Leg 2 CHI-SLC California Zephyr 5
Had a great stay in Chicago. Ate some deep dish pizza at Lou Malnatis, also ate at Jake Melnicks and others. The food highlight was Bombacignos JC, a deli just south of the Union Station, of which I would highly recommend if you just want a short walk and GREAT food. They by far served the best Italian Beef sandwich I’ve had yet (I was an Al’s guy). We met the owner and he’s the nicest guy, but from the sounds of it I doubt they’ll be in business much longer. As he’s getting older and business is getting more difficult.
We arrived at the station a bit early, about 9:00am for our 2pm departure with the intent on checking a couple of bags and dropping the rest in the Met Lounge then doing some more sightseeing, the Willis (Sears) Tower to be specific. Our Uber driver didn’t know to drop us off on the Canal Street side so I had to manhandle most of our luggage down the stairs at the Adams Street entrance as both escalators were going up. Yes I was too stubborn to just walk to Canal, don’t ask me why, but probably due to my unfamiliarity with Union Station. Anyway we made our way to the luggage check counter, there were only a few people in line so it went quick and headed to the Met Lounge. Upon arrival the host was barking orders like she’d just got out of the military. Are you checking bags? Uh, no, I already did it (I actually didn’t know I could check them directly from this desk). Then it was, carryon bag room is here, don’t put bags in the isle or sticking out in the isle...Yes Ma’am!!! Be back one before your departure time. Period, end of sentence, direct order. We went to do our sightseeing, ate at lunch and returned to a fairly full lounge, which continued to fill and was full (upstairs and downstairs) by departure time. We returned around noon and the breakfast food was still out, it wasn’t until 12:30 or so did the lunch veggies arrive, but once they did the food was restocked and looked good. Most of the lounge was traveling on our train of course. So eventually we all lined up and proceeded to our train, not before the attendants got some further orders in for people doing it wrong. We loaded into the 533 car, a Superliner 2, bedrooms B & C (so we could open the door and make it a suite) with my wife’s parents. I now know what everybody has been saying about these cars, it looked old and tired. The good part is we were nearly full (filling the last few rooms by Burlington), and mostly sold out for the leg, plus our rooms were re-occupied after our departure in SLC, so if Amtrak didn’t make money on this trip, then maybe it should be shut down, as this train was prime to make money. Dollicia was our SCA, and she was wonderful, even when having to apologize that the upstairs bathroom was INOP. About the only big issue this trip was uneven temperature control. If the bedrooms were comfortable, the roomettes would be freezing. But Dollicia kept here sense of humor and a good attitude throughout much complaining about the this issue. The lounge car attendant was again grumpy at best, I’m not having good luck in the lounge, too bad since it’s can actually be a food money maker for the train. Dinner service was good, our waiter Gerard seemed grumpy at first but we figured out his personality the next morning and then had some good laughs with him and gained some mutual respect. The food was just ok compared to the Texas Eagle, the rolls were served cold and 3 of 4 steaks came out not as ordered (all except for mine), deserts served warm on the TE were cold, just not as good. When the cooks opened up the lettuce in Chicago, they discovered it had gone bad and it was too late to replace. So we had to wait until Denver for new lettuce, thus no salads. A large AAA Travel tour group boarded in Denver, taking up the whole last coach. They seemed to be having a great time but between them, the sleeper pax, and other coach pax wanting lunch it overloaded the diner, and there went the new lettuce, so no salads for dinner the second night either. The ride through Nebraska at night seemed a bit rough, but I think I just woke up during the real rough parts and slept ok for most of the night. I did get up early, to meet Mike Jensen (a really nice YouTube videographer in Fort Morgan) and hopped off to say hi, feel free to watch his video from Sept. 12th, that’s the one I’m in. The real amazing part to the trip is we are 2 for 2 on arriving to our destination on time, I’m amazed. All in all, the trip was again really nice, you can’t beat the scenery and the CZ is a heck of a train with some great people.
Consist
Engines 152/170
Baggage 61062
Transition Sleeper 39044
Sleepers 32090, 32076, 32030
Diner 38032
Lounge 33009
Coaches 34001, 31010, 34052