My friend Margie and I took a short jaunt on the Flyer over Labor Day weekend. Her first Amtrak trip, got AGR referral for her. Think she will be a future rider too!! I've made the trip up mant times before, but was my first trip south from OKC to FTW.
Started in FTW, and got seated on the wrong side of the car, so we got to ride "in reverse" to OKC. I took her on a train tour, and was surprised to find a diner (CCC) on this train, was told that it had been the substitute club car for a while. It was not being used, and the staff told us that we were welcome to sit here with them, so we could see the scenery "in forward". We did.
Due to slow orders, we were 30 mins late to GLE, and stayed 30 mins late all the way from there. Not too bad at all. Loaded a few pax in GLE, and had a smoke stop in Ardmore. Still light out and took some pix of Ardmore station (if I can ever figger out how to post, will do so) and took off again. This train had one of the park service guys on it, and he was pretty entertaining.......especially for the kids, of which there were many.
Uneventful stops the rest of the way, got dark, and we saw the crowd at the OU game in Norman. Arrived in OKC and simply walked across the street to Renisance Hotel (quite nice)..enjoyed a day of walking arounf OKC, Myriad Gardens is wonderful, Bricktown was nice (three block version of SA Riverwalk)...heard a good blues band and got up to make the return trip. Took some pix of OKC station, beautiful cielings, and murals.....
Left OKC on Labor Day, train nearly full. Only three or four single seats in our car. Sat facing "forward" this time!! Traveling in daylight we noticed that in some town, can't recall which..Pauls Valley maybe?...the tracks kinda bisected a public park, which was unusual, but very picturesque. Loved it.
Arrived Ardmore on time, but were warned that the rest of the trip would be slow.....and it was.....got to GLE 20 mins late, and took nearly two hours to go from GLE to FTW......but all in all it was a relaxing enjoyable trip.
OBS were nice, friendly, not overly pushy and for the most part were invisible......which was just fine with us, no problems at all.
Think we made an Amtrakker out of Margie, she has herself 700 AGR points now and said she was gunning for more!
Started in FTW, and got seated on the wrong side of the car, so we got to ride "in reverse" to OKC. I took her on a train tour, and was surprised to find a diner (CCC) on this train, was told that it had been the substitute club car for a while. It was not being used, and the staff told us that we were welcome to sit here with them, so we could see the scenery "in forward". We did.
Due to slow orders, we were 30 mins late to GLE, and stayed 30 mins late all the way from there. Not too bad at all. Loaded a few pax in GLE, and had a smoke stop in Ardmore. Still light out and took some pix of Ardmore station (if I can ever figger out how to post, will do so) and took off again. This train had one of the park service guys on it, and he was pretty entertaining.......especially for the kids, of which there were many.
Uneventful stops the rest of the way, got dark, and we saw the crowd at the OU game in Norman. Arrived in OKC and simply walked across the street to Renisance Hotel (quite nice)..enjoyed a day of walking arounf OKC, Myriad Gardens is wonderful, Bricktown was nice (three block version of SA Riverwalk)...heard a good blues band and got up to make the return trip. Took some pix of OKC station, beautiful cielings, and murals.....
Left OKC on Labor Day, train nearly full. Only three or four single seats in our car. Sat facing "forward" this time!! Traveling in daylight we noticed that in some town, can't recall which..Pauls Valley maybe?...the tracks kinda bisected a public park, which was unusual, but very picturesque. Loved it.
Arrived Ardmore on time, but were warned that the rest of the trip would be slow.....and it was.....got to GLE 20 mins late, and took nearly two hours to go from GLE to FTW......but all in all it was a relaxing enjoyable trip.
OBS were nice, friendly, not overly pushy and for the most part were invisible......which was just fine with us, no problems at all.
Think we made an Amtrakker out of Margie, she has herself 700 AGR points now and said she was gunning for more!
Last edited by a moderator:
And Trains are habit forming, sounds like youve made a convert for sure! :wub:
