Houston - Los Angeles - Portland - St. Paul

Part 1 Sunset Limited

Mrs. Ispolkom and I just completed a five-day, five-night, one-zone, 20,000-point AGR award trip, traveling Houston to Los Angeles on the Sunset Limited, Los Angeles to Portland on the Coast Starlight, and finally Portland to St. Paul on the Empire Builder. We were in Bedroom E on each train, which simplified filling out meal vouchers.

This trip was planned last March, after Amtrak announced it was raising the redemption rate for bedrooms. We had a friend in Houston we wanted to visit, and noticed that Houston Grand Opera was performing the classical musical “Show Boat” on Martin Luther King weekend. Thus a plan was born.

I called AGR to arrange the trip, and actually asked if we could be booked on the bus to Longview, then on the Texas Eagle to Chicago, overnight there and head west on the Empire Builder. Nope, that wasn’t allowed, because of the overnight stopover. The agent then explained that the only allowed routing was via Los Angeles and Portland, and that since the route both began and ended in the Central Zone, it was a one-zone award. Who am I to argue? Later, I kicked myself for not getting the two-bedroom suite, but I shouldn’t be so greedy.

I won’t waste time on describing Houston, except to suggest that any visitor have lunch at the Hub Cap Grill.

We arrived at the Houston train station at about 5:15 p.m., for a 6:55 p.m. departure. I wanted plenty of time to retrieve our bags from the station agent and to look around the station before we took our train. I was struck by the 10-12 TSA agents we found waiting on the platform, most of them wearing their pistols in thigh holsters. So many agents for a train that only runs three times a week? What do they do the other days?

I was even more surprised by the arrival of our train, more than an hour early. We retrieved our bags and tipped the station agent. I wanted to make a brief stop before boarding, but the agent was very insistent that we board first, before the coach passengers. It didn't make any difference to us, but it did to her.

On boarding the train, we found that our room wasn't ready, having just been vacated by a Houston-bound passenger. We left our bags in the downstairs rack and went to dinner. The train was so early that we had finished dessert before we left Houston. We looked out the dining car window to see the TSA agents standing around in two circles. I thought that they were talking to each other, but Mrs. Ispolkom suggested that they were about to do the Hokey-Pokey. It doesn’t seem a good use of their time, but at least no passengers were being bothered.

Our trip on the Sunset Limited was pleasantly uneventful. Our SCA, Yvonne, was very efficient, the dining car crew was pleasant, and we were almost always early to stations. We spent nearly an hour in Alpine (where you can get wifi access on the train from the Holland Hotel), and in El Paso (where we bought a red chili burrito from the Burrito Lady). Our sleeping car was a refurbished Superliner I, as were the sleeing cars on the other two trains. The dinner special was lamb shank, an old favorite.

The night before our arrival in Los Angeles, Yvonne told us at least twice that we didn’t have to leave the car on arrival, but could stay in it until 6:30 a.m. When we did arrive at Los Angeles at about 5 a.m., I did here a general announcement, but then went back to sleep. Eventually, though, the smell of coffee got us up, and we left the train to spend a few hours walking around Los Angeles.

Nice start to the trip, good to see a sense of dry humour peeping through!

Bon Voyage!

Ed

Part 2 Coast Starlight

After leaving the Sunset Limited, we sat in the waiting room a few minutes, drinking our coffee from the sleeping car and people watching. The most entertaining were the eight TSA agents (more thigh holsters, of course) who strode past two by two, like the gods entering Valhalla. Wouldn’t they provide more security by splitting up? On the other hand, they weren’t bothering paying passengers with their stroll, so perhaps it was for the best. We found no one at the baggage claim, but a red cap was happy to check our bags, and even seemed surprised at our tip.

Breakfast was at Philippe’s. No dip sandwiches were available when we arrived, so we tried the normal breakfast. Great breakfast potatoes, made from real potatoes. We then followed a walking tour through Chinatown, which was informative and a good way to stretch our legs between trains.

We returned to Los Angeles Union Station after boarding, retrieved our luggage, and proceeded to the train. We were happy to see a Pacific Parlour Car behind the sleeping cars, and after dropping our luggage we moved there for the ride up the Pacific coast. The last two times we were on this route we saw little because of the fog. Today, though, was cloudy but clear, and we enjoyed watching for wildlife: cormorants, pelicans, red-tailed hawks, dolphins (or maybe porpoises), etc. Once I even saw a whale’s tail fluke slap the water.

We ate all our meals in the PPC, if for no other reason than because it has a different menu. Traveling five days by Amtrak, the dining car menu becomes repetitive, so it was nice to have the Greek salad and other different choices. Our PPC attendant, offered Coast Starlight swag (wine glasses, playing cards, pins) for sale after the wine tasting, encouraging purchase of the wine glasses by offering to fill them some of the wine remaining after the tasting. That sold us.

We were early to Klamath Falls, and learned that Phil the Conductor had retired. He worked the Klamath Falls – Eugene route, and generally held forth to passengers in the Pacific Parlour Car. I enjoyed his stories, and hope that he’s enjoying his retirement.

Our arrival in Portland gave us an hour before the departure of our last train. After stashing our luggage in the Metropolitan Lounge, I took this opportunity to replenish our liquor supply. I remembered a store I’d seen while riding the streetcar in November. Walk up Broadway towards the bridge, and turn left at the light on the elevated highway. Walk past the traffic light, and there’s an excellent liquor store on your left, with a wide selection of local beer, wine, and spirits.

When we returned to the Metropolitan Lounge, I didn’t pay attention to the three gentlemen standing by the big duffle bag at the front of the room. I sat down with my back to them and tried to use the free wifi. It was only when I heard a scrabbling noise behind me that I turned around to see that the three guys had been joined by a uniformed policeman with a dog. (For completeness, I should note that the policeman carried his sidearm in a belt holster, like a normal person.) The dog seemed very enthusiastic about the duffle bag.

At this point, we were told that the Empire Builder was boarding, but I was too interested in the dog and pony show to leave. The uniformed officer walked the dog around the Metropolitan Lounge. The dog sniffed everyone and everything and showed no interest in anything. Finally (at this point almost everyone had left the Metropolitan Lounge), the officer led the dog back to the suspect duffle bag, and once again the dog went nuts, until finally he (the dog, that is) was given his squeaky toy as a reward. At this point Mrs. Ispolkom nudged me, reminding me that the police now had probable cause to search the duffle bag, and that we should really board our train. As we walked to the train, we decided that of the three original guys, the two glum looking ones must the duffle bag owners, while the third was probably a plainclothes cop, who had called the canine unit.

thanks for the trip report....

May be missing something ----- 1 ZONE?????

Edited - Gotcha, I wouldnt argue either!!!!

Nice report. You were lucky to get the one zone trip!!

Enjoyed and always look forward to the next installment!

Part 3 Empire Builder

We were about the last passengers to board our sleeper, because of our interest in the drama in the Metropolitan Lounge. We moved into Bedroom E (our third Bedroom E of the trip), and were soon greeted by Jim, our new SCA. He introduced himself and produced the little bottles of champagne (hey, that’s what it says on the label). He then made a lot of announcements on the PA system, mostly issues for new travelers, that we ignored.

We both got the roast beef cold dinner, which I think is one of the better dinners Amtrak offers. It went especially well with the bottle of Syrah that we had bought on the Coast Starlight. The Columbia River Gorge is a gorgeous ride, but with the sun already setting, we saw none of it. We read for a few hours, and then had Jim put down the bed and went to sleep.

The next morning we were at breakfast when the train arrived in Whitefish. When we finished breakfast we were still in Whitefish. We returned down the length of the train (the walk from the dining car to the Portland sleeper is second in length only to the walk from the Boston sleeper to the dining car on the Lake Shore Limited), and I got another cup of coffee. I was so engrossed in the trashy crime novel I was reading that I didn’t notice that we still weren’t moving until Mrs. Ispolkom got up to investigate. Soon our SCA reported that a BNSF train had derailed in Marias Pass, and that Amtrak would bus us around the derailment to Shelby. About 15 minutes later the conductor made a similar announcement, explaining that buses would arrive for us at the train station at 1 p.m., and that we were free to wander until then.

If you’re going to be marooned in a Montana city on the Hi Line, Whitefish is your best bet. It’s a very prosperous town with an active downtown right next to the depot. Montana Coffee Traders has free wifi (and an excellent cornmeal chili scone), and the Great Northern Brewing Company is located right across the street from the station, in the tallest building in town (three stories).

As promised, the buses did arrive at the depot at 1 p.m., and the stationmaster handed everyone a boxed meal from Subway. The bus ride to Shelby, where we were to meet the westbound Empire Builder, took about three hours. The road was in good condition, but was so heavily sanded that the side windows of our bus were quickly covered by a smear of grime. I heard that others saw the derailment, but while I saw several eastbound trains stopped in the past, I didn’t see any locomotives on the ground.

We arrived in Shelby about 90 minutes before the westbound train did, which was fine by me. Any number of times I’ve walked up and down the Shelby platform, looking at a couple of dives across the way. Now I had a chance to visit them. If you are ever in Shelby, stick to the Oil City Saloon. It’s much nicer than the Oasis (the other of the two dives), it’s closer to the Shelby depot, and it has free (or at least unsecured) wifi. Heck, the Oil City even has a big sign welcoming Amtrak passengers.

The westbound train arrived at 5:30, and I was very impressed by the speed with which its passengers were decanted into the waiting buses, and we were put on the train. The three locomotives were run around to the back of the train, and within an hour we were off heading east.

Our SCA on this leg was our old friend, Joe, who we’ve traveled with many times before. I was impressed by how clean the room was. Soon after our departure, the dining car summoned us sleeper passengers for dinner, after which a call was made for coach passengers. Walking through the cars, we noticed that the Seattle coaches had seats facing forward, while the Portland coaches (which had boarded first) had seats facing backward.

Our last night on the train made Mrs. Ispolkom and I decide that five straight nights on the train is one or two too many. I woke up every couple of hours (once noting at 5:15 a.m. that we were in Minot, which made us 8 hours late), and we both had back aches when we got up for breakfast. I was surprised that we weren’t kept up more by the locomotive whistle, since we were at the front of the reversed train, but we really didn’t notice it.

One advantage of a late train is that you see country that otherwise is lost in the darkness. On an earlier trip on the Empire Builder, we got to see the mountains of Washington and Idaho that way. On this trip, though, we got to see such landmarks as the Barrel o’ Fun potato chip plant in Perham, the grim granite wall of St. Cloud Penitentiary, and Staple’s single traffic light (it’s a beauty, complete with left turn signals). I did have a chance, though, to actually step out of the train in Fargo, a city I’ve been sleeping through for thirty years on the Empire Builder.

Our train eventually arrived in St. Paul at 3:20, 8-1/4 hours late. Not bad for a derailment, I thought.

Not that you’d know that from some passengers. Maybe I’m an Amtrak apologist, but I was amazed at the amount of whining I heard: Why are we staying so long in Whitefish? Why couldn’t they turn the train around? Why haven’t we made up time? How come I ended up with a (free) turkey sandwich when I’d rather have ham? It went on and on.

It was a great trip, but we were happy to be home. Our next train trip will be shorter, Kansas City – St. Louis – Chicago. Thanks for reading this excessively long report, but it was a long trip, after all.

Ispolkom said:

Our SCA on this leg was our old friend, Joe, who we’ve traveled with many times before.

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Interesting! Usually they swap the crews too, right along with the passengers. So I'm surprised that you got a new attendant. Very interesting!

Ispolkom said:

Not that you’d know that from some passengers. Maybe I’m an Amtrak apologist, but I was amazed at the amount of whining I heard: Why are we staying so long in Whitefish? Why couldn’t they turn the train around? Why haven’t we made up time? How come I ended up with a (free) turkey sandwich when I’d rather have ham? It went on and on.

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For some it doesn't matter what you do, even running 100% on time and with perfect attendants & immaculate and new equipment, and you'll still find someone who complains. When things do go wrong through no fault of Amtrak, or any company, the number of complaints magnifies dramatically no matter how well the company actually manages to handle things. A sad fact of life!

Thanks for the report!

Interesting trip report. It makes me wish I could be on a late-running train with major delays so I could check out some of the cities. Thanks for sharing.

Everydaymatters said:

Interesting trip report. It makes me wish I could be on a late-running train with major delays so I could check out some of the cities. Thanks for sharing.

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Be careful what you wish for. We were stuck in Whitefish for a morning. Amamba was stuck in Glasgow for a day. I'm a born-and-bred Hi Liner, but Mrs. Ispolkom, who is also from Rhode Island, informs me that dusty Montana cowtowns* are an acquired taste, no matter how many dinosaurs they have.

*Not that Whitefish is a cowtown. It's a chi-chi ski town, filled with rich easterners.

I love that you and Mrs both have a sense of humor and turn everything into an adventure.. what better way is there to live life

You make delays sound like an opportunity for more adventure!

Ispolkom said:

Part 1 Sunset Limited
Mrs. Ispolkom and I just completed a five-day, five-night, one-zone, 20,000-point AGR award trip, traveling Houston to Los Angeles on the Sunset Limited, Los Angeles to Portland on the Coast Starlight, and finally Portland to St. Paul on the Empire Builder. We were in Bedroom E on each train, which simplified filling out meal vouchers.

This trip was planned last March, after Amtrak announced it was raising the redemption rate for bedrooms. We had a friend in Houston we wanted to visit, and noticed that Houston Grand Opera was performing the classical musical “Show Boat” on Martin Luther King weekend. Thus a plan was born.

I called AGR to arrange the trip, and actually asked if we could be booked on the bus to Longview, then on the Texas Eagle to Chicago, overnight there and head west on the Empire Builder. Nope, that wasn’t allowed, because of the overnight stopover. The agent then explained that the only allowed routing was via Los Angeles and Portland, and that since the route both began and ended in the Central Zone, it was a one-zone award. Who am I to argue? Later, I kicked myself for not getting the two-bedroom suite, but I shouldn’t be so greedy.

I won’t waste time on describing Houston, except to suggest that any visitor have lunch at the Hub Cap Grill.

We arrived at the Houston train station at about 5:15 p.m., for a 6:55 p.m. departure. I wanted plenty of time to retrieve our bags from the station agent and to look around the station before we took our train. I was struck by the 10-12 TSA agents we found waiting on the platform, most of them wearing their pistols in thigh holsters. So many agents for a train that only runs three times a week? What do they do the other days?

I was even more surprised by the arrival of our train, more than an hour early. We retrieved our bags and tipped the station agent. I wanted to make a brief stop before boarding, but the agent was very insistent that we board first, before the coach passengers. It didn't make any difference to us, but it did to her.

On boarding the train, we found that our room wasn't ready, having just been vacated by a Houston-bound passenger. We left our bags in the downstairs rack and went to dinner. The train was so early that we had finished dessert before we left Houston. We looked out the dining car window to see the TSA agents standing around in two circles. I thought that they were talking to each other, but Mrs. Ispolkom suggested that they were about to do the Hokey-Pokey. It doesn’t seem a good use of their time, but at least no passengers were being bothered.

Our trip on the Sunset Limited was pleasantly uneventful. Our SCA, Yvonne, was very efficient, the dining car crew was pleasant, and we were almost always early to stations. We spent nearly an hour in Alpine (where you can get wifi access on the train from the Holland Hotel), and in El Paso (where we bought a red chili burrito from the Burrito Lady). Our sleeping car was a refurbished Superliner I, as were the sleeing cars on the other two trains. The dinner special was lamb shank, an old favorite.

The night before our arrival in Los Angeles, Yvonne told us at least twice that we didn’t have to leave the car on arrival, but could stay in it until 6:30 a.m. When we did arrive at Los Angeles at about 5 a.m., I did here a general announcement, but then went back to sleep. Eventually, though, the smell of coffee got us up, and we left the train to spend a few hours walking around Los Angeles.

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I've always wanted to take the Sunset across Texas. By the way, how was Showboat?

a man going to la crosse wi about the same date arrived in la crosse from portland with 30,000 dollars of drugs in a duffle bag and was picked up by local police and canine dog. la crosse police were alerted by amtrak police to be on alert. bad person got off the coach car and not the sleeper and dog smelled bag and than sat down at bag. look up iitem in la crosse tribune news paper.

como said:

.I've always wanted to take the Sunset across Texas. By the way, how was Showboat?

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Showboat was great. The costumes were great, and the choreography was spectacular. The two standouts from a really high-talent cast were Marietta Simpson as Queenie and Sasha Cooke as Magnolia. I'd seen Cooke before singing Mahler, and did not expect such good dancing out of here. No amplification of singing, only a trifle for spoken dialogue (which is only fair, I think, since singers don't know how to project their speaking voice). The big problem I found was that the chorus' diction was often poor. If you didn't know what they were singing, it was hard to understand. Of course that's often true of opera choruses, who are usually safer singing in a language most of the audience doesn't understand. The dialogue wasn't changed, so a certain word was used on stage that is now rightly considered an obscenity, but wasn't then. It didn't bother me, as I prefer my art unexpurgated.

Mrs. Ispolkom liked the show so much she wants to see the production again when San Francisco revives it, with Nathan Gunn as Ravenal.