01.12.07
All aboard for the Empire Builder
The Izaak Walton Inn at Essex, Mt., grail of my March train trip. For a larger, more detailed view click here.
Bear with me, all you who suffered through my travel-waffling earlier this week. The waffling has ended and the die is cast. Just one more mention of choo-choos:
I’ve booked a week’s trip in March aboard Amtrak’s Empire Builder to Essex, Montana, and the storied Izaak Walton Inn.
Here’s why:
First, Debby and I have made that trip twice. Both times we enjoyed the ride immensely, and I was highly productive at the laptop in the sleeper en route and at our destination. Why not repeat the experience? After all, my main objective in taking a train anywhere is to get some writing done.
Second, these days the Empire Builder from Chicago to Seattle/Portland is Amtrak’s flagship train. The faltering national passenger railroad’s constant cutbacks have largely escaped Trains 7 and 8, because the Builder is a showcase of sorts: Amtrak wants to keep the ambience of at least one of its trains close to what it used to be.
For instance, 7 and 8 both carry a dining car with real chefs who prepare meals on board, serving them on white napery, while all Amtrak’s other trains now serve preplated, microwaved meals on plastic tablecloths.
There are some nice perks for sleeper passengers, such as a wine-and-cheese tasting party before dinner the second day out.
Generally the train is on time, or close to it. Burlington Northern, over whose tracks the train runs, has a reputation for pridefully trying to keep the Builder moving on the advertised. The dispatchers on most of the rest of American freight railroads don’t seem to give a damn. Amtrak can’t control these delays. Usually when the Builder is late, there’s a good reason — bad weather or an accident on the tracks ahead.
Third, our destination. The Izaak Walton Inn at Essex, Montana, tucked into the mountains halfway between East Glacier Park and West Glacier, is a great place to hole up in and write. It’s famous among rail buffs as a former bunkhouse for crews of helper locomotives that still shove long freights up 5,216-foot-high Marias Pass, and it’s also favored by cross-country skiers. There’s a warren of cross-country trails just across the tracks from the inn, and they’re good for snowshoeing as well — I’ll be taking a pair of snowshoes along with the laptop. The hotel also has a first-rate restaurant at decent prices.
The trip won’t be cheap. It’s costing me $610 round trip on the train in a roomette that holds two. I’m going alone. (Debby hasn’t retired yet. If she were coming along, the fare for her would be an additional $238.) Three nights at the Izaak Walton will be $381 plus tax. That’s $991 before tips and meals at the inn (meals on the train are included in the sleeper charge).
But if I get 100 pages of the next novel into the laptop, it’ll be more than worth the cost.
And, the way things are going for Amtrak in Washington, it might be my last chance to get in a long-distance train journey in the United States.
Jan Herman said,
January 13, 2007 at 12:51 pm
Henry — I’m curious to know about those 100 pages in a week. If I’m not mistaken, you said somewhere that you’re a slow writer. A hundred pages in a week doesn’t seem so slow to me. What kind of pages do you expect these to be? First-draft stuff just to get something down that you’ll likely re-write? If so, will it be for structure or style? Both? Neither?
Henry said,
January 13, 2007 at 2:02 pm
Jan, I said **IF** I get 100 pages into the laptop. Realistically speaking it’ll probably be somewhere between 50 and 75 pages. I am generally a slow writer, but sometimes I’ll get into bursts of hyperkinetic activity, as many as 25 pages in a day. You’re right that on this trip it’ll be first-draft stuff that later will go through several rewrites. My most recent manuscript, the one that will be published in December, went through nine revisions before my editor thought I got it right.
There’s no rhyme or reason to my working technique. Sometimes I’ll speed through the pages, getting down the action without thought of style or subtlety. Sometimes I’ll work on a single paragraph all day trying to perfect it before going on to the next. This is poor discipline, but hell, I am retired and living on an annuity, and the scimitar of deadline does not hang above my neck.
Jan Herman said,
January 13, 2007 at 2:39 pm
Thanks for the details, Henry. It’s fascinationg (at least to me) to hear about such wild variation. Poor discipline or not, you obviously get done what needs to be done. I remember when you didn’t have a single book to your credit and now, with a handful, you make me jealous.
I’m thinking of the novels in particular. John Schulian — a first-class, hell, better than first-class, writer we both know from former days at the Sun-Times — has told me that writing a novel, as far as he’s concerned, is the real test of a writer. I don’t believe in tests really, but so far I’m flunking.
Henry said,
January 13, 2007 at 4:34 pm
Perhaps John meant that writing a LITERARY novel was the real test of a writer. Genre novels, formula novels, aren’t in that league. All the same, I often feel that a truly great genre writer such as P.D. James often displays craftsmanship that is the equal of any litterateur’s.
Did you read John’s “Twilight of the Long-Ball Gods” from a few years ago? That is one of the best collections of baseball essays I’ve ever read. His stuff will last.
Jan Herman said,
January 13, 2007 at 6:05 pm
I’m sure he would include a “literary” novel. But we were talking about crime/thriller novels at the time — and that’s what he meant because he was in the midst of writing one of those, or trying to. He did finish it, in fact, and an agent (a v. well-known literary agent) was flogging it. But, as he also said, a country boy like him hadn’t realized how little value the market placed on novels (of any kind).
At that time, too, he was putting “Twilight” together, and he told me it had just been taken by a university press. I think it was Nebraska, though I see on Amazon it’s been published by an outfit called Bison Press. I assume it’s a reprint. I haven’t read it.
Henry said,
January 13, 2007 at 6:38 pm
You’re right, “Twilight of the Long-Ball Gods” was published by the University of Nebraska Press’ Bison quality-paperback imprint.
Midwestern university presses sometimes produce books that have wide appeal beyond academia. Northwestern University Press, for instance, recently brought out new editions of Herman Kogan and Lloyd Wendt’s “Lords of the Levee” and “Big Bill of Chicago.” Those are classics of popular history by journalists that are often cited by professional historians in their works about Chicago.
Jan Herman said,
January 13, 2007 at 7:20 pm
Herman Kogan … nice to hear his name.
Anonymous said,
January 18, 2007 at 7:57 pm
Would love to hear of how your train trip and stay at the Izaak Walton Inn went.
Thanks
Jim M
Henry said,
January 19, 2007 at 12:51 pm
Jim:
I’ll keep a running blog log of my trip — the inn has wireless Internet. But I expect it to be a nice trip, having done it twice before.
Henry
Jim said,
January 19, 2007 at 8:03 pm
Henry:
Thanks
Look forward to reading your account.
Jim
The Reluctant Blogger » Off I go to Montana said,
March 5, 2007 at 4:39 am
[...] For details on the Builder and the Izaak Walton, see the 1/12/07 entry in this blog. [...]