14 - Suggested Itinerary - Around May 31, 1936

Click here to read story from beginning

Story so far: Grandma Cecile has been planning her trip to visit her relatives back in her home village of Nieder-Mohrau, Czechoslavkia. She has her documents in order; her family and friends have gathered at Lulay's home in Sublimity to wish her well.

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Now she makes her final travel plans and is given this "Suggested Itinerary". The costs are all listed and the deposit paid is reflected. There is no date so I'm not sure exactly when this was done. It's possible it was written up the day she left, June 1. I don't know for sure if this was precisely what she paid, but it is the route she traveled.

Suggested Itinerary, with costs shown

One thing to notice is the Visa - travel permit, not credit card. The charge was only $0.75. Besides the low cost, it is interesting that Grandma paid the fee for the Visa to the Railroad Company, not to the State Department, or whatever government agency those come from now.

Another fact is that this itinerary only gets Grandma Cecile from Salem, Oregon, to Prague and back to New York City, NY. She wanted to take the return trip via the southern route, so she must have left that until later, so she could decide which way she would travel when the time came.

Back of the Suggested Itinerary (with smoke damage)

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In case you have trouble viewing this document, the general items are:

Leave Salem, Oregon 6:34 pm Monday, June 1

Arrive Portland, OR 8:30 pm Monday, June 1

Leave Portland, OR 9:30 pm June 1

Arrive Chicago, Illinois 8:50 am, Thursday June 4

Leave Chicago, IL 11 am, Thursday June 4

Arrive New York, NY 7:40 am Friday June 5

cost of Visa           0.75

R.T. Salem - New York, NY  117.95

New York to Prage[sic] via Bremen 150.94

Bremen to New York, NY 126.00

Total                  395.64

Deposited               25.00

Sub-total owed             $370.64

Sleeper Portland to Chicago 8.25

Total                  $378.89 

Apparently Grandma decided at the last minute to get the sleeper car to Chicago. I'd say that was a wise move for $8.25, at least by today's rate. And if you've ever ridden on Amtrak, you know that those seats in the standard car which look like they are going to be very easy to sleep in are so very uncomfortable by the time morning arrives! Of course, those are the seats of today's trains, the seats and the sleeping arrangements would have been different back then.

Over to the right side the details of the New York to Prague details are given:

132.50 (this must be the ocean voyage)

    5.00 tax

 13.44 rail Bremen to Prague

150.94 total

As for the map on the reverse side, it advertises "4 Great Scenic Routes For Transcontinental Travel". It does not appear to have the route that Grandma Cecile took from Salem to Chicago. The eastern route shown on the map goes south to Klamath Falls. Grandma went north to Portland, then east to Pascoe, Spokane, Butte, Billings, Fargo, Minneapolis and then to Chicago. I will show the train schedule in another post. The smudges on the map are smoke damage from the house fire that the papers went through in 1985.

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Story to be continued...... 

To read Post "15 -  Diary From The Train 2 - June 1936 Click here