I feel like such a ninny this evening. Here I am rushing home to see the new Ken Burns The National Parks film, not even trying to get the picture of the sunrise from Fishing Bridge since the sun wasn’t going to be rising at Fishing Bridge – thanks to Arnica – and when I get home at 6:30, I found out I needn’t have rushed. See, I figured that Mystery comes on at 9 PM, so that 2-hour National Parks episode would have to start at 7. And I made it home with half an hour to spare. Then I find out that they aren’t showing Mystery tonight and that they were showing Burns’ film at 8, repeating at 10. I am such a ninny. Even if the sun wasn’t going to rise this morning, I may have been able to get some pictures of early morning in the Grand Canyon. But Arnica probably was going to bollix that too.
I hope to have some pictures of my vacation on-line shortly. I downloaded them to Elaine’s laptop and haven’t retrieved them yet. (What did you do on your vacation? I spent 5 days traipsing around in thecaldera of the world’s largestactive volcano! It’s really cool!)
It is summer again and time to plan for Worldcon. This year it is in Montreal – Anticipation. I was in Montreal a few years ago and remember that there was an international fireworks competition over the summer, so I googled online and found the schedule. A more current schedule is here. They have a different country every Saturday. The Fireworks are at the old Expo Park site and you can get on a bridge and be eye level with them going off in front of you. It was impressive. The Con is August 6-10, and by the Schedule I see that the US is competing on the August 1st and South Africa is on August 8th.
So, I have planned a convoluted way to get to Montreal in time to see the US compete. I am flying into Albany Thursday evening, spend the night there and then take the train from Albany to Montreal – through the Adirondacks – and arrive in Montreal Friday Evening. And then return to Albany by train after the convention and fly back home the next day. I just hope there are no hidden pitfalls in Albany to worry about.
Should have a few days to sightsee around Montreal before the fun begins. Now, is it worthwhile to rent a car and travel into the countryside for a day?
I am looking at going to Montreal this summer and decided to see what it would take to train my way there.
Basically, it takes time.
I looked at two different route options: DEN to MTR via TOR or via ALB.
For your consideration.
Train Trip to Montreal via Toronto
DEP
City
City
ARR
Train Time
Layover Time
Trip Day
2010
DEN
CHI
1550
19:40
5:50
DAY 1-2
2200
CHI
BUF-depew
930
11:30
5:30
DAY 2-3
1456
BUF-depew
TOR
1937
4:40
16:00
DAY 3
1135
TOR
MTR
1704
5:30
DAY 4
Return
DEP
City
City
ARR
Train Time
Layover Time
Trip Day
1805
MTR
TOR
2326
5:21
9:00
DAY 1
830
TOR
BUF-depew
1325
5:05
10:30
DAY 2
2355
BUF-Depew
CHI
945
9:50
4:15
DAY 2-3
1400
CHI
DEN
715
17:15
DAY 3-4
Train Trip to Montreal Via Albany
DEP
City
City
ARR
Train Time
Layover Time
Trip Day
2010
DEN
CHI
1550
19:40
5:50
DAY 1-2
2200
CHI
ALB
1540
17:40
19:25
DAY 2-3
1105
ALB
MTR
1910
8:05
DAY 4
Return
DEP
City
City
ARR
Train Time
Layover Time
Trip Day
930
MTR
ALB
1740
8:10
1:35
DAY 1
1905
ALB
CHI
945
14:40
4:15
DAY 1-2
1400
CHI
DEN
715
17:15
DAY 2-3
No matter which way you go, you will need to overnight in either Toronto or Albany.
So the Optimal way to train it seems to be go via Toronto. That is a nice city to visit plus there are a number of TOR-MTR trains to choose from if you don’t want to catch the 1135. I I actually ignored some earlier trains so I could sleep in.
And Return via Albany, where the are minimal layover times and you can get back to Denver in three days.
Elaine was clearing out the old ISP site that held stardel.com and came across my old photos of our 1999 Australian trip. I don’t remember exactly what software package I used to organize the photos, but it still works.
Elaine also noted that I haven’t updated e.g. since April, but I have been busy.
Well, I wasn’t able to figure out how to put a break in the comment page so the links to source appeared on the side of the last map instead of below it. But that’s probably a page layout issue.
Here is a map of my US travels. I notice a great big gaping hole just north of my current state of residence.
