As I mentioned in the previous page, The Sailors, something happened on our way back from getting married in Reno.  We had decided to get married before the end of the year.  One reason was the obvious tax deduction we would be eligible for.  The other was that in November 2003 my marital status had been severed (the property division portion of the divorce was still to come), and as a result, Dorothy could finally get on my health insurance plan.  However, my company's health plan would allow same-sex domestic partners, but would not allow opposite-sex domestic partners.  We had to be married!

We originally tried to make an appointment to be married at the County Courthouse in Martinez, CA.  Unfortunately, in California, if you have been divorced less than 6 months, you have to produce the Court order as proof before they will issue a license.  Well, the Judge in my case ordered that my status was severed, but the written order had not yet been drafted.  Since the other side would have to approve of the wording, it was unlikely that the order would be finally signed by the Judge until after the first of the year.  Well, in Nevada, they just take your word for it.  You sign a certification, and they issue a license.  So Reno it was.

Since we were planning on going up on December 30th, the middle of our winter, we decided to take the train.  For one, it would be a nice way to take a trip, and we felt that the trains always make it through the Sierras when it is snowing.  We didn't want to take a chance by taking one of our cars, or by taking the bus and becoming stranded.

So, we booked passage on the California Zephyr to Reno.

Here's Dorothy (in the long gray coat), waiting for the train at Emeryville.

The California Zephyr arriving at Emeryville.

The regular seats were all booked, so I reserved a sleeper berth.  Again, this would be nice in that we could stretch out when we wanted without disturbing others.  We could even take a nap if we wanted.  Plus,  as it turns out, sleeper berths are considered First Class accommodations, so they include meals, and you get a steward to wait on you too!  Kewl.

On the trip up to Reno, it began to snow.

Here we are waiting to get married.

We took a cab to the Reno Hilton, and once there, we made reservations to get married at the Chapel of the Bells.  They came and picked us up at the hotel in a Cadillac, drove us to the Washoe County Clerk's office (which, incidentally, is open until midnight), then back to the Chapel for the wedding.  We could have even had a drive-thru wedding, with Elvis!  We decided not.

We stayed the next day in Reno and relaxed.

On New Years Day we started home.  The trip up to Reno in the sleeper was so enjoyable, we decided to upgrade to a sleeper for the return trip.  That's when things began to happen.

Dorothy checking out the snow starting to fall as
we wait for the Zephyr to arrive from Chicago.

The California Zephyr finally arrived an hour late.  Then it began to snow more.

Dorothy took this picture as we left Truckee.

The snow had begun to come down pretty good by the time we reached Truckee.  Then it happened; about a half an hour west of Truckee.  The snow had piled up on the tracks, and on a slow turn, two of the forward cars derailed.

You can see that the two cars on the right don't seem
to line up quite right with the cars on the left.

By the afternoon, the snow began piling up to just below
the windows on the sleeper car.

We ended up being stranded for over 16 hours, as they worked to uncouple the cars; move all the passengers from the derailed cars into the dinning and lounge cars; uncouple the passenger engines and take them down the hill; dispatch another freight engine to pull the good cars back up the hill; then run the good cars back down the hill to meet up with the original engines.  All during that time snow plows went back and forth several times trying to keep the tracks clear. 

While we were hooked up to the freight engines, we had no power.  Apparently the freight engines don't have the same generators necessary to supply electrical power to passenger cars.  At one point the power was off in the cars for over 4 hours.  That happened in the middle of the night, so the only light we had were the small emergency lights in the hallways.  The heat was off during that time as well, and it started to get cold.  The fortunate thing for us in the sleepers was that we had blankets to keep us warm.  They only had thin sheets available for the people in the dinning and lounge cars.  They ran out of food before dark (we were supposed to have been in Emeryville by then).

When they finally ended up moving us uphill, they had about a dozen guys shoveling the snow away from the cars before we could move.  We reached the bottom of the hill around daybreak.  They did manage to bring aboard donuts and juice when we reached Sacramento.

The entire trip took 24 hours from start to finish.  At the end in Emeryville, I was one of several people interviewed by KRON-TV and the other San Francisco stations, and about 5 seconds of my interview made it on the evening news.