What a wonderful 12 days we just had !
Our plans were well documented on this board and on my web pages. We did everything we set out to do, and then some. There were a few bonuses as well. some which can't be mentioned here. We had 12 days of comeradie among an excellent group of people.
In the coming days, I will update my web pages to reflect our actual group of participants, which turned out to be larger than expected thanks to some people who joined us along the way. I will put the official homepage in the past tense and also work on actual times we visited each station along the itinerary.
I kept track of our progress on all of the light rail lines, cable cars, streetcars, and BART trains we rode. Thanks to Skip, Jishnu, Alan, and Steve for making note of our Amtrak progress across the country. When you guys get a chance please send me the times you have.
Piotr joined us for the first segment of our travels, going only as far west as Chicago. We thank him for the Amtrak train tracker he did and continued to send to some of us even during the time we were on board and in California.
Thank you to the ladies in our group: Grace, Lynn, and Marilyn, for putting up with us railfans and sticking with us for so long as we shined the rails throughout the San Francisco Bay area and Sacramento as well as aboard various Amtrak trains.
Thanks to Bob Koski of Sacramento, who met us at one of our transfer stations on Friday and became our guide for the duration of our journey on the Gold Line. Bob was involved in the design of the system for RT, and he's also a station volunteer at the Sacramento Amtrak station. His commentary and his company were a welcome addition to our day in that city.
Thank you also to Tom Preston of Sacramento, who helped out with our luggage transfer by offering use of his vehicle and his home as we resolved the problem of getting luggage from the Bay Area to Sacramento.
Lynn Hammond deserves our heartfelt gratitude for all she did to make our fest the success that it was. She and Mike rented a van. Lynn drove down to San Jose, drove our luggage up to Sacramento, and with Tom's help got it delivered to the various hotels. She and Tom also helped to shuttle fest participants from the SAC station to our hotels on Thursday night. Lynn also got to shuttle us in two groups between downtown Stockton and a restaurant in the outskirts of town on Thursday night.
Steve Weagant also helped me out often with dinner plans/reservations and such, so I thank him for his support.
And of course thanks to our contingent who flew on airplanes in order to ride trains. HaRRy Sutton flew from San Diego to Oakland, spent several days with us, including riding the CZ from Sacramento to Reno, and then flew back from Reno to San Diego. Eric (GG-1) Minton flew from Honolulu to San Francisco and from Sacramento to Honolulu. Bill Magee flew Philly to Denver, rode over the Wyoming detour with us on the westbound CZ, and flew back to Philly from Reno. Jishnu Mukerji flew from Newark to Denver, and joined the rest of our fest there after spending a day on Denver's RTD system. Lou Petrillo and John Corbett also flew round trip from the New York/Connecticut area to spend four days with us in California.
Then there was the group who rode across the country with us on Amtrak trains. The Hammonds, Steve Weagant, Alan & his mother Grace, and Skip Howard were involved wire to wire from their various start points. Piotr rode with us from the east coast to Chicago and then returned to New Jersey on his own on the Cardinal. And Jishnu was with us from Denver westbound until the end of our eastbound travels.
There will be more updates and of course a report as we continue to remember our 12 days together.
Edited by KevinKorell, 30 July 2007 - 07:45 PM.