Our westward return tickets were for the Capitol Limited from DC to Chicago, same-day transfer to the Southwest Chief and then another same-day transfer to the Coast Starlight up to San Jose. Here is the thread for our eastward trip.
We were in a family bedroom for the CL and SWC since we'd planned for 3 to travel. However, while my daughter and I had cleared the COVID protocol to travel, my spouse had rebounded. With a persistent and strong cough, she could not get on a train with us. She'd fly 3 days later. That decision came down to the night before departure, so at DC I spoke to the Metropolitan Lounge deskman and he was able to refund us her fare minus a $75 day-of fee. There is a thread here that says this policy has now been changed. Maybe our $75 fee was the 25% mentioned there.
We added a NE Regional one-stop trip from New Carrolton to DC to make our drop off easier. We sat long enough for a leisurely pack of Milano cookies and a cup of tea, and then we loaded up. I particularly enjoyed the ascent into West Virginia as our last Capitol Limited ride had been just after New Year, and we'd passed through Harper's Ferry just as sunlight was fading. Getting to see Harper's Ferry, where I visited cousins in my youth, was wonderful and jogged some memories.
The Capitol Limited is easy -- dinner, a quick look out the window and time for bed. Then the next day you wake up and remember that you're getting an extra hour as the train has yet to cross into Central Time. As usual with the Capitol Limited, we were right on schedule, and before you know it, it's time to gather your things.
I will say that this was my first time in the family bedroom. I am always in the top bunk as my daughter doesn't like to think about falling out of the top. I found I didn't like sleeping oriented across the tracks instead of aligned with them, but it wasn't a problem on the CL.
My daughter and I are now pros at Chicago Union station. We dropped our bags at the Metro Lounge, ran up to the second floor for our preferred breakfasts as the commuters dashed by to their jobs and then we settled back into the Lounge.
We made an on-time departure, arranged ourselves in our room and went to dinner. We were on a Superliner II for the first time, and the upper bunk seemed more confining than the Superliner I -- I'm not sure if the overhead clearance is smaller or there was a difference in the diagonal arm across the bed, but immediately upon climbing in, I felt more confined in this bunk. I also found I had the sensation of my head being lower than my feet with my head on the window side. I slept a lot better with my head more in the center of the car.
We were running about an hour behind as we crossed into Colorado the next morning, and that held for most of the day. We tried to pick out Pike's Peak and as we went through New Mexico passed a herd of about 40 deer standing and watching the train from 30-40 yards away. We went to dinner and sat with a couple of retired government workers from DC -- one of whom had spent her career in the FBI, going back to J. Edgar Hoover's last years. We had the most literary discussion I've been in in a long time about Isabel Wilkerson books. It was certainly one of my favorite dining car experiences.
That night we had a complete rerun of our eastward experience. We went to bed pretty much on time and woke up to a multi-hour deficit due to a disabled freight train. Eastward we'd lost 8 hours, this time we went from an hour behind to more than 6 hours behind. Instead of waking up near Riverside, we woke up still in Arizona.
Our rebooking came through as a train to Santa Barbara and then an overnight bus to San Jose, arriving at 4am. I called and proposed either that they put us up in LA for the night and send us out the next day, or they could rebook us on the Surfliner up to Grover Beach and we'd get home from there. Maybe I should have asked that they book us a hotel there, too, as part of that deal -- I didn't think about it being a summer Saturday night at the beach.
But Amtrak made the latter happen -- we were booked on the 777 Surfliner. My spouse flew into SFO before we arrived in LA. She gamely agreed to come join us at Grover Beach. On the Surfliner, we got to enjoy the water and sunset until the fog came in around Guadalupe. The next day we found breakfast and strolled through the surf for an hour before driving home.
We combined for 14 hours late on our 2 western LD trains and experienced busted connections each way. We ran up enough in vouchers for one of us to go almost anywhere. We've run up enough points to get two of us across country, and I moved into Select Plus for the year. Also, our daughter has announced after this trip and our winter debacle with Southwest Airlines that she just wants to stay home.
We're already booked for roundtrips to Albuquerque and Central Texas, in the next 9 months, though, so we'll see how she's feeling after those.
We were in a family bedroom for the CL and SWC since we'd planned for 3 to travel. However, while my daughter and I had cleared the COVID protocol to travel, my spouse had rebounded. With a persistent and strong cough, she could not get on a train with us. She'd fly 3 days later. That decision came down to the night before departure, so at DC I spoke to the Metropolitan Lounge deskman and he was able to refund us her fare minus a $75 day-of fee. There is a thread here that says this policy has now been changed. Maybe our $75 fee was the 25% mentioned there.
We added a NE Regional one-stop trip from New Carrolton to DC to make our drop off easier. We sat long enough for a leisurely pack of Milano cookies and a cup of tea, and then we loaded up. I particularly enjoyed the ascent into West Virginia as our last Capitol Limited ride had been just after New Year, and we'd passed through Harper's Ferry just as sunlight was fading. Getting to see Harper's Ferry, where I visited cousins in my youth, was wonderful and jogged some memories.
The Capitol Limited is easy -- dinner, a quick look out the window and time for bed. Then the next day you wake up and remember that you're getting an extra hour as the train has yet to cross into Central Time. As usual with the Capitol Limited, we were right on schedule, and before you know it, it's time to gather your things.
I will say that this was my first time in the family bedroom. I am always in the top bunk as my daughter doesn't like to think about falling out of the top. I found I didn't like sleeping oriented across the tracks instead of aligned with them, but it wasn't a problem on the CL.
My daughter and I are now pros at Chicago Union station. We dropped our bags at the Metro Lounge, ran up to the second floor for our preferred breakfasts as the commuters dashed by to their jobs and then we settled back into the Lounge.
We made an on-time departure, arranged ourselves in our room and went to dinner. We were on a Superliner II for the first time, and the upper bunk seemed more confining than the Superliner I -- I'm not sure if the overhead clearance is smaller or there was a difference in the diagonal arm across the bed, but immediately upon climbing in, I felt more confined in this bunk. I also found I had the sensation of my head being lower than my feet with my head on the window side. I slept a lot better with my head more in the center of the car.
We were running about an hour behind as we crossed into Colorado the next morning, and that held for most of the day. We tried to pick out Pike's Peak and as we went through New Mexico passed a herd of about 40 deer standing and watching the train from 30-40 yards away. We went to dinner and sat with a couple of retired government workers from DC -- one of whom had spent her career in the FBI, going back to J. Edgar Hoover's last years. We had the most literary discussion I've been in in a long time about Isabel Wilkerson books. It was certainly one of my favorite dining car experiences.
That night we had a complete rerun of our eastward experience. We went to bed pretty much on time and woke up to a multi-hour deficit due to a disabled freight train. Eastward we'd lost 8 hours, this time we went from an hour behind to more than 6 hours behind. Instead of waking up near Riverside, we woke up still in Arizona.
Our rebooking came through as a train to Santa Barbara and then an overnight bus to San Jose, arriving at 4am. I called and proposed either that they put us up in LA for the night and send us out the next day, or they could rebook us on the Surfliner up to Grover Beach and we'd get home from there. Maybe I should have asked that they book us a hotel there, too, as part of that deal -- I didn't think about it being a summer Saturday night at the beach.
But Amtrak made the latter happen -- we were booked on the 777 Surfliner. My spouse flew into SFO before we arrived in LA. She gamely agreed to come join us at Grover Beach. On the Surfliner, we got to enjoy the water and sunset until the fog came in around Guadalupe. The next day we found breakfast and strolled through the surf for an hour before driving home.
We combined for 14 hours late on our 2 western LD trains and experienced busted connections each way. We ran up enough in vouchers for one of us to go almost anywhere. We've run up enough points to get two of us across country, and I moved into Select Plus for the year. Also, our daughter has announced after this trip and our winter debacle with Southwest Airlines that she just wants to stay home.
We're already booked for roundtrips to Albuquerque and Central Texas, in the next 9 months, though, so we'll see how she's feeling after those.
