Well, it clearly took me MONTHS to wrap up the blog posts on this trip! It was indeed a blast and I got so much footage that was great. I had to extensively cut it back on focus on a few key rides here and there and record recon stops of course! With that, the final blog post of the Pittsburgh trip.
Alright, I’m almost done through all the VLOG posts on my Pittsburgh trip. It was, needless to say, a really eventful trip! Last post I wrote up the 3 part VLOG of day 5, and in this post it’s another 3 part for day 6! Included is the second record recon run and wrapping up all three parts with the arrival of a CSX COKE TRAIN!
A little route map for an idea of the route.
Heading along the north side waterfront.
Hey look at that, a Norfolk Southern train heading across the Ohio River.
Trip Wrap Up
Thursday’s ride…
The finale, riding from Traveler’s Rest to the train station in the rain! First bit of inclement weather of the entire trip!
After the grand trip across a vast expanse of the United States, I was finally approaching Pittsburgh! I’d been looking forward to visiting Pittsburgh for years now, so I was STOKED!
The day started at around 5am, as I pondered my arrival and the logistics of the situation on the train. I had some commentary, which I added in the VLOG. So be sure to check that out.
Then arrival in Pittsburgh. This image is from the train as we crossed the river.
In the VLOG you get to see this some, but lets talk about the station in Pittsburgh. For the first thing to experience coming into the city, it is a major let down. It reflects horribly on the United States as a whole – as does our passenger rail in general – but this was an embarrassment of riches right here. The station is in what I’d consider the basement of what used to be the train station. The train station itself however is a bunch of apartments or condos, and the grand entrance is now just the entrance to those apartments. So the grand station that used to exist is now a basement with apartments – which you can’t really walk around – there are signs warning you not to, on top of that basement.
Overall, it’s kind of an insult to Americans to have taken a grand station of this nature, dumped the station into the basement, and stuck a few arbitrarily built – and likely very inefficient apartments in the once grand station.
It’s now kind of just a dump. It made me sad. But I digress, the adventure in Pittsburgh was just beginning and I wasn’t going to let the embarrassment of a station ruin my trip!
Pittsburgh Arrival Day 4 Part 1 – Arriving into Union Station & Initial Explorations.
Once arrived and finally detrained and out of the station, the mess that it was, I made my way out into the streets of Pittsburgh for an exploratory bike ride around the city. This became an absolutely stellar first experience in the city and more than made up for the dumpy station.
In this video I’ve got relive maps guiding the way so you can see exactly where I went, along with some stellar photos I took of the city. I rode up onto a bridge, through a kind of messed up, stinky, car-dependent part of the city so I could get these pictures and ALMOST DIED TWICE! I point that out in the video too, so if you are ever there, dear readers, be wary of the western bridge over the Ohio River! It’s got a sketchy approach on both side! Watch these next two episodes for that part of the adventure.
Pittsburgh Arrival Day 4 Part 2 – Arrived & Exploring the Ohio River “West Wend Bridge”!
Pittsburgh Arrival Day 4 Part 3 – Heading to south Pittsburgh to get some coffee & try to check in!
Finally, after all that exploration – from 5:30am to about 7:45am – I finally make my way form the north side of Pittsburgh over the the Travelers Rest, where I’d be staying for the week. I wrap up the day one VLOGs with the final check in, checking out Travelers Rest, and I show you the accommodations I’ve picked up for the stay!
Pittsburgh Arrival Day 4 Part 4 – Delanie’s & Travelers Rest. You GOTTA check these places out!
Back in April I took a trip to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is easily one of the best trips I’ve taken in a few years! Far too many years! Obviously I had to write up the adventure and that dear readers is what you have here, the log of my entire trip to Pittsburgh. I hope you enjoy following along with the adventure!
Along with the trip, which I’ll write details about here on this post and subsequent posts here on Transit Sleuth, another branch of posts will be on Vicious Shred concerning the record shops (Attic Records, etc) and music related peculiarities. So if you’re into the metal, and other varietals of music I partake upon, navigate over to Vicious Shred for a whole host of posts about that.
Day 1 – Departing Seattle via the Empire Builder
Day 1 involved departing Seattle. What did that involve? Well let me tell you!
The very first event involved me biking down from home to downtown Redmond. There I caught the Sound Transit 545 out of Redmond heading to downtown Seattle & King Street Station. The bus arrived timely, I got the bike mounted up and off I went.
Shocker of shocker, as we got into the city there was a back up on 520 coming onto I-5, which is part of traveling on I-5. It’s always been backed up here and likely will always be. If someone is stupid enough to think they’ll resolve this poorly designed mess they don’t understand how cars work – and in that sense I am seriously looking forward to the day I can just on the tram (light rail) Link into the city!
Once I arrived downtown, I didn’t even attempt to ride the 545 all the way across the downtown core. There are two reasons I did got off the bus to travel this last few miles:
The main reason is I like to, as I’ve made it a tradition, to always stop at Monorail Coffee and get a cap before departure. For many – if not most – destinations in the United States it is likely the last time I’ll get a decent cap until returning. The espresso standards in the USA have improved to a degree so it isn’t as frequent I go without as it used to be, but I still don’t trust most cities.
The other reason is I actually like to ride through the city – I love cities, love em’! Some folks don’t get that from me but I see so much more than the mere concrete and fumbling crushed souls of the city and more the wealth generating heartbeat of America that US cities actually are. Albeit they’re severely damaged and have a severe quality of life issue compared to European cities. Largely evident in the vast warped subsidized American socialism experiment gone awry called “the suburbs”. But hey, they’re holding together the country in spite of all that!
Anarchist Jurisdiction
As the “Dear Leader” designated our poor fair destroyed obliterated city of Seattle, it is indeed destroyed y’all! Nobody come to Seattle, look at all that smoke and fire and burning, nobody is left! It’s all zombies and those lost in the riots. /s
Comedy aside, the ride through Seattle was rather pleasant. The roll – emphasis on roll because it takes almost no energy to pedal downhill from Monorail Coffee down to the train station – to King Street Station was smooth and effortless.
King Street Station
I arrived, got my bike tagged for the trip and headed off to the baggage car to hand off my bike. The only two things I brought with me was my Mission Workshop ARKIV Backpack and the bike (bounce back tothis post for details on why she’s named “PDX Orange”).
Tragedy Struck!
Chubby DOWN!!! You’ll have to watch the video for that bit of tragedy (time point @ the tragedy), it was already too much to write about the remnants of the destroyed city of Seattle! So with that bit of narration lagniappe, enjoy the video.
My Pittsburgh Adventure day 1 departing Seattle via King Street Station on the Empire Builder!
Day 2 – Eating on the Empire Builder
Day 2 can be summarized as eating day. There isn’t a lot to see or do on day 2, so it’s 3 meals and complete uninterrupted relaxation. In all seriousness it is one of my favorite days of the trip – even with the somewhat boring scenery – because I just do nothing. Maybe read, but mostly just thinking and introspecting against a repeating scenery. With that, I detail some of day 2 via VLOG for you dear reader!
Train Life, Day 2 on the Empire Builder from Seattle to Chicago, en route to Pittsburgh.
Day 3 – Empire Builder Transfer to Capitol Limited in Chicago
When I got into day 3, Chicago was the central action of the day. I needed to arrive on time or close to on time in order to make my connection to the Capitol Limited. The Capitol Limited route runs from Chicago to Washington DC. It makes a bunch of stops but my stop would be around 5:23am in the morning in Pittsburgh. If I had my preference, I’d have take another train that would have had me arriving in Pittsburgh at a more reasonable hour, but this being America we have a severe lack of transportation options between major cities!
The great thing about – in my humble opinion – coming into Chicago is getting into the urban fabric and watching the urban core and its skyscrapers start to rise out of nothing. If you’re privy, you get to see a lot of history as you roll into the city too. If you find that kind of thing fascinating Chicago is a city worth looking into.
In this episode I wrap up things by showing the path and process – for my brave fellow cyclists out there – of getting your bike stowed in Union Station. If you’re in the sleeper or 1st class like I was, you get to hang out in the awesome lounge at Chicago but you need to stow your bike in the meantime.
Pittsburgh Adventure Day 3 – Part 1 – Arrival in Chicago & wondering around Union Station.
In the 2nd part of day 3, transferring in Chicago I provide a tour of the 1st Class Lounge and then wander aimlessly around Chicago for a short while. Then I show boarding, which is a bit of an adventure in fumbling since I have a bike. Even though this is actually an easy process, you need to stay on top of things in order to make sure the bike does end up where you end up. Follow along in the VLOG to see more of the chaotic fun as I wrap up the Chicago transfer to the Capitol Limited!
Pittsburgh Adventure Day 3 – Part 2 – Transferring in Chicago & wondering outside Union Station.
That’s it for the Empire Builder part of the trip, in my next post I’ll delve into arrival day in Pittsburgh and the ongoing adventures!
After that last few days I visited some family and friends it was time to head back north to Seattle. On this trip back to the train station I take a slight different route and show that route. All good, all valid, all generally the same trip times.
I get into the station and get the bike tagged, and this time per the baggage attendant’s suggestion I check my Burley. More on that momentarily.
I then went and relaxed in the first class sleeping car lounge to wait for the boarding call. In short order the call was made and out the door to board. As always, with roll on bicycle service I headed to the baggage car, lo and behold I knew all the handlers today! I was greeted warmly, handed off the bike and we chatted for a minute or three. After wrapping up a good conversation with some interesting details – as always with the crews – I headed for my roomette.
When arriving at the sleeping car some other passengers and I waited outside for the car attendant to make up some beds and straighten up real quick. This is a common practice at Portland since so many people detrain and so many board for Seattle. You’d be surprised how many opt for roomettes and such just like I do for the Portland to Seattle trip. While out I snagged a video pic of the station…
and ended up giving a knowledge drop on the station to some fellow passengers that found the plight of Portland’s station rather interesting.
From there I enter my room, and oh yeah, I didn’t get a roomette I got a bedroom! Even MORE space, so that being the case I decide to provide a short tour of the bedroom accommodations.
For the final short segment of the video, enjoy a ride through the dark streets of Seattle as I head back to Redmond, with a quick – as I do often – one take session of some thrash metal for ya. 🤘🏻
0:21 – Back to Union Station in Portland, but with another arrival trip, just like the previous one discussed in this episode • Bike + Train Life… (time marked so you go right to it).
2:20 – No bike box for this trip, just rolling on. But I do check my Burley trailer.
5:02 – A tour of Amtrak’s Superliner Bedroom accommodation.
As I departed Pasco on the Amtrak Empire Builder, the sun rising in the east came in through my roomette window, and let me tell you it was stunning! Check the VLOG for footage of that site, but always know, VLOGs and photos and all that are fun but they compare in no way to being there in person! The tranquility of a roomette, as we roll along on steel rail, with the rising sun is absolutely stunning every single time I get to experience it!
When we arrived into Portland I detrained and went to baggage pickup. Within just a minute or two the bike arrived in the ole’ bike box. I slid it out and with the two tools I brought, I had the bike up and going in just another 90 seconds or so. Slung my backpack back on and out the doors of the station I went.
With a ride, almost parallel to my original departure from Portland the day before yesterday I alternated to the Williams St corridors for the majority of the trip back. In doing so I got to race the Trimet #44 bus! What fun, what excitement, what a slow and relaxing race! The real question though, who will win!
After the race I arrive back to Office PDX and make a cup of coffee with the MiiR pour over and it is excellent! I also use some techniques that you might not always use, but it’s worth a watch just so you can give it a try if you ever need to give it a try! It kicks off at 9:42 in the video.
0:21 – Leaving Richland via Pasco on the Empire Builder. Catching a stunning sun rise!
2:38 – Reclaiming PDX Orange from baggage, getting her back in riding condition. Tips + tricks on boxing your bike and unboxing it.
3:30 – Departing the station and a tip for egress from Union Station via the Broadway Bridge.
4:19 – Watching the Empire Builder cross the Steel Bridge, buy why, learn about it here!
4:48 – Bus🚌 Leap Frog🐸 with the #44! Some thoughts on the buses, their speed, and the fact that I basically pace the bus for the whole… well, listen to the segment and you’ll see. Along with the oddities and other things along the way.
6:50 – Riding through Peninsula Park. With odd unexpected elements! 😬
9:00 – The final stretch, do I defeat the #44 or do I get beaten by the bus!!! It’s soooo close!
9:42 – Caffeine Induction System from Miir, the Pourigami, via Bicycle Coffee from Oakland (link below). In this segment I show you a wicked cool pour over travel setup, using minimal kitchen tools.
Transit Sleuth 