Randa Bishop

PUBLISHED IN: National Geographic Society; N.Y. Times; Odyssey; Nevada; American Eagle Latitudes; American Way; RevaTahiti (inflight); Relax; Travel/Holiday; Travel & Leisure; Elle Decor; Recommend; Geo; Caribbean Travel & Life; Junior Scholastic; Diversion; First; Woman's World; Audubon; Travel Agent; United Hemispheres; Los Angeles Times; Smart Money; Spa, and Elle Decor.

SPECIALTIES: Photo assignments on location, overseas and domestic; large stock photography file, worldwide; science and technology; general travel; people; Las Vegas

BOOKS: DK Eyewitness Guide, Southwest USA & Las Vegas. (contributor); Las Vegas - A Photographic Portrait (Twin Lights, 2007); Washington, DC Visions (CityScapes Books, Pagoda Group, 2007, major contributor); CitySpots New York, (Thomas Cook guidebook 2006); Greater Portland Visions (CityScapes Books, Pagoda Group, 2006, major contributor); Nevada 24/7 (2004 contributor); Destination: Las Vegas (Thomas Cook/W.H.Smith guidebook, 2002); Trav'Bug Travel Guides (22 editions); Mobil Travel Guides; Herbs Through the Seasons, Simmons/Bishop (Rodale); Country Wreaths (Rodale); Ten Thousand Eyes; A World of Wreaths; The Photojournalist's Guide to Making Money (contributor, 2000).

AWARDS: Kodak Professional Photographers Showcase; Nevada magazine Annual, 2007.

(702) 240-4777
9720 Camden Hills Avenue
Las Vegas, NV 89145, U.S.A.
Patmos, Greece (302 2470) 34097
» randa@pobox.com
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American Orient Express

by Randa Bishop, Odyssey Magazine

A vintage train gently rocks its passengers to and fro in rhythm with the clickety clack song of the tracks. Memories of a golden age dance by with changing panoramas. It’s an experience that crosses the borders of fantasy and reality.

The American Orient Express brings back the glamour of luxury travel that was once exclusive to travelers in the 30’s to 50’s. It is a renaissance with a twist. The trips and itineraries are designed for tourism in the fashion of a “cruise on land”, incorporating the experience of a journey by train. A variety of itineraries offer a combination of travelling point-to-point by train, plus sightseeing excursions at selected stops. Most programs include a hotel overnight mid-trip, one even has a river cruise.

It all starts in one of those rail depots of a bygone era, either renovated to its past glory or dustily withering into old age. Here, tour managers wearing deep navy uniforms greet arriving passengers. The pampering begins, as you are guided down the long line of authentic, restored rail cars. Youthful porters sweep up your luggage and escort you to your assigned sleeper.

If you’ve booked one of the predominant pullman sleepers, you’ll likely wedge into the compartment and plop onto the plush upholstered sofa seat, to ponder how much you over-packed for your trip, despite clear warnings that storage space on board is limited. Your youthful, smiling, porter, to your delight, will help solve this problem instantly, and leave you in the privacy of your own mini lounge, where you may retreat to your dreams, during the trip. Immediately you are comforted by your plush albeit small surroundings, including a wash basin and large mirror, and, of course, a private toilet.

As you peer out the large picture window, into the shadowy light of the station, you’ll wonder if the train will leave on time. It probably won’t. These beautiful trains share the rail with freight trains, which take priority, so delays are unavoidable.

The day plan on your couch announces that champagne is awaiting you in one of the three lounge cars, a brief tour orientation is scheduled followed again by cocktails.

At the briefing, onboard lecturers for the trip are introduced. On 1400-mile “Pacific Coast Explorer” trip from Seattle to Los Angeles, John Borneman, one of AOE’s popular naturalist/historians stands tall in his reindeer vest, wearing a silver and torquoise “bolo” tie. To this attire, on land excursions, he adds a wide brimmed woolen western hat with country emblems from his travels, making him easy to spot in the crowd.

Borneman’s mischievous grin alerts you that he’s part comedian, as he announces, “I am also in charge of Dignity and Decorum!,” then adds, (again with a wisk of a smile), “At 11 pm I am giving a three-hour lecture on the diseases of the nictitating membrane of the English Sparrow in South Pasadena.”

“This usually brings a laugh from the crowd,” he says, “but,

once I overheard a person say, ‘I’m not going to that!’”

The train is delayed, but by the time pianist Gaynor Trammer lights up the Seattle Club Car with familiar songs, the trip is underway. After dinner, most passengers call it an early night. To their delight, before slumber sets in, the train has already stopped, where it is stabled overnight in Portland, Oregon, and everyone gets a good long sleep.

The land excursion will take nearly all day. Buses are loaded and travel through the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, which is rich in pioneer and Indian history. The river separates Oregon and Washington with beautiful views all along the route. A stop is made at Multnomah Falls where a two-stage waterfall plunges 620 feet off a ledge of Larch Mountain into a pool below. A paved trail leads to the top through lush green foliage. Most people slowly hike up to the bridge for a view over the waterfall. Of course, there’s a legend. A Native American maiden threw herself off the cliff to relieve her lover and the Multnomah people of a deadly illness. A stream of water burst from the cliff and it is said that one can see the maiden's face in the upper fall.

The day’s tour continues to Mt. Hood, for lunch at Timberline Lodge, a National Historic Landmark. The lodge was constructed in 1937 with mammoth timbers and native stone. Glimpses of the 11235 foot snowy peak through a hovering cloud are seen through the hotel’s large picture windows. And, of course, there is another legend. A woman mountain caused a war between two mountain brothers, Wy'east (Mt. Hood) and Pah-toe (Mt. Adams). The two brothers erupted in anger. Their volcanic fire destroyed a nearby land bridge.

An optional but worthwhile stop is made at the Rose Test Gardens in Portland, long ago nicknamed “City of Roses.” Getting up the hill to Washington park provides an inpromtu tour of the city. The large, fragrant garden boasts over 500 varieties of roses, and a lovely view high over the city’s downtown area.

The century-old renovated, Union Train Station gleams in the afternoon sun, where the AOE has a scheduled 4pm departure. Cocktails, a delicious dinner, and an evening of Gaynor’s songs await returning passengers. The train stables in Klamath Falls after midnight

There is nothing quite like a whole day on a train! While the trip feels like a cruise, and is organized much like a cruise, the big advantage is the passing scenery. This is a day for eating more than you expect, hearing the lectures, reading, chatting with new friends, relaxing, exploring the train, or just plain dreaming.

In the dining carriage, an all-too-anxious-to-please server will tempt you with an all-too-rich breakfast. Favorites from the menu are Crab Benedict or Pancakes du jour. It’s a pristine clear day, the train travels by rolling plains, with the snowy peak of Mt. Shasta on the horizon. A coyote tracks along at a fast gait with the train, until it disappears in the yellowed brush of the landscape.

You’ll need some exercise after this feast. If you make it from one end of the train and back, it’s nearly a half mile walk. As you start off from your sleeper, you note the narrow wooden corridors running the length of the car. If only these mahogany marquetry walls could talk, you think, as you wonder who is nestled in behind the closed doors, and who may have inhabited these very same rooms during the glory days of train travel.

America’s first passenger train operated on Christmas Day, 1830, at Charleston, South Carolina. After the discovery of gold, and tremendous growth in California and the West, in 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the act allowing construction of a transcontinental railroad to link the east and west coast. Over the next half century the rail network grew to over 250,000 miles of track, and great rail companies like Union Pacific, Central Pacific, and New York Central were born. Travelers would no longer walk for months across the Great Plains by foot to California and Oregon, and the “golden age” of railroads came into full swing. Wooden cars of the late 19th Century were exposed to unbearable weather changes, plus dust, bugs and other nasties. George Pullman added sleepers, diners, parlor cars, and observation cars to the trains, and eventually air-conditioning. By the 1930’s opulence and impeccable service were Pullman keywords.

In the 20th Century, the “horseless” carriage became an alternative mode of travel for Americans. Together with new roads, the automobile was a serious competitor to rail travel. Railroads responded with streamlined trains and even more luxury – an era of celebrity travel, which would last until the airplane, modern highways, and advanced technology dealt the railroads a devastating blow.

As your walk starts from one of the 1950’s Pullman sleeper cars, your imagination steps back in time. Pointing at Cabin A in the Berlin car, you consider, “Could this be sleeper 3901 which Cary Grant shared with Eva Marie Saint in Hitchcock’s movie North by Northwest. Did they, perhaps, relax or take a drink in the New York Observation Car which once served on the famed 20th Century Limited ?” Irving Berlin is purported to have written a song enroute to Chicago by rail.

As you continue your walk through two more sleeper cars, images of many celebrities who traveled across the country by train come to mind – Henry Fonda, Bob Hope, Betty Grable, Cecil B. DeMille, Cary Grant and Greta Garbo, Reagan, Eisenhower, Hoover and Taft or Father Flanagan.

, that Walt Disney conceived Mickey Mouse, which he purportedly did on a train trip west back in 1928 Comedians, Abbott and Costello promoted the purchase of War Bonds on a five week nation-wide rail tour in the summer of ’42.

As you enter the Seattle Club Car, under a painted ceiling of blue skies and scattered clouds, you see a seated group, with one person standing at the center. “Could that be Hercule Poirot?”, you question, “solving the great mystery of Murder on the Orient Express?”

No, it’s Karl Zimmermann, the onboard author-historian for this trip. He speaks softly, sharing his vast knowledge of rail history. “We are traveling rare mileage,” he says, “The track from Klamath Falls to Keddie, in Northern California, is known as the inside gateway, an inland route never used by regular passenger trains. This is a treat for rail aficionados, and for us, too. Soon, we will enter the Feather River Canyon. At Keddie the track forms a “wye,” unique in that two of its legs are on tall trestles, and the third runs through a tunnel. Arthur Keddie, the engineer/surveyor who mapped this route through the canyon back in the 1860’s was not deterred by being called a fool for his attempt, which ultimately became a tourist favorite for travelers on another of America’s great trains, the California Zephyr.”

The morning walk ended up in the New York Observation Car, probably one of the most famous train carriages in history. It graced the rear of the 20th Century Limited for some 20 years, as its signature car. It is rounded at the end with wrap around windows, offering a panoramic view of the receding scenery – an excellent place to relax in a plush chair, chat with newly made friends, while enjoying the changing landscape. It’s a perfect place for the High Tea and pastries served in the afternoon. Was it in this car During the 50’s McCarthy era “blacklisting,” studios sent Clark Cable, Esther Williams, Rhonda Fleming and other Hollywood stars across America.

After lunch John Borneman gives one of his humor-filled lectures and passengers learn about Sacramento Valley during Gold Rush days.

While America’s newest bullet trains travel at 150mph on the East Coast, the AOE slows to a snail’s pace in the late afternoon, as it clings to the mountainside on its journey through the Feather River Canyon. Everyone is perched at a picture window for the dramatic views…as the train snakes over the twisting and turning track. Steep mountains clothed in pine forest rise over the tumbling river below. Burnished gold and brilliant magenta autumn leaves glisten in the late afternoon sun. Silvery glimpses of the train come into view as it bends around the winding path through the canyon. An occasional mule deer scrambles up the river bank.

The evening is devoted to dining and entertainment. The tables in the Zurich Dining Car are all set with fresh linen, and beautiful china and silver place settings. The menu contains delicious sounding fare – a choice of Pork Loin with chipotle honey glaze, grilled salmon with wasabi butter, or chicken with olive tapenade.

After a brandy, passengers gather around the Piano in the Rocky Mountain Club Car where Gaynor Trammer dressed in glittering sequins fills the air with nostalgic favorites. Under twinkling stars. She sings Laura and Summertime, then livens up the group with some show tunes or a singalong. She sprinkles her repertoire with familiar opera arias and the occasional anecdote. Maurice chevalier bing crosby

The next two days are spent visiting wineries in Napa Valley, an excursion to Muir Woods, and a city tour of San Francisco. Passengers overnight at the Huntington Hotel (named for the famous rail magnate). Plenty of time is given to explore the many and diversified assets of this beautiful city on one’s own.

The last full day of the trip includes a morning tour of Hearst Castle. AOE then continues southward to Santa Barbara hugging the California coast, and beautiful views of the Pacific Ocean. A short tour of the Santa Barbara Mission, and the Courthouse are made in the afternoon.

As you arrive in the grand station at Los Angeles, you reflect back that this trip bridges a happy medium between avid train buffs and the traveler looking for an alternative to the car. The coordination of rail travel and plenty of time in the destinations gives travelers the best of both worlds.