, and the first leg of our return trip home, was aboard Amtrak's Coast Starlight. This is an overnight train from Portland, Oregon to Emeryville, California. In Emeryville we were to have a 55 minute layover before leaving on the California Zephyr for Chicago, Illinois.  We missed Marc and Phyllis!

The Coast Starlight left Portland at about 2:50 in the afternoon, 15 minutes behind schedule. This train was an overnight train for us, so we had a roomette. The cars on the Coast Starlight were double-deck Superliners. Most of the compartments were on the upper deck, with a few on the lower deck with the shower and toilets. Our roomette was on the upper deck. This consisted of two seats facing each other which converted into a lower berth at night, and an upper berth which folded down from the ceiling. The beds are against the side of the car, instead of perpendicular to it as the ones on the Canadian were. The upper berth is not for the claustrophobic as there is less than 24 inches between the mattress and the ceiling so you cannot sit upright. You also cannot see out of any window.  Carol tried it and quickly asked me to switch with her!  The toilet and shower were both shared by the entire car. There is a curtain over the doorway to the roomette for some privacy and a sliding door that can be closed for more privacy, though we found it too hot to close it. We were pleasantly surprised to find that our meals were included in the ticket price. When we made our reservations it looked like meals were not included. The meals were OK, mostly pre-prepared and microwaved, but not up to the standards we were used to on VIA Rail.   We were disappointed to learn that the fresh fruit, yogurt, crackers and other  snacks that were always available on VIA Rail were not available on Amtrak.

During the afternoon and evening we traveled through southern Oregon with the Coastal Range to the west and the Cascades to the east, into the Klamath Mountains by nightfall. Still did not see any wildlife.