On my way from Ft. Lauderdale back to Spokane courtesy of AGR. I and my uncle are now leaving Albany on the LSL, little over half an hour late after being delayed by 1 hr and 15 minutes at NYP due to swapping out diners.
The fun began on Monday, where, after being groped, degraded, and having my rights trampled on at the hands of the TSA at Spokane and being entirely too stupid to realize it
:lol: I made two very uneventful flights, first to Denver from Spokane and then to Ft. Lauderdale. All flights were on time, and I met up with my uncle, who had flown in from Chicago. We grabbed a cab to our motel, which was lousy. Bright and early on Tuesday we boarded the Silver Meteor, right on time.
Roger Walton was our SCA, very good, very helpful, very capable. We went to breakfast immediately and were seated with a young woman from all over, actually, who was visiting her family in the States. She was working at a restaurant in Ecuador. Her parents were both sailors and amongst other things had lived on a sailboat for 8 years with her parents, sailing around the world. Very interesting story. The SCA, Brenda, and our server, D. Taylor, were both very good. I had the usual, omellette, biscuit, potatoes, and milk. It was very good, as good a meal as I've had on Amtrak, but the service was glacially slow. It took over an hour to get served, but our table guest was so interesting that it didn't matter. We started out on time, but started losing time at each stop. Then, just outside Sanford, we heard a loud popping sound, followed by the train stopping immediately (well, by train standards, anyway) Turns out a hose popped loose, and that causes the train to go into automatic emergency braking mode. After an inspection and seventy - leven tests, we were on our way, having lost about 15 minutes more. We steadily lost time all throughout Florida.
At lunch, we were seated with a young couple on their way back to New York after a Florida vacation. I had the special, meat loaf and mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy. Excellent!
By }acksonville, we were overan hour late. We'd had slow orders throughout Florida, but began to ever so slowly make up time in Georgia. At dinner, I had steak, which was excellent again. We were seated with an older couple from Florida enroute to a wedding in New York. After being behind by up to an hour and a half, we now began to catch up. I retired for the evening around Charleston, but was up on and off all night. After making up a nice chunk of time at Florence, we promptly lost it again when once again the train went into an emergency stop. Turns out the same hose broke loose again. So that was another lost half an hour. We continued to loose time throughout the night, and were 2 hrs late by Petersburg. I awoke for good at Richmond. We once again began to gain ground, and were little over an hour late at Washington DC. At breakfast, which was again glacially slow, I had my usual omelette, biscuit, potatoes, sausage, and milk. Again it was excellent. At first we were seated with two delightful ladies from Miami enroute to Chicago who were only going to have coffee, but when they discovered how latewe were, decided to have breakfast and sit with one of the women's daughters. A mom and her young son were then seated with us. They had almost no command of the English language and the boy had no control over his feet, as the little brat kept kicking my shins under the table :angry: .
After Washington DC, we began to lose time again, even with speeds exceeding 100 mph. We eventually arrived today into NY Penn station 2 hrs late. In New Jersey, we hit 110 mph, and at those speeds, I thought our tired old Viewliner was about to disinigrate.
Thus ended Segment #1, the Silver Meteor. I still prefer a Superliner over a Viewliner, though it is so much simpler to crawl out the upper berth of a Viewliner.
Tomorrow: The LSL report.
The fun began on Monday, where, after being groped, degraded, and having my rights trampled on at the hands of the TSA at Spokane and being entirely too stupid to realize it
:lol: I made two very uneventful flights, first to Denver from Spokane and then to Ft. Lauderdale. All flights were on time, and I met up with my uncle, who had flown in from Chicago. We grabbed a cab to our motel, which was lousy. Bright and early on Tuesday we boarded the Silver Meteor, right on time.Roger Walton was our SCA, very good, very helpful, very capable. We went to breakfast immediately and were seated with a young woman from all over, actually, who was visiting her family in the States. She was working at a restaurant in Ecuador. Her parents were both sailors and amongst other things had lived on a sailboat for 8 years with her parents, sailing around the world. Very interesting story. The SCA, Brenda, and our server, D. Taylor, were both very good. I had the usual, omellette, biscuit, potatoes, and milk. It was very good, as good a meal as I've had on Amtrak, but the service was glacially slow. It took over an hour to get served, but our table guest was so interesting that it didn't matter. We started out on time, but started losing time at each stop. Then, just outside Sanford, we heard a loud popping sound, followed by the train stopping immediately (well, by train standards, anyway) Turns out a hose popped loose, and that causes the train to go into automatic emergency braking mode. After an inspection and seventy - leven tests, we were on our way, having lost about 15 minutes more. We steadily lost time all throughout Florida.
At lunch, we were seated with a young couple on their way back to New York after a Florida vacation. I had the special, meat loaf and mashed potatoes with mushroom gravy. Excellent!
By }acksonville, we were overan hour late. We'd had slow orders throughout Florida, but began to ever so slowly make up time in Georgia. At dinner, I had steak, which was excellent again. We were seated with an older couple from Florida enroute to a wedding in New York. After being behind by up to an hour and a half, we now began to catch up. I retired for the evening around Charleston, but was up on and off all night. After making up a nice chunk of time at Florence, we promptly lost it again when once again the train went into an emergency stop. Turns out the same hose broke loose again. So that was another lost half an hour. We continued to loose time throughout the night, and were 2 hrs late by Petersburg. I awoke for good at Richmond. We once again began to gain ground, and were little over an hour late at Washington DC. At breakfast, which was again glacially slow, I had my usual omelette, biscuit, potatoes, sausage, and milk. Again it was excellent. At first we were seated with two delightful ladies from Miami enroute to Chicago who were only going to have coffee, but when they discovered how latewe were, decided to have breakfast and sit with one of the women's daughters. A mom and her young son were then seated with us. They had almost no command of the English language and the boy had no control over his feet, as the little brat kept kicking my shins under the table :angry: .
After Washington DC, we began to lose time again, even with speeds exceeding 100 mph. We eventually arrived today into NY Penn station 2 hrs late. In New Jersey, we hit 110 mph, and at those speeds, I thought our tired old Viewliner was about to disinigrate.
Thus ended Segment #1, the Silver Meteor. I still prefer a Superliner over a Viewliner, though it is so much simpler to crawl out the upper berth of a Viewliner.
Tomorrow: The LSL report.
