For those who haven't been following the saga, it was discovered in mid-February that Train #27, the Portland section of Empire Builder the leaves Chicago on July 16th , had already sold out. We began discussing possible alternatives. Some were going to take the California Zephyr and Coast Starlight via Sacramento, a trip that would potentially add one or two days to their time away from home. Others, including myself, were seriously looking at ways to fly to Portland and home from Seattle. Because it appeared at one point that possibly only one of us would be on Train #27 (he having booked a roomette WELL in advance), a consensus was reached that we would just hold the meat of the PNW Fest, that is, between Sunday, July 18th starting in Portland and ending Friday night, July 23rd upon arrival back in Seattle from Vancouver. This would preserve all of our planned activities in Portland, Tacoma, Seattle, and Vancouver, including 3 one way trips on Amtrak Cascades trains in between the cities.
The idea of this is the same one that has applied all along: Anyone can join the group at any time or leave it at their discretion. In this case, it leaves open the options for one to take that Sacramento routing by train, fly directly to Portland, or Seattle, or do what Bill Magee mentioned in another thread in combining air travel to another city plus some rail travel into any of our host cities. Likewise, one could leave the group in Vancouver and fly home from there, or fly from Seattle on Saturday the 24th, the day after group activities have ended, or take a different route back by rail, such as the VIA Rail
During the time I thought I might end up flying and that we'd meet in Portland on Sunday 7/18, I began working on a new string of web pages in a different world, called OTOL Pacific Northwest RailFest 2010 LITE. The LITE simply indicates that it's a 6-day event from Sunday 7/18 through Friday 7/23. The PNW LITE itinerary is identical to that of the previously proposed PNW Fest, for the 6 days in question. The former does not include travels on the long distance Amtrak trains to get to and from the Pacific Northwestern cities.
Then about a week ago, some roomettes on the train in question became available. For obvious (and admittedly selfish) reasons I didn't announce it publicly here, so that none of our regulars would miss out on grabbing these rooms while that was possible. The Empire Builder is not cheap, and coupled with trips from the East Coast some are spending a good fortune on this. Some have also booked or will book soon their eastbound trips (which so far have not been a problem).
What I have decided to do is to maintain the LITE designation for the fest in the PNW region, and treat the westbound and eastbound Amtrak trips as separate events. Thus if one did go coast to coast in both directions, they would be partipating in not one, not two, but three events. The westbound and eastbound trips thus each have their own itinerary. Realizing that our travels east of Chicago will be over one of three different routes (Lake Shore Limited, Northeast Regional + Capitol Limited via Washington, or Pennsylvanian + Capitol Limited via Pittsburgh), all scenarios are shown.
Please note that if you have already made plans, the above in no way affects them. This is just a formal announcement of the Fest and a relaunch of all of our activities due to the hurdles we recently had to clear to make this work. If you put the westbound LD trip, the PNW 2010 Fest LITE, and the eastbound LD trip together, they will mesh into the previously published itinerary.
Please start to e-mail me whether you are participating, so that I can begin putting together a participant list. For the purpose of creating a contact listing, please also include via e-mail the trains you are taking (or other means such as flying), and your hotel choices.
The reworked homepage for this event includes some new features and links to just about anything you might need to plan your trip.
Edited by KevinKorell, 31 March 2011 - 09:03 PM.
