sueb
Train Attendant
We had a good visit in SAF, wrapping up Sunday morning at the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, where I went out into the courtyard at 11am to use my cell phone to call the shuttle to verify our pickup time for the trip to Flagstaff. The SWC was on time so we met the shuttle back at our B & B for the trip to the station. Only us and one other passenger this time.
We decided to wait and eat our picnic lunch on the train since we had such a large breakfast. We saw the eastbound SWC come thru Lamy while waiting for our train. Got to take some photos of that now that I've doped out my new camera.
I reserved coach seats for this leg of our trip since it was only about 6 1/2 hours to Flagstaff. I've seen on this site where AGR members suggest not using points for coach travel, but I had made these reservations before I joined AU. Anyway, this was our 1st experience of the lower level in coach on a Superliner car. LMY is a one-person station so the ticket agent also loads/unloads baggage. In this case both the station agent and the onboard baggage handler were women. I saw them drop at least one suitcase while transferring from the cart to the baggage car. Overall I was not impressed with the staff at Lamy.
There was room at the front of the lower level coach compartment for Matthew's stroller. After we parked it I sat him down in a regular seat so we could use a tray table for eating. We had a belated lunch from leftovers of the previous day's take-out chicken. There were only 2 other pax when we got on, but a group of older ladies joined us at Albuququerque. They were all going to someplace in CA together. One of the people who was in the coach when we boarded was a blind man who looked to be in his 30s. At the service stop in ABQ he got off and played his hand drum on the platform for a while.
After we left ABQ this pax asked me to stop Matthew from making that annoying noise with his keys. Now this pax was sitting about as far from us as he could be and still be in the lower coach compartment. I am suprised he could hear anything from us over the normal train noise. Matthew functions at a 2-year-old level intellectually and he has some autistic behaviors. One such behavior is that he will fiddle with a bunch of keys hung on a lanyard around his neck for hours at a time. It amuses him and is a familiar presence when he is in a strange place. He would not understand if I suddenly took his keys away. He would think he was being punished for something. So I told the other pax I would try to redirect Matthew but I would not take the keys away from him. I also noted that we would be getting offf at Flagstaff and there was a good chance the Matthew would go to sleep before that. The other pax in the compartment supported me and said they were not bothered by the keys. At this point the blind man started to say abusive and profane things about us. Eventually he got up and found the conductor. The conductor came back and asked me to stop Matthew from rattling the keys. The conductor didn't make a big deal about it, nor did he seem especially concerned. I told him what I had told the man before, adding that I did not appreciate the language the blind man was using. By this time the man was clearly saying things that were inappropriate, talking to himself and otherwise behaving in an abnormal way. He went back to his seat, the conductor left and I decided to move Matthew back to his adaptive stroller, even farther away from the blind man. The rest of the ride to FLG was uneventful. I had a couple of long onversations with the older ladies, mostly about Matthew and life with him. They seemed interested. The car attendant offered to get dinner or snacks for the pax and a few took her up on it. I asked her to get me a soda at one point so I could stay awake. By this time Matthew was asleep in his stroller as were most of the pax.
It was after dark when we detrained in Flagstaff. It was a disorganized departure as the car attendant left us standing at the door to the car while she ran 2 or 3 cars away to find a co-worker who could physically handle the ramp to the ground for us. After that man appeared and put down the ramp she was nowhere to be found so I don't feel too back that I was not able to give her a tip. Why they assign a car attendant who cannot handle the ramp to a car where people need it - not just us, there was woman with a walker, too - is beyond me.
We retrieved our checked baggage and our hand luggage. Now the acid test - would the luggage we checked directly thru to FLG from CHI be there? It was and the agent was so relieved that we claimed it. She had been worried all week that someone was missing it. The bag had been there 4 days but we were not charged anything for it. It wasn't a large bag, but I really appreciated the flexibility that option gave us.
The Holiday Inn Express in FLG has a standing arrangement with A Allstar Cab Co to transport Amtrak pax to/from their hotel for free. We phoned them a few minutes out of FLG and they came to pick us up almost immediately. The driver took our luggage into the hotel and I gave him a tip. The next morning the same cab co took us back to the train station to pick up the Flagstaff Express Shuttle to Grand Canyon National Park. It's about a 90 minute drive and the shuttle service has an online site where you can reserve a prepay by credit card. This is not one of the shuttle services Amtrak promotes but I found the schedule and prices were the best value for us. We arrived at Grand Canyon NP about 10:30am Monday morning. We spent 2 nights at Bright Angel Lodge and saw all we wanted of the South Rim using the free park shuttle buses and some of the bus tours offered by Xanterra, the park concessionaire. Both have vehicles with wheelchair lifts. We took the van shuttle back to FLG at 4pm on Wednesday, 9/23. Again we were able to use the free taxi to the Holiday Inn.
The SWC comes thru FLG eastbound at 5:11am, so I left a wakeup call for 3am. We used the taxi service one final time to get to the station. Quite a few people were waiting for the train on the dark platform. I had an interestign conversation with a musician who was also a Jehovah's Witness evangelist. A BNSF freight came barreling thru on the far track (of 2) while we were waiting. Matthew liked that noise and movement. Our train was visible from a distance by its light.
We boarded quickly and met our SCA, Mike. It wasn't long until he came to take our breakfast orders. I ordered the special entree, a casserole with bread, cheese and broccoli. Stayed with French Toast for Matthew. The special was good. Matthew enjoyed his breakfast, too. Then I relaxed with my cup of tea. Mike had even provided the fresh lemon I asked for. On the trip east I took many photos thru the train window with my new camera. We'll soon see how they came out. We had soem scattered showers as we rode east, but never enough to be an obstacle to picture taking for long. We saw a rainbow at one point, but I didn't get a shot of that.
Remembering the AU discussions of malfunctioning vacuum toilets on LD trains I was nervous about that all thru our trip, but we only had a problem once. When solid waste would not flush I asked Mike for help. He showed me a trick. He took an Amtrak disposable ice bucket (heavy waxed cardboard), filled it with hot water from the compartment sink, poured the water over the offending material and flushed again - success! He left us the ice bucket in case we needed it again, but we never did.
At ABQ I got off the train and walked Matthew aorund the platform and the station. He was spending too much time in the stroller, but I am still nervous about walking him around on a moving train. I was able to buy spare camera batteries in the train station gift shop, too. When we where in the station Angie came up and said high. She was working this train but not our car. Matthew gave her a big smile.
Off again over the desert and the mountains. Napping off and on and taking window photos. Dinner was roast chicken for me and chicken fingers for Matthew. Again with good mashed potatoes and vegetables. And into bed for the trip thru Kansas. Bless Mike for letting us sleep in until the last call for breakfast. Matthew had his usual and I settled for scrambled eggs which were unremarkable. Again it was great not having to get myself dressed until after breakfast. This time we were awake and in full daylight to cross the Mississippi so I took photos all the way across. I even took some photos in a few stations across IL that had interesting rail car exhibits near the track. We finished up with pizza from the kids menu for Matthew and the cold chicken salad for me. Both quite good. MIke got all our hand luggage off and helped us get it passed to the Redcaps at CHI. We thanked him and gave him a tip.
We pulled into CHI right on time. One of the desk attendants in the Metro Lounge remembered Matthew and called him by name. This time we checked his stroller along with our luggage for a while and walked around the station. I even bought a couple small souvenirs. I also found an ATM as I needed more cash for tips. It seemed like no time until we were called for the CL eastbound.
When we boarded initally we had a problem with a damaged door on the H compartment. See separate discussion of that topic in the questions and discussions. But after we got settled int he Transition Dorm H room, we did fine. Our SCA, Carlos, took good care of us. More later. I don't have time to do this last bit today.
We decided to wait and eat our picnic lunch on the train since we had such a large breakfast. We saw the eastbound SWC come thru Lamy while waiting for our train. Got to take some photos of that now that I've doped out my new camera.
I reserved coach seats for this leg of our trip since it was only about 6 1/2 hours to Flagstaff. I've seen on this site where AGR members suggest not using points for coach travel, but I had made these reservations before I joined AU. Anyway, this was our 1st experience of the lower level in coach on a Superliner car. LMY is a one-person station so the ticket agent also loads/unloads baggage. In this case both the station agent and the onboard baggage handler were women. I saw them drop at least one suitcase while transferring from the cart to the baggage car. Overall I was not impressed with the staff at Lamy.
There was room at the front of the lower level coach compartment for Matthew's stroller. After we parked it I sat him down in a regular seat so we could use a tray table for eating. We had a belated lunch from leftovers of the previous day's take-out chicken. There were only 2 other pax when we got on, but a group of older ladies joined us at Albuququerque. They were all going to someplace in CA together. One of the people who was in the coach when we boarded was a blind man who looked to be in his 30s. At the service stop in ABQ he got off and played his hand drum on the platform for a while.
After we left ABQ this pax asked me to stop Matthew from making that annoying noise with his keys. Now this pax was sitting about as far from us as he could be and still be in the lower coach compartment. I am suprised he could hear anything from us over the normal train noise. Matthew functions at a 2-year-old level intellectually and he has some autistic behaviors. One such behavior is that he will fiddle with a bunch of keys hung on a lanyard around his neck for hours at a time. It amuses him and is a familiar presence when he is in a strange place. He would not understand if I suddenly took his keys away. He would think he was being punished for something. So I told the other pax I would try to redirect Matthew but I would not take the keys away from him. I also noted that we would be getting offf at Flagstaff and there was a good chance the Matthew would go to sleep before that. The other pax in the compartment supported me and said they were not bothered by the keys. At this point the blind man started to say abusive and profane things about us. Eventually he got up and found the conductor. The conductor came back and asked me to stop Matthew from rattling the keys. The conductor didn't make a big deal about it, nor did he seem especially concerned. I told him what I had told the man before, adding that I did not appreciate the language the blind man was using. By this time the man was clearly saying things that were inappropriate, talking to himself and otherwise behaving in an abnormal way. He went back to his seat, the conductor left and I decided to move Matthew back to his adaptive stroller, even farther away from the blind man. The rest of the ride to FLG was uneventful. I had a couple of long onversations with the older ladies, mostly about Matthew and life with him. They seemed interested. The car attendant offered to get dinner or snacks for the pax and a few took her up on it. I asked her to get me a soda at one point so I could stay awake. By this time Matthew was asleep in his stroller as were most of the pax.
It was after dark when we detrained in Flagstaff. It was a disorganized departure as the car attendant left us standing at the door to the car while she ran 2 or 3 cars away to find a co-worker who could physically handle the ramp to the ground for us. After that man appeared and put down the ramp she was nowhere to be found so I don't feel too back that I was not able to give her a tip. Why they assign a car attendant who cannot handle the ramp to a car where people need it - not just us, there was woman with a walker, too - is beyond me.
We retrieved our checked baggage and our hand luggage. Now the acid test - would the luggage we checked directly thru to FLG from CHI be there? It was and the agent was so relieved that we claimed it. She had been worried all week that someone was missing it. The bag had been there 4 days but we were not charged anything for it. It wasn't a large bag, but I really appreciated the flexibility that option gave us.
The Holiday Inn Express in FLG has a standing arrangement with A Allstar Cab Co to transport Amtrak pax to/from their hotel for free. We phoned them a few minutes out of FLG and they came to pick us up almost immediately. The driver took our luggage into the hotel and I gave him a tip. The next morning the same cab co took us back to the train station to pick up the Flagstaff Express Shuttle to Grand Canyon National Park. It's about a 90 minute drive and the shuttle service has an online site where you can reserve a prepay by credit card. This is not one of the shuttle services Amtrak promotes but I found the schedule and prices were the best value for us. We arrived at Grand Canyon NP about 10:30am Monday morning. We spent 2 nights at Bright Angel Lodge and saw all we wanted of the South Rim using the free park shuttle buses and some of the bus tours offered by Xanterra, the park concessionaire. Both have vehicles with wheelchair lifts. We took the van shuttle back to FLG at 4pm on Wednesday, 9/23. Again we were able to use the free taxi to the Holiday Inn.
The SWC comes thru FLG eastbound at 5:11am, so I left a wakeup call for 3am. We used the taxi service one final time to get to the station. Quite a few people were waiting for the train on the dark platform. I had an interestign conversation with a musician who was also a Jehovah's Witness evangelist. A BNSF freight came barreling thru on the far track (of 2) while we were waiting. Matthew liked that noise and movement. Our train was visible from a distance by its light.
We boarded quickly and met our SCA, Mike. It wasn't long until he came to take our breakfast orders. I ordered the special entree, a casserole with bread, cheese and broccoli. Stayed with French Toast for Matthew. The special was good. Matthew enjoyed his breakfast, too. Then I relaxed with my cup of tea. Mike had even provided the fresh lemon I asked for. On the trip east I took many photos thru the train window with my new camera. We'll soon see how they came out. We had soem scattered showers as we rode east, but never enough to be an obstacle to picture taking for long. We saw a rainbow at one point, but I didn't get a shot of that.
Remembering the AU discussions of malfunctioning vacuum toilets on LD trains I was nervous about that all thru our trip, but we only had a problem once. When solid waste would not flush I asked Mike for help. He showed me a trick. He took an Amtrak disposable ice bucket (heavy waxed cardboard), filled it with hot water from the compartment sink, poured the water over the offending material and flushed again - success! He left us the ice bucket in case we needed it again, but we never did.
At ABQ I got off the train and walked Matthew aorund the platform and the station. He was spending too much time in the stroller, but I am still nervous about walking him around on a moving train. I was able to buy spare camera batteries in the train station gift shop, too. When we where in the station Angie came up and said high. She was working this train but not our car. Matthew gave her a big smile.
Off again over the desert and the mountains. Napping off and on and taking window photos. Dinner was roast chicken for me and chicken fingers for Matthew. Again with good mashed potatoes and vegetables. And into bed for the trip thru Kansas. Bless Mike for letting us sleep in until the last call for breakfast. Matthew had his usual and I settled for scrambled eggs which were unremarkable. Again it was great not having to get myself dressed until after breakfast. This time we were awake and in full daylight to cross the Mississippi so I took photos all the way across. I even took some photos in a few stations across IL that had interesting rail car exhibits near the track. We finished up with pizza from the kids menu for Matthew and the cold chicken salad for me. Both quite good. MIke got all our hand luggage off and helped us get it passed to the Redcaps at CHI. We thanked him and gave him a tip.
We pulled into CHI right on time. One of the desk attendants in the Metro Lounge remembered Matthew and called him by name. This time we checked his stroller along with our luggage for a while and walked around the station. I even bought a couple small souvenirs. I also found an ATM as I needed more cash for tips. It seemed like no time until we were called for the CL eastbound.
When we boarded initally we had a problem with a damaged door on the H compartment. See separate discussion of that topic in the questions and discussions. But after we got settled int he Transition Dorm H room, we did fine. Our SCA, Carlos, took good care of us. More later. I don't have time to do this last bit today.
