Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Back from my rather interesting trip! Overall it was very much enjoyable! Can't wait to go again!

Preliminaries: Planes

My trip began with three flights: Spokane-Seattle, Seattle-Atlanta, and Atlanta-Bloomington. All were on time and two of the three were packed, the exception being the last flight. No trouble with TSA agents this time, though as usual the entire TSA circus was a pain in the posterior. I flew AirTran for the last two flights, and my flight in Atlanta pulled into another terminal than where AirTran flights usually end. I had a nice 15 minute hike to my plane, getting there 40 minutes before it was time to leave. AND FINDING THEY WERE ALREADY BOARDING THE PLANE! :angry: I didn't have time to eat or take a leak or anything! And they pulled out about 15 minutes early. That would never happen on Amtrak! The usual happened on all flights: A group of people crammed uncomfortably together, none of whom interacted with each other. I did wish my seatmate from Spokane to Seattle well, a soldier on his way to Ft. Lewis, WA, and then on to Iraq.

Trains

Day 1: Bloomington-Poplar Bluff

After spending a few days in Illinois, my uncle (Amfan) and I began our trek in Bloomington. The fun began here: http://discuss.amtraktrains.com/index.php?/topic/33721-texas-eagle-or-twilight-zone/ at Bloomington.

We were booked on coach from Bloomington-Walnut Ridge and bedroom from Walnut Ridge to Seattle, due to the peculiarities of the Amtrak booking system. The TE pulled into Bloomington on time, with the following consist:

1 engine

trans-dorm

sleeper

CCC

SSL

4 coaches, the last being car 321 that only went to St. Louis

Uncle Amfan and I were hoping to be able to get our bedroom (Bedroom E, car 2130) right away, but it was being used from Chicago-St. Louis. We'd checked the night before and it still showed it as being available; apparently there were some sleeper rooms sold at the last second. Our coach attendant was a very nice and personable man whose name was Carl. We left Bloomington about 11 minutes late, and lost a bit of time to St. Louis. We gradually ended up about 30 minutes late but were only 10 minutes late into St. Louis. At dinner, we were seated with two young college-aged girls who were traveling from New York to St. Louis. They, too, had hoped to be able to gain access to their sleeper room at Chicago, but had to wait until St. Louis. We also encountered another couple who were booked the same as us, coach to Walnut Ridge and sleeper to LA. I had salmon for dinner, which was very good. The service? Well, not so much. Our dining car steward had on a name tag with only her first initial and last name. Her name was W. Maxwell. She was adequate, but not all that friendly. She did her job and not much more. The server's name was Polly. One minute she was laughing and joking with passengers and another she acted like the whole idea of serving passengers was a tremendous imposition of her time. At one point during the trip, Uncle Amfan hadn't got his dessert and when he asked Polly about it, she gave a rude reply and when it finally did come she flopped it on the table so hard I thought it would hop off the plate onto the floor. Very inconsistant service.

A disturbing trend occurred at dinner: We passed a beautiful scene: the skyline of St. Louis, complete with the Arch, at sunset. And of course I didn't bring either my still camera or video camera with me. I don't know how many times I've missed great photo ops because I was feeding my fat face. :angry:

As we departed St. Louis, we asked the conductor, who looked like he was still in junior high, about our bedroom. He said he would check with the car attendant and seemed very happy not to have to rouse up and get us from the coach to the sleeper. About 40 minutes out of St. Louis, our car attendant, Robert (an excellent attendant, by the way) and another coach attendant, whose name I never did get, came and got us, and even carried our luggage to the downstairs rack for us. So we got our room early and saved the conductor and car attendant of having to rouse at Walnut Ridge. I fell right into bed right after that.

Day two and beyond coming sooner or later!

Sooner please ........

Day 2: Poplar Bluff-San Antonio

I fell into bed (upper bunk) of our bedroom right after we got into it. It was my first time in a bedroom. Much roomier than a roommette. We had bedroom E, and while it's a great room, I'd prefer D, the reason being all the outlets in the room are on the aisle side rather than the window side. I like to videotape my trips and don't like to use up my battery. However, I brought a 6-plug surge protector and Uncle Amfan brought an extension cord so all was well. I had partaken liberally of the bottled water Robert left for us, and as a result, I slept like a baby: I was up every hour. Thank goodness for the in-room toilet. My middle name is not Grace so I found it hard to get out of the upper bunk to use the facilities. I finally gave up around 2:30 AM and got up for good. I went to use the shower and was pleasantly surprised to find both hot water and high-pressure water besides. We had lost some time during the short time I was asleep but made it all up by the time we got to Texarkana. From there to Fort Worth we were pretty much on time.

At breakfast, I had the breakfast quesadillas. Very good! While seated the deaf woman from Bloomington came in and we were hoping she'd get seated somewhere else. We were in luck; she was seated across the aisle from us. A woman from South Bend eventually joined us. It was here the dining car steward had to open the door for a couple who couldn't figure it out--and then complained about no one showing them how to work the doors. "Push to open" I guess is too much for some people. I overheard a man behind us saying it was his first trip since 1945.

Having never been in Texas before, I was surprised at the amount of trees and swamps in east Texas. I like to film my trips, but for the first several hours all there was to film was trees. Very green, though. At Marshall we were informed by the conductor that there was a lady who waves enthusiatically at the train every morning. She was there, right on cue. Speaking of announcements, all the way through the trip, they were very good about making announcements--sometimes too good. They had a way of overdoing them.

At Longview, an announcement had to be made for a passenger that hadn't gotten off yet. They give plenty of announcements to that effect; makes a person wonder why they don't listen. Also at Longview a woman was very upset in finding out that her bus trip to Shreveport was going to be two hours. She "never would have ridden the bus" had she known it was going to be that long. She could have checked a map, but that might have been asking too much. At any rate it certainly wasn't Robert, our car attendant's, fault.

At Mineola another announcement had to be made regarding a passenger that hadn't gotten off though it was his stop. I guess they thought all those announcements didn't pertain to him.

At Dallas we had about a 20 minute fresh air stop, and it was HOT!! They're used to it there but in E. Washington, where I'm from, it gets hot occasionally but not nearly that hot. It was kind of chilling looking at the Texas Book Depository and Dealey Plaza (and the grassy knoll), of course the scene of the JFK assassination.

We had lunch after the Dallas stop (Angus burger), and seated with us was a woman returning to Los Angeles from her mother-in-law's memorial service in Chicago along with her teenaged son. Mom and especially her son were very knowledgeable about trains and railroading in general. They weren't aware of the AGR program and we let them know about it. (Should have gotten their email for a referral! :lol: ) They were also unaware that the Coast Starlight had a much better on-time performance and they thought they'd do a CS-EB trip next, thanks to our suggestions.

We got into Fort Worth early, and as we had a 20 minute delay due to the northbound TE being late, we had an extended stop in Ft. Worth. While there, the southbound Heartland Flyer rolled in. I don't know which freeway it is but there was an interstate nearby with gridlock, bumper to bumper traffic. I'd bet a lot of those drivers were wishing they were on Amtrak, especially as it was 105 in Fort Worth! It was here that the ditz with the baby, young boy, all the luggage, and the waste of fur Chihuahua that arrived just as the train was supposed to leave got on. To be fair, the waste of fur didn't make a peep the whole time, and it was in our sleeper.

The ditz couldn't figure out how to open the door so Uncle Amfan told her to press where it says "Press". She apologized and said she was a dumb blonde! No kidding!.

We were late from Fort Worth and stayed that way until San Antonio, where we were about 45 minutes early. At our one dinner seating at 4PM, we ran into the lady that thought she got off the train in Portland the 15th instead of the 16th. I don't think she ever did really believe us and I never did see her on the CS at all. Maybe she flew to Portland. And ditz was sitting across from us, yelling at her baby for crying. I know nothing about parenting, but I don't think it does much good to yell at a 3 or 4 month old baby. I had the chicken for dinner and it was great, just as the food was all the way along the route. We were as much as 45 minutes late into McGregor but as I say we ended up early into San Antonio. At Temple we had a 15 minute break but just as we were going upstairs to reboard Ditz was going downstairs with baby and dog and complaining because people were "blocking the stairs". Don't know what she was doing for the 15 minutes we were stopped for. We did get some good news at our Temple stop: the lounge car attendant did say that in October, the dining car crew is going to go all the way to San Antonio instead of getting off in Austin. When asked why they get off at Austin, he said "Don't get me started!" Good news for those wanting more than one time for dinner on the TE.

As we pulled into San Antonio, I was surprised by two things: How big the Alamo Dome is and how small the San Antonio station is. The Alamo Dome is HUGE! If you put all basketball courts in it you could play the whole NBA schedule for one night right there. The San Antonio station is small, hot, crowded, and inadequate. I'd think it would be a lot bigger than that. I went to bed about 10 and was woke up at 1 by all the jolting around. I woke up again at 4AM thinking it was time to leave. I gave up then, and took my shower and got up for the day.

Nice report!Wonder if the long rumoured DAILY CHI-LAX Eagle/Sunset is fixing to start running in October if the diner crews have been told they will be going CHI-SAS starting in Oct.

They still would have to change engineers somewhere since currently they run FTW-AUS,AUS-SAS,the conductord do run FTW-SAS, I havent figured this one out, doesnt seem to jibe??

Even if it's just the first step it's a good one to stop the 4PM "diner" on the Eagle!

Sounds like you had trouble sleeping, perhaps the fact that a bedroom is perpindicular to the direction of travel as opposed to parallel like in a roomette takes some getting used to! And weve had lot ofg rain in east Texas this year, that's why you saw so many trees and so much green, it usually burns up by now!

Day 3: San Antonio-Tucson

A couple more things about San Antonio: One gentleman booked on 421, same as us, chose to spend the night in San Antonio's hot, crowded station rather than on the train, as he said he might want to get off the train at night and find it in some yard miles away. In reality once the switching was over it our car, now on the rear of the train, was a few feet from where it had been. And car attendant Peggy, the one who gave me grief over photography in Del Rio, watched me film there in the wee hours of the morning in San Antonio, watched me get HER in a couple of shots, and never said word one. Odd, I think.

Anyway, under the cover of darkness, the TE/SL got underway right at 5:40. It was dark until nearly 7 AM, and as far as the scenery goes, might has well have stayed that way. West Texas isn't exactly the Colorado Rockies :blink:

The consist of the train was:

2 engines

2 sleepers

CCC (regular diner had mechanical issues

SSL

3 coaches (2 SL, 1 TE

our TE sleeper

I liked our sleeper on back; I like to film out the back of the train.

At breakfast, the dining car crew said there would be no coffee in the diner for the trip. Something about having to use a CCC and the regular urns from the diners not working in the CCC. That didn't bother me any, but for some, you'd thought the world had come to an end. George, the steward, and servers Brian and Riley did a great job of fending off all the complaints, explaining thoroughly the problem, and telling passengers they were free to get coffee from their sleepers or the lounge. Once it sunk in that they were not without options, the hubbub died down. George was the attendant, and he may well have been the best I've ever had. Great personality, great job, and kept things running smoothly to the end. Our server at breakfast was Brian, and he had a great personality like George and did an excellent job. They are a real asset to Amtrak and many a dining car crew I've had could learn a lesson from them. I stuck with the veggie omelet this time, and it was excellent. Our companions at breakfast were a very interesting elderly couple from Eastern North Carolina, Marvin and Susan Whaley. Once they got coffee from their room, they settled down and were very interesting to talk with. Marvin seemed to know every thing about every subject under the sun. They had in past years done extensive traveling and had very interesting things to say about their travels. Meeting couples like this is what makes the dining car experience so great.

After breakfast, it was time to sit back and watch the non-scenery that is West Texas. Gary, the conductor, made it so much more enjoyable than it might have been by his announcements of highlights that could be viewed from the train. I know some think this is a pain, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Gary may well have been the best I've had at that, and was very good about announcements that concerned potential delays of the train as well. Del Rio was the place I ran into problems with the photo police as our car attendant Peggy loudly informed me it was illegal to film people without permission. And as if I was stupid and deaf, she even more loudly repeated it. Not wanting to cause trouble, I shut my camera down. And continued to film at smoke breaks just like I'd always done. I made sure she wasn't looking, though. To give the devil her due, I never had a problem with her after that, and she did a good job and was very pleasant throughout. Must have been a momentary lapse.

Near Alpine, the toilets conked out. This was a Superliner II car, the kind you put the toilet seat down in order to flush the toilet, and the altidude knocked the upper level ones out of commission. They still worked in the lower level coaches, however. Peggy stayed downstairs and periodically reset them so they'd continue to work after a fashion.

Lunchtime was also near Alpine, and we were seated with our neighbors in room D, a couple from Little Rock on their way to Phoenix. I had the turkey sandwich and it was great. A few miles out of town, we met the eastbound SSL. After lunch, we were joined for a visit with Winston, an Amtrak personnel supervisor. We had a great talk with him. He said he rides the train maybe three times a month, and at Amtrak board meetings, said many of the board members have never set foot on a train. He said he can go back, and report on exactly what is going on and what needs to be done since he's been there, done that. Great idea! I hope Amtrak does more of that. We were bemoaning the fact that we didn't have a PPC on our Coast Starlight run last year and were hoping for one this year. He said they experience mechanical problems due to the fact the floors on it are not level with the other Amtrak cars and as a result, had problems with hot axles. I'd never heard of that and made sure to look for that if we got a PPC for our CS run.

At Fabens, TX, came the announcement that we would be delayed for a few minutes for a medical emergency. Sure enough, we were greeted at a crossing by an ambulance, fire truck, and the cops. Several minutes passed before anything seemed to happen ( I knew this because I was at our window, gawking :lol: ) and I was beginning to wonder if we were going to see a coroner's wagon pull up. Finally, however, the ambulance backed up to the train, and soon we were underway. The person they loaded was a young man whom I'd seen in the coaches earlier, and he looked none too well then. We had been pretty much on time throughout, but this put us behind some. No problem, as we had some padding into El Paso.

At El Paso we had plenty of time to wander around (and film! ). There was a lady with a burrito stand there as we got off the train. I would have bought a couple but our dinner reservation was for a time not too long after we would be underway again. Didn't want to spoil dinner! :lol: We had to wait a few minutes to get back on the train for the photo shoot. The young lady involved was very attractive; if I'd been the young man involved I'd have deliberately messed up over and over so I could have gotten to kiss her and hug her over and over again. :lol:

We got underway a few minutes late, and it was here that we began to run into heavy freight traffic. UP was great, though, and we didn't have to be held up anywhere. At the point where the train passes withing 30 feet of the border of Mexico, in Sunland Park, New Mexico, one can see right over the border to the village of Puerto de Anapra, Chihuahua, Mexico. There is a fence along the border, mainly to prevent locals from throwing rocks at the train and breaking windows, as has been occasionally known to happen. Just looking at the windowless and doorless huts of Puerto de Anapra, you can easily see how they want to cross our borders in hopes of a better life.

Despite all the freight traffic, we didn't lose any time, and were pretty much on time into Deming and Lordsburg, NM. We had a 6 PM dinner reservation, and we decided to go sit in the lounge car at 5:50 PM and wait. An elderly lady was in front of us, with a 5:45 dinner reservation, and it took her a good 10 minutes to traverse the length of our sleeper, the three coaches, and the SSL. As a result, she and her traveling companion were late. When George gently asked her about it, she threw an absolute fit, saying he'd just called them. Not true, as we followed her the whole time. Even when George gently tried to say he wasn't mad or upset, she continued to show her rear end without taking her pants off. George was great, letting her rant, and not missing a beat. Seated with us were our new-found friends from breakfast, Marvin and Susan. I had the steak, unusual for me, as I didn't like the other choices. It was great! Riley was our server and did a great job. We were treated to a brief heavy downpour, complete with lightning, and after dinner, we were treated to a double rainbow. Very pretty. Off to our north, we had quite an extensive lightning storm.

We continued to be right on time through Benson and were early into Tuscon, giving us a longer break. At Tuscon, Peggy made an announcement I'd never heard: there were a couple of people in our car that, instead of flushing the toilet, were pushing the attendant call button instead! And they had continued to do it even after having had exlained to them how the toilet works. Now, I don't see what is so hard about the concept of "Close lid to flush" written in 2 inch high letters. I don't get it. Speaking of toilets, their malfunction was temporary, and after a few hours out of Alpine, were back in working order.

After a short walk around the Tuscon station and platform, I retired for the night, ready for the next day's arrival into Los Angeles.

Guest said:

Nice report!Wonder if the long rumoured DAILY CHI-LAX Eagle/Sunset is fixing to start running in October if the diner crews have been told they will be going CHI-SAS starting in Oct.

They still would have to change engineers somewhere since currently they run FTW-AUS,AUS-SAS,the conductord do run FTW-SAS, I havent figured this one out, doesnt seem to jibe??

Even if it's just the first step it's a good one to stop the 4PM "diner" on the Eagle!

Sounds like you had trouble sleeping, perhaps the fact that a bedroom is perpindicular to the direction of travel as opposed to parallel like in a roomette takes some getting used to! And weve had lot ofg rain in east Texas this year, that's why you saw so many trees and so much green, it usually burns up by now!

Click to expand...

I hope that's a harbinger of daily TE service! I think the problem I had with sleeping was the fact I partook too much of the bottled water and coffee, and found the whole ordeal of getting up and down the top bunk a royal pain. I slept on the lower bunk on the CS (and cut down on the liquids!) and slept quite awhile, for me, anyway.

JayPea said:

After lunch, we were joined for a visit with Winston, an Amtrak personnel supervisor. We had a great talk with him. He said he rides the train maybe three times a month, and at Amtrak board meetings, said many of the board members have never set foot on a train. He said he can go back, and report on exactly what is going on and what needs to be done since he's been there, done that. Great idea! I hope Amtrak does more of that.

Click to expand...

Am really enjoying your reports, nice work! When I rode #1 last Thanksgiving, I met Winston and ended up having a conversation with him during our stop in Alpine. I asked him if the Powers That Be within Amtrak truly review the feedback that pax send or call in to them, and he went out of his way to explain that they really do. He strongly encouraged me to submit feedback as it is warranted and assured me that it gets reviewed all the way up the chain of command. A few months ago on the Empire Builder, a train director named Meg echoed the same sentiments when I asked her a similar question.

They were very genuine about it, and I certainly think about these conversations whenever I provide my feedback to Customer Relations.

Thanks for the report JayPea!

ColdRain&Snow said:

JayPea said:

After lunch, we were joined for a visit with Winston, an Amtrak personnel supervisor. We had a great talk with him. He said he rides the train maybe three times a month, and at Amtrak board meetings, said many of the board members have never set foot on a train. He said he can go back, and report on exactly what is going on and what needs to be done since he's been there, done that. Great idea! I hope Amtrak does more of that.

Click to expand...

Am really enjoying your reports, nice work! When I rode #1 last Thanksgiving, I met Winston and ended up having a conversation with him during our stop in Alpine. I asked him if the Powers That Be within Amtrak truly review the feedback that pax send or call in to them, and he went out of his way to explain that they really do. He strongly encouraged me to submit feedback as it is warranted and assured me that it gets reviewed all the way up the chain of command. A few months ago on the Empire Builder, a train director named Meg echoed the same sentiments when I asked her a similar question.

They were very genuine about it, and I certainly think about these conversations whenever I provide my feedback to Customer Relations.

Thanks for the report JayPea!

Click to expand...

Winston struck me as very sincere, and committed to doing his job well so that Amtrak and its employees can continue to improve. They need more like Winston!

Day 4: Tuscon-Los Angeles (TE)

Los Angeles-Oakland (CS)

Once again I slept like a baby and was up every hour. :blink: I did fall asleep right after we got going from Tuscon, but woke up at the Maricopa stop. We were late getting into Maricopa, and stopped there several minutes later than the 10 minutes scheduled for the stop, so lost more time. After being up and down, up and down, I gave up after sometime after our stop at Yuma and went to shower. I had no idea where we were or how late we were until Palm Springs, at which we were about 50 minutes late. We had breakfast early, during which I had scrambled eggs, which were good as usual. We were seated with two ladies who said nothing the entire time. Our attendant George told us that Amtrak was finally getting into the 21st century and instituting a POS system for the dining car, like every restaurant and every other business in the US. In fact the training was going to begin on a run from LA to San Diego the next day. Good news, I'm sure, for dining car attendants.

We lost more time due to very heavy freight traffic, and were as much as 1 hour and 15 minutes late into Ontario. We did get another great visit by Winston in the meantime.

Due to padding in the schedule, we arrived in Los Angeles about 10 minutes late. We headed to the Traxx lounge, which I found adequate but nothing to write home to Mother about. As soon as we had our tickets collected we walked up the ramp to the platform. The CS was late pulling into the station and would leave about 20 minutes late. The consist:

2 engines

baggage car

trans-dorm

3 sleepers

PPC (yeah!)

Diner

SSL

4 coaches, one of which (second or third one in the consist, I don't remember now) had the arcade area in the downstairs. Toni, our car attendant, greeted us at the door, and shortly after boarding Trish, our dining car attendant, took our lunch reservations.

Because we were late, we were at the mercy of the dispatchers. We were held up almost right away by a commuter train. We wandered back to the PPC, and it was everything as advertised! Now that's the way to travel! Greg was the PPC attendant. Very knowledgeable, very friendly, very efficient. Glad we got him instead of the infamous Mark! We stayed in the PPC until lunch. We would have stayed but didn't like the limited menu. Near Simi Valley, we were held up for quite a lengthy time as the dispatcher held us up to run a special train bound for the Ventura County Fair. Kenneth, our conductor, made no attempt to hide his annoyance at this. We finally got underway, however. About this time, Harold, one of the SCA's in another car, made the announcement about the bottles of champagne or cider. Unfortunately, he made that announcement over the train-wide PA. I wonder if he caused a riot in the coaches when they found out they weren't entitled to them :lol: .

At lunch I had the Angus burger. We were seated with a couple from San Francisco who had flown to Los Angeles and taken the train back up. As was to be expected, there were no seats available in the PPC after lunch.

We were about 45 minutes late by the time we got to Santa Barbara, and we would be a little late for most of the journey to Seattle. Somehow on my last trip on the CS I missed the huge fig tree at the Santa Barbara station. :wacko: This time I got pictures of it , big as life. The view down the coast wasn't as spectacular as it might have been, due to fog along the coast for a good portion of the trip.

As I was seated on the right side of the train, away from the ocean, and the ocean was foggy most of the way anyway, I chose to view Vandenburg Air Force base instead. It was interesting in its own right. At San Luis Obispo, we had a short smoke break.

From there, as we made the run up through the S curves, I bounced back and forth from the window in our car to the window on the opposite side, filming and taking still pictures. Uncle Amfan was at the back of the train, with a gizmo that attaches to the window with suction that he attaches his video camera to so that he can film continuously without holding the camera. Some people think of everything! During the ride up the coast, among other things, Toni had to make an announcement that some of the toilets weren't being flushed, that the call button was pushed again. Never heard of that before until the day before on the TE! These were Superliner I, and had a huge button in 2 inch high letters saying FLUSH. And a girl claimed her purse had been stolen and accused Toni of not doing her job in watching the room. Turns out she'd left it in the PPC. And a guy was booted out of the PPC because he was from the coaches. There were also a number of kids running up and down the aisles of the train, with their parents looking on and not doing a thing about it, even with constant and increasingly terse warnings about running on the train.

We had dinner around Salinas, and were seated with a couple who looked like they would have been right at home in the 1960's. They were very nice, and were avid train buffs. I had salmon, and it was excellent!

On the platform at San Jose, we met up with a man who had authored a couple of Amtrak books. More about him here: http://discuss.amtraktrains.com/index.php?/topic/33812-wonderful-gesture/page__pid__245166__st__0entry245166

The view from San Jose to Oakland was great, though it was dark. The lights of the cities shining on the water were to me beautiful. In a yard just outside Oakland, I saw a very long train--30 to 40 cars--that were part of the Barnum and Bailey and Ringling Bros. Circus.

At Oakland, while enjoying a breath of fresh air, Toni told us to make sure to push the call button to let her know to put the beds down. After the problems she'd had with people pushing the call button instead of pushing the FLUSH button, I told her if I wanted her I'd just flush the toilet instead. :lol: That gave her her laugh of the day.

We had the beds made up just after Oakland. I got the lower bunk this time and was sound asleep before we ever got to Emeryville.

Day 5: Final day (Oakland-Seattle)

After sleeping almost 7 hours straight, which must be a new Amtrak record for me, I woke up at 5:00 AM, just after our stop in Redding. Somewhere along the route we'd lost a lot of time and were almost 1 hour and 45 minutes late into Redding. I got up, grabbed a shower, and was back in our room dressed and ready for the day, just as we departed Dunsmuir. We had gained a lot of time into Dunsmuir, as we were now only about an hour down, and we in fact made up that time so that we got into Klamath Falls a few minutes early. The Northern California scenery is so spectacular! Mount Shasta was in its full splendor rising above the landscape. This part of the journey is very scenic and glad I was able to see it. We had breakfast in the parlor car, and the scrambled eggs and the rest of the breakfast was great. Greg, the server and parlor car attendant, did a great job. At Klamath Falls, I got out for a breath of fresh air and it was here that I discovered our traveling author from the night before was indeed Mauris Emeka. North of Klamath Falls, I was filming Upper Klamath Lake when the conductor stopped by (I never did get his name as his name badge was covered by his lapels) and showed myself and Uncle Amfan an album of pictures he'd taken, part of proofs he'd made for possible use on the Amtrak calendar. These were great photos! He proceeded to give us our own personal travelogue of the area for the next several minutes, pointing out sights along the way that we'd never have gotten otherwise. Nice on his part!

After the stop in Chemult, I wandered to the parlor car to film the trip through the Oregon Cascades while Uncle Amfan went to the rear of the train to do the same. It doesn't get any better than this: riding in the comfort of the Parlor car, filming and enjoying the great scenery. I've seen videos and pictures of this area in winter and can just imagine how great it looks then here. I stayed in the parlor car until the trip through the mountains was winding down. A few miles out of Eugene, along the Fall Creek Reservoir, we had to wait for several minutes due to freight traffic. This rarely occurred anywhere along the whole trip. At least we had a scenic setting for our wait. Right at the Eugene stop, we had lunch. I had the turkey sandwich, and it was great, as was the food the whole trip. Joining us for lunch were two young college-aged or slightly older women from Manchester, England. It was delightful to talk to them, hearing about their adventures in the States. They evidently had a pass, as they said they'd started in San Diego, went to Monterrey for a few days, and then to Yosemite. They were on their way to Seattle, where they were going to the San Juan Islands, among other things, and then head back to their home country, by way of a flight first to Calgary, Alberta, then home. I don't envy them their flight home! It was interesting to hear their impressions of our country. Hard as it may be to believe sometime we natives of the US get so accustomed to our views of our country that it's hard to believe those from other countries might just have another view. At times their British accent was hard to understand. (Yes, Caravanman, I know: What accent? :lol: ).

After having to stop prior to Eugene, we gradually lost time in our travels through Oregon, to the point we were about 45 minutes late into Salem. We made some of that up, and were about half an hour late into Portland. Once in Portland, we could see the Empire Builder was already in the station area, ready for boarding. There was a Cascades train there, too, so I was able to photograph all three trains at one time. We left Portland 15 minutes behind schedule, and would remain behind schedule all the way into Seattle, where we were early. Our last meal on the CS was shared with an elderly couple from Southern California. The man did all the talking, while his wife barely said anything. The man was interesting, but complained constantly about how rough the tracks were. Trackage in SW Washington is rough, all right, but there are places it's a lot worse. I again had the salmon and again it was great.

Upon arrival into Seattle, we grabbed a cab for our hotel (Moore Hotel) and, after getting checked in, we wandered down to the Pike Place Market and on to the waterfront, where we took a late evening stroll before heading back to the hotel and watching a replay of the Marginals yet again choking away a game they had won, in Baltimore. :angry:

The next day, we had breakfast in Pike Place (Lowell's where I had those fantastic dungeness crab omelettes), and then took a boat cruise, going as far as the locks and back. We headed to the Space Needle next, where we enjoyed the views. My brother-in-law picked us up there and we began the agonizingly slow drive to my nephew's house, on the south side of Seattle. A short journey, estimated by GPS to take 12 minutes, was instead over an hour long.

At dinner that night, eight of my family members and I ate at the Crab Pot, on the waterfront, and it was, shall we say, very interesting. Almost an hour's wait, and we ordered a combo (one of those that at least two people have to order and several more can) for 7. Included mainly was shellfish. The waiter and assistant just comes to the table, and dumps the food right on the middle of the table. And you serve yourself from there. Kind of reminded me of slopping hogs at feeding time. Don't know as it was worth the wait nor the price, but it was a very interesting experience, to say the least.

AUTOMOBILES:

The next morning I made the journey back to my side of Washington with my brother-in-law, sister, mom, and my 1 year old great-nephew, whom my sister and brother-in-law were babysitting for a few days. Nothing remarkable in the trip, but it did point out something: over the years there has been occasional talk about a day train from Spokane to Seattle. Currently the EB makes the journey in over 8 hours. From my hotel door to my sister'r door (about half an hour west of Spokane), with a 1/2 hour lunch break, was 4 1/2 hours. And flying between the two takes an hour. Unfortunately increased service between the two probably isn't feasible due to the time it takes.

OVERALL IMPRESSIONS:

Overall the journey from Bloomington to Seattle was very interesting. The help, with the exception of the dining car crew on the TE, was excellent throughout, with George and crew on the SL/TE the best I've ever had. The food on all trains was great, again, as good as I've had. If I haven't mentioned her before, the server on the CS, Shelly, did a great job and was very enjoyable to converse with. She obviously loves her job (or fakes it well!)

The equipment on the train had very little issues. The air-conditioning on both trains worked as it was supposed to. And other than the Superliner II toilets conking out for a few hours between Alpine and El Paso, they worked all the way through. And as it was only the upper level toilets that quit functioning, and our car attendant reset the toilets every so often, it wasn't as big a thing as it could have been.

From people who didn't know how to open doors to people who didn't know how to flush the toilets, from Chihuahuas on board to sick people being taken off board, meeting author Mauris Emeka and Amtrak personnel supervisor Winston, not to mention a conductor who is an accomplished photographer, and all the other assorted travelers I met as well, this will be one trip not soon forgotten.

Pictures to follow when I get around to it!

... a great read .... thank you!