Back from the trip! We had a great time... we stayed ahead of schedule untill Alpine, Tx, when the border patrol bordered the train and starting questioning a few people in coach and in the sleepers about naturalization stuff...weird..... Interesting how the staff on the train were keeping us informed of just about everything happening on the train up until this point. I told my wife that I thought that the conductor was about to let us know when he was going to head to the bathroom; thats how informed they were keeping us... While we were on a 30 minute stop in Alpine; it quickly became 90+ minutes, and the only thing heard was the conductor telling the staff one by one to come to the "IC".. We pulled out almost 2 hours down and it was on to the conductor talking about the scenery again... I guess Amtrak wanted to "protect" us from knowing anything that could rock our vacation...lol
The other surprise was our attendant . He was very nice and a very tenured employee; 38+ years. He stopped in with us to say hello and asked if we had ever rode on a train...etc... When we said "YES" and we love it.. and he saw that we knew how to convert the room for the night, that evening. I have to assume that he figured that was all he was there for.. For the rest of the trip we didn't hear or see anything out of him. He spoke to us when we were about an hour from LAX. asking us if we had a good time...thats was it..
The trip into Austin was great, quite a few people boarded and on to San Antonio..i was impressed that we stayed on time through every stop.. We pulled into San Antonio on time and decide that we would hit the racks and get some sleep. We woke up to getting , seriously, I do not make light of this statement... thrown around like a rag doll... stuff was shifting all over the place in our room... my wifes make-up was thrown off the ledge and onto the lower bunk. The rail yard was, of course, hooking us up to the Sunset Limited when it go into the railyard about midnight. We pulled out of San Antonio and the sleeper was the last car on the train and the dining car was behind the engines. I didn't mind it much, it was a long walk...lol and interesting...lol
I had to laugh when I heard one of the conductors talking to a lady on the lower level of our sleeper and apologizing to her about the train cars orientation. She was so loud we could hear her side of the conversation...lol She was "mortified" that as a "first class passenger" that amtrak would have the audacity to put her in a position to walk through the "steerage" of the train in order to have breakfast, lunch or dinner. They agreed on her having full service to her room by the attendant and not having to "expose" herself to the coach passengers.... so funny!
Speaking of Breakfast, lunch and dinner.. I have to say that the Sunset Limited was a better round of meals... neither trains had a bad meal by any means, but the Limited's were tastier.
The Pecos high bridge was an amazing site!
El Paso was another comic relief momement. We were pulling into the station and three guys, who were obviously at work in a scrap yard close to the yard, decided that everyone on the train needed to see their, how should I say this..... their family jewels...lol What a trip so far!!!! lol
Mexico and Arizona were peaceful... The train even got up to 88mph during the night. very impressed.
We woke up pulling through Yuma.. and on to California. We pulled into Union Station about 2 hours down... Great Trip, once again!
The other surprise was our attendant . He was very nice and a very tenured employee; 38+ years. He stopped in with us to say hello and asked if we had ever rode on a train...etc... When we said "YES" and we love it.. and he saw that we knew how to convert the room for the night, that evening. I have to assume that he figured that was all he was there for.. For the rest of the trip we didn't hear or see anything out of him. He spoke to us when we were about an hour from LAX. asking us if we had a good time...thats was it..
The trip into Austin was great, quite a few people boarded and on to San Antonio..i was impressed that we stayed on time through every stop.. We pulled into San Antonio on time and decide that we would hit the racks and get some sleep. We woke up to getting , seriously, I do not make light of this statement... thrown around like a rag doll... stuff was shifting all over the place in our room... my wifes make-up was thrown off the ledge and onto the lower bunk. The rail yard was, of course, hooking us up to the Sunset Limited when it go into the railyard about midnight. We pulled out of San Antonio and the sleeper was the last car on the train and the dining car was behind the engines. I didn't mind it much, it was a long walk...lol and interesting...lol
I had to laugh when I heard one of the conductors talking to a lady on the lower level of our sleeper and apologizing to her about the train cars orientation. She was so loud we could hear her side of the conversation...lol She was "mortified" that as a "first class passenger" that amtrak would have the audacity to put her in a position to walk through the "steerage" of the train in order to have breakfast, lunch or dinner. They agreed on her having full service to her room by the attendant and not having to "expose" herself to the coach passengers.... so funny!
Speaking of Breakfast, lunch and dinner.. I have to say that the Sunset Limited was a better round of meals... neither trains had a bad meal by any means, but the Limited's were tastier.
The Pecos high bridge was an amazing site!
El Paso was another comic relief momement. We were pulling into the station and three guys, who were obviously at work in a scrap yard close to the yard, decided that everyone on the train needed to see their, how should I say this..... their family jewels...lol What a trip so far!!!! lol
Mexico and Arizona were peaceful... The train even got up to 88mph during the night. very impressed.
We woke up pulling through Yuma.. and on to California. We pulled into Union Station about 2 hours down... Great Trip, once again!
Im Really Surprised though that MEXICO was Peaceful! :lol: :lol: :lol: Arizona is Peaceful because it's still Living in the 18th Century! :help:
