California's Classic Railroads

Archers Direct, September 2012

Day 1 2 3 4

We're off on another tour - this time we're going to look at trains in California! We weren't supposed to go until next year, but when the brochure arrived, they're not running it. There were only three tours left and two clashed with my trip to Florida so, on 3rd September 2012, off we set. We being me, TourGuideTed, and my assistants Di and Paul.

We're just doing the two states this tour - New Jersey as we stopover at Newark Airport, then California. Well, the clue's in the title!


DAY 1: Birmingham, UK to San Francisco, California

The taxi arrived at 6am (bleagh!) for an uneventful journey to the airport. Had a chat with the 'usual' guy at pre-check-in, then headed through security. In no time at all we were in the Servisair Lounge, a perk of my current United Mileage Plus gold status. The people there are always very nice and we had an hour or so to partake of their included snacks (Hula Hoops, KP crisps, cheesy biscuits, cake, nuts, pretzels and shortbread) and drinks. As it was just after 7am we skipped the spirits, even the wine and I had a Pepsi (though I'm a Coke bear, by preference - I can tell the difference!)



Then we were ready to board. We had extra legroom exit row seats, but we had someone in the third seat - seems United think that, as I don't pay, I shouldn't get my own seat! The guy sitting there did move freeing up the third, but then some other guy came up from somewhere in the back - he'd been sitting next to a baby so I can't blame him for moving up, but that was my seat! So...I had to squish in with the assistants, and you know how fat they are!

Had the usual rubbish food for lunch (at 10am UK time) with a hideous salad (didn't eat it - no one does, I don't think) and a very nasty apple, lemon and chocolate crumble cake! Must they? Why not give me a sandwich and a muffin. Much nicer. Di brought some Cadburys Dairy Milk with her for me - fortunately! Don't like aeroplane food. Well, not often.

I watched the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel on the video system. It was just okay, considering it had an impressive cast, but it was a little dull. I've seen worse (much!) Glad I didn't pay to see it though. What else? There's five hours to go and the in-seat power isn't working so my laptop won't last forever! Good job I've got another 68 movies to choose from...

Well, I started to watch Joss Whedon's The Avengers but it is boring to start with - maybe it gets better? I heard good things about it! Will maybe try it on the flight back. Instead Di put on The Vow, a bit of a chick-flick which she said was harmless so damned with feint praise methinks. I dunno cos I took a nap after seeing the trailer. There was one good thing on the flight, though, one of the Flight Attendant's spotted me and thought I should get some United Wings (see photo below) - pretty cool eh? They're only plastic, but I like 'em.

We arrived into Newark about on time and entered a fairly empty Immigration Hall. No problem there, but it was ages before our bags came out - this priority bags 'benefit' rarely seems to be any good. At least our bag arrived! Through customs and then we rode the monorail to our departure terminal. Sadly, this means we get to do security all over again, which means I get stuffed back into the carry on. Grrr.

Once through, we checked the gate then headed into the United Club. Free Wi-Fi, free wine and free cheese and biscuits. Who could ask for more? Well, I could, but hey, this is what you get. Oh, and I say free. You have to fly a lot of trips to get 'free' - used to be ten transatlantic crossings in a year, and last year I did fourteen! But now they've changed the rules (as part of the Continental to United takeover) and we have to have 50,000 miles (we're about 24,000 off this year) or 60 individual flights, which is impossible in the UK! So, I'm making the most of it - doesn't sound like we'll be Premier Gold next year. And we were 17th in line for an upgrade to first class and that was after it was already full. Some perk! Hey ho. You win some, you lose some.



It was during this stopover that I found out I'd received an honourable mention in a photographic contest I'd entered over in the twitterworld (run by @EllieandEdmond - explorers and conservationists). This is the photo of me, standing in front of the Hoover Dam turbines - it was a green photo competition! (Environmentally-friendly, not martian!)

    

The plane we would take to San Francisco was late getting in from Fort Lauderdale, but eventually we boarded and headed onto the taxiway. Where we waited. And waited. Then the pilot said Air Traffic Control could not clear anyone West, South or East I think it was, and that we'd be awhile. I checked on Google and it seemed to be weather-related. I guess I can't complain at that - don't want to be smashed to smithereens in a microburst, or blown out of the sky by some windsheer. [Note to self, stop watching Air Crash Investigation!]

The pilot came on the PA - he'd been offered two routes to San Francisco but, as they were "beyond the aircraft's capabilities" he'd turned them down! Phew! We continued to wait, then suddenly, success! He had a route, and we'd be off within fifteen minutes. Probably. And we were! It meant we'd be getting into San Francisco about an hour late. Hope the Archers Direct Rep is still waiting for us! If not, we'll just make our own way to the hotel, I guess. We know what we're doing.

No entertainment on this flight as it's $7.99 for DirectTV and we're all too cheap, so I decided to carry on reading my book on Di's Kindle. It's Normal for Norfolk by [Mitzi Szerato] with Teddy Tedaloo - he's a friend of mine over on Twitter (@teddytedaloo). I've been tweeting a lot lately, and have a whole gang of furry pals I hang out with (and one or two humans). It's loads of fun. I'm @tourguideted if you'd care to follow me.

It was a long boring flight - looking out at the Plains always amazes me cos they go on forever and ever and it seems to take ages and yet people crossed this route by wagon train. Now that would be a long journey. I know they had hazards to take their mind off the boredom - disease, food, weather, Indians - but even so. It is amazing that they made it across - well, those that did!



We finally arrived at San Francisco Airport (check out those planes over my head - they are in one of the lounges! Very cool!) We were about an hour late and headed for baggage claim where we met the Cosmos/Archers Rep. We waited ages again for our priority bags, but once they arrived, she called for our shuttle to the hotel. It wasn't too long before he arrived. On the way he tried to engage us with touristy things - "Over there is the Golden Gate Bridge" - yeah, seen it. "That over there is the AT&T Stadium where the Giants play baseball." We know - we've been there. Hehe, he shut up after that. He wasn't to know I was a tour guide! Plus, we were tired - we'd been travelling for 23 hours!

We were met at the hotel by Randy Schuster - our Tour Director (what's wrong with Tour Guide?) for this trip. He gave us some information and our room keys. We would meet in the lobby at 8.20am to head out for our tour of San Francisco.

We were staying at the Hotel Carlton on Sutter Street. The accommodation was fairly basic, with just the one bed - for THREE of us (Paul's gonna have to sleep in the bath!), a coffee machine with just the ONE packet of condiments, no hairdryer, a basic soap, and shower gel, shampoo and conditioner in a dispenser on the wall of the shower. They have a 32" flatscreen TV with some digital channels too. Sadly, the paintwork needs attention (walls marked), tiles in the bathroom were cracked and plaster bubbling on the ceiling. Oh, and there was no extractor fan in the bathroom (not many towels either)! So, with all that I dropped them a Ted. There was a ceiling fan overhead but I expect that was because they had no air conditioning. Fortunately, we didn't need any as it was pretty cool on our arrival.

I sat back on the bed to relax while the assistants went to get food (I couldn't be bothered to go with them). The location of this hotel is terrible - and lost them another Ted. There's not much around the hotel and there were several homeless folks around, and drunken people. My assistants didn't stay out long - they found a store with cheese and crackers so that was dinner (well, that and a teensy bottle of wine). It's not like we hadn't eaten during the day after all.

    

The hotel had free wi-fi and it connected straight away so that was good and it stayed online for the rest of the evening. I settled on the bed - great, Castle was on so I watched that and hung out with some pals on Twitter for a while until I went to bed.

Could have done without the 3am wake-up call from someone in England who didn't know we were away, but otherwise I had an uneventful night until I woke up again at 6am. The alarm was set for 7am so I just got up and went back on Twitter. What else is a bear to do?





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