# A TE/CS trip



## JayPea (Aug 8, 2013)

Preliminaries: I began my journey, after an overnight stay at a motel near the Spokane airport, bright and early on the 5th of August. After being abused, degraded, humiliated, and stripped of my rights by the TSA and too stupid and apathetic to do anything about it  I flew from Spokane to Denver first, then to Midway from Denver. All flights smooth and left early from Spokane, and got into Denver half an hour early. After a nearly 6 hour layover in Denver, I flew to Midway. I retrieved my luggage and grabbed a cab to the Summit Amtrak stop, where I would travel to Bloomington and meet my uncle. The next day we would begin our TE/CS trip. The cabbie neither spoke much English nor had a clue where the station was, so I navigated for him as best I could. I had prepared for him not to know where he was going so had thoroughly studied Google Maps for complete directions.. At any rate, with my doing everything but driving for him, we got there in plenty of time to catch Licoln Service 307. It was on time, and our coach attendant and cafe car attendant were top-notch. I was disappointed, though, as the high-speed track south of Dwight topped off at 96 mph, and that only briefly. It averaged about 90 mph between Dwight and Pontiac. We got into Bloomington right about on time, maybe a few minutes late.

100 or so miles down, nearly 4000 to go! I'm posting this as traveling west of Alpine, TX, on my phone and there's no signal (No signal in West Texas??? Whatta surprise! :lol: so may be awhile before I can post again. Stay tuned!


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## Rail Freak (Aug 8, 2013)

Have Fun!!!


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## Bob Dylan (Aug 8, 2013)

Wow, Texas has shrunk!  Last time i went to Alpine it was 400 Miles West of San Antonio! :giggle: (I know you meant to say something like 2,000 Miles down, 4,000 to go! Enjoy the Big Nowwhere and get ready to say Hello to the Homeland Security Border "Protectors" in El Paso and across the Desert! (Your Taxes @ work preventing hordes of Foreigners and Drugs out of the Homeland!  )


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## JayPea (Aug 8, 2013)

Jim, the "100 miles down, 4000 to go" refers to the trip report, not where I am now! :lol: (}ust west of Valentine at this moment). And I already met one of the Border Patrol's finest, at San Antonio. He was doing nothing more than sitting against the fence outside the station. We will miss out on the Border Patrol at El Paso, since the earliest we could get lunch reservations was 1PM and we'll be stuffing our faces then! :lol:


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## JayPea (Aug 8, 2013)

Taking advantage here of a good signal and being stopped for freights near Tornillo, TX

August 6th: We (my uncle and I) began our trip at Bloomington. The new Bloomington station is very nice and a marked improvement over the old one. The TE was a few minutes late, not too bad. We had two engines on this version of the TE. I could see a marked improvement in the quality of the tracks south of Bloomington. Brad was our SCA. He greeted us at the beginning of the trip and the next time I saw him again was the next morning and that only accidentally as he was waiting to assist a couple off the train at their stop at Longview, TX just as I emerged from the snower.

The TE was od course equipped with a CCC rather than a full diner, and service was exceedingly slow. Chris, the SCA, and Thelma, the server, were very friendly, but the 2 person crew just didn't cut it. We had 5:45 dinner reservations and still hadn't been able to order dessert by 7PM. We were seated with a young couple from Fort Worth who were on their way back home from Milwaukee, where they would be moving to soon for schooling. I had the steak and wasn't all wild about it. I did notice a marked improvement in the quality of the salads: two tomatoes instead of one. :lol:

We decided to leave before dessert in order to film our entrance into St. Louis. Our roomette was on the left side, and the guy across the hall generously allowed me to sit in his room to film, as the view is great from the right side.

We got into St. Louis early, and had plenty of time to wander around before getting back on the train. We called for Brad to put our beds down around 9:30. We're still waiting for him to do so. :angry:

As a result, we did it ourselves, and crashed around 9:45.

More to come!


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## Bob Dylan (Aug 8, 2013)

Did the Invisible SCA have his glad hand out for a Tip when ya'll de-boarded in SAS??? :giggle:


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## JayPea (Aug 8, 2013)

jimhudson said:


> Did the Invisible SCA have his glad hand out for a Tip when ya'll de-boarded in SAS??? :giggle:


No, he disappeared there too.  Good thing, too, because he didn't get one. The current SCA isn't any better. SCA #1 at least introduced himself; I don't even know #2's name. Dining car crew is great, tnough. One of the best I've had.


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## JayPea (Aug 8, 2013)

Day 2: I awoke for just a bit at Little Rock, then fell back asleep. I woke up for good at Texarkana, then went to breakfast shortly thereafter. We were seated with a middle-aged couple bound for Longview. ( was daring and tried the special: Crab cakes with tomatoes and hollandaise sauce over whole wheat biscuits. Excellent!!! We were 20-25 minutes late, then hit the UP gauntlet (UP = Universal P<short version of Richard>s) :angry: :angry: :angry: . We were held up by one long freight, hit slow orders for several miles, and, about 20 feet from the Marshall station, had to wait several minutes for a "train" consisting of one engine and one hopper car. Think they coulda waited for that one. Between one thing and two others, we were 45 minutes late out of Mineola. Due to padding and a shortened break at Dallas, we left big "D" only 7 minutes down. Lunchtime was right after Dallas, during which time I had the Angus burger. It was very good.


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## bobnjulie (Aug 8, 2013)

Sounds like an "interesting" trip. Food sounds yummy though!


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## JayPea (Aug 8, 2013)

Day 2 again (hit the Post button accidentally) 

We were seated with a couple headed to Tuscon. Once again, thanks to padding, we got to Ft Worth almost half an hour early. We wandered into the station, where apparently we caused a stir by walking up to the second floor and taking a few pictures of the interior of the station. Someone saw that and we ended up being approached by a lady cop. No big deal. She just asked if we were with Amtrak and that was that. I walked down to the Ft Worth Convention Center, then headed back for the air conditioned comfort of the train.

Though we were early arriving into Ft Worth, we were almost half an hour late leaving it because we had to wait for the northbound TE to arrive. We continued to lose more time at Cleburne and MCGregor, but was gained some back at Temple. We were joined at Temple by Jim Hudson, as he had gone from Austin to Temple earlier that day. The plan was for him to join us for dinner, but we were too late at Temple for the 5PM dinner seating, so I had made 5:45 dinner reservations. That didn't work too well either, as it left Jim with too short a time to have dinner before getting off at Austin. We'd met Jim in the SSL at Temple, and even though the CCC was full, LSA Chris graciously let Jim join us at the table anyway. We were joined shortly by a man who was traveling to Alpine. As both my uncle and Jim are the types tnat never met a stranger, soon our companion was joining in our conversation full bore. This man is(or was) a psychologist; hope he didn't analyze us! 

Jim left us at Austin, and our dinner companion continued the conversation with us. We left Austin almost an hour late, but made up some time into San Antonio, so that we were just a few minutes late. After a wrong turn or two, we went on the River Walk. We had to wait about half an hour/45 minutes after returning to the station, but it wasn't quite ready yet. As we waited outside, the SL came in, with a couple of private varnish cars on the back. As soon as the coach and sleeper from the TE were attached to the SL, we hit the sack. And slept well, over 6 hrs nearly straight through, which I never do.

Tomorrow: UP rears its (very) ugly head :angry:


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## Bob Dylan (Aug 9, 2013)

Makes me feel like I was actually on the Eagle with ya'll! Looking forward to the next Chapter as ya'll Roll thru the Big Nowhere! ^_^


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## JayPea (Aug 9, 2013)

Day 3: I awoke after 7am, somewhere between Del Rio and Sanderson. We went to breakfast shortly thereafter. We had breakfast with an older couple from Lafayette, LA. The man was a retired farmer and my uncle had been a farmer for years so they talked shop. I had the omelet and was disappointed to see the standard biscuit replaced with an inferior whole wheat one. The omelet was very good, though. Veronica was the LSA and is one of the most pleasant and cheerful Amtrak employee I have ever encountered. She did her job very well, too. Our server was excellent too. I only know her as C. Gamble. Veronica, by the way, was the lounge car attendant on a CS trip I took four years ago and was just as cheerful then. Nice to see that four years as an Amtrak employee hasn't soured her yet.  The SCA was another invisible man; I rarely saw him.

Jim Hudson the day before had given me several copies of Trains magazines, just what one needs to get them through the less than scintillating West Texas scenery :lol: We got into Sanderson and Alpine early; in the case of Alpine, early enough to get an extended smoke stop at Alpine. W continued to make good time. We looked to be early into El Paso early until UP decided that wouldn't do. :angry: About half an hour to 45 minutes before El Paso, we came to a halt. Our conductor informed us of freight traffic ahead of us and we would be departing shortly. "Shortly" turned into 45 minutes before the freight finally lumbered by. Though


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## JayPea (Aug 10, 2013)

<dratted post button hit again>  Anyway, though our conductor assured us we'd now underway, we moved a few feet and stopped. A maintenance crew had to inspect the tracks first  We got underway again, crawled along at 15 mph for a few miles, and stopped again.  Two more freights got priority. Turns out we had priority over the two freights, but there had been a shift change amongst the dispatchers, and dispatcher #2 rescinded dispatcher #1's orders and gave priority to UP instead, twice. :angry: For good measure, a few more minutes, and another stoppage for a 4TH UP freight! Only then did UP decide that it might not be a bad idea to get us into El Paso sometime this century, so we got the green light all the way to El Paso. What had been a surplus of half an hour became a deficit of 90 minutes. I should mention in the midst of all these shenanigans we had lunch. I had another excellent Angus burger. We had lunch with a woman traveling to California (hubby was watching the dogs) and a man from Seattle who had taken a Traveleresque trip to Oklahoma City and back for a reunion.

We cut the stop at El Paso short, and made up a little time between each stop up to Tucson. We had dinner with an older couple traveling to LA. I had tilapia and it was good. At Tucson, my uncle and I met his brother in law and sister in law, who live in Tucson, for a short visit on the platform. We left Tucson only 40 minutes down. We went to bed just before the Maricopa stop, so we could get up early for the early arrival into LA.


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## JayPea (Aug 10, 2013)

Day 4: Not much to say about the train, as The Invisible SCA woke us up at 4:15. We got into L at 5AM, half an hour early despite UP's best efforts to delay us as much as possible. The car was a madhouse with everyone scrambling at once to get ready. No mention was made about being able to stay put until 6:30.

We got to the Metro Plaza shortly thereafter. We were able to leave our bags there, and in fact were able to check in at that time though of course no rooms were ready. We waited in the lobby for about 40 minutes before heading to Philipe's for breakfast. Philipe's is everything it's cracked up to be!

We decided to make a last-minute reservation for a LA City Tour. That lasted a good portion of the day, especially as the bus driver picked us up and dropped us off at our hotel and the tour began and ended in Hollywood. It was well worth the 70 bucks.

After the tour, we got settled in our room, and wandered down to Olvera Street to look around. After dinner there, we looked around some more before retiring to the room for the night.

Day 5: Today it's a case od so far so good. We were serenaded by a guy singing rap songs at 6AM this morning on the street by the hotel  . We headed to Philipe's again for breakfast before heading out to LAUS. The CS backed into the station about 30-40 minutes before our departure. Right now we are at Oxnard, on time or close to it anyway. Toni is our car attendant, whom we've had before, and Tricia the LSA, also whom we've had before. Just about ready for a smoked salmon sandwich in the PPC for lunch!


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## Bob Dylan (Aug 10, 2013)

:hi: Dirty job but someone has to do it! Hope ya'll enjoy the trip up the Coast to the Beautiful NW, I know yall don't care if the Starlight is Late  !!!


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## Guestlsa (Aug 11, 2013)

Just wanted to say thank you and glad you enjoy your trip.


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## JayPea (Aug 11, 2013)

To Guest LSA: You're welcome! Continuing on our journey, we had lunch in the parlor car. The smoked salmon and cream cheese on a bagel was great! So was the cheesecake with blueberry topping. I usually don't eat in the parlor car because I'm not crazy about the food they serve, but the salmon was excellent. The trip up the coast was uneventful. We won the Amtrak lottery as our roomette is on the left hand side for optimal viewing of the Pacific. My uncle spent most of the time in the parlor car while I spent mine in the roomette, taking advantage of the view.

For the run north of San Luis Obispo, I got lucky as the roomette across the hall from me was vacant, so I could film the train out of windows on both sides of the train during its run through the S curves. We'd been early almost all the way up the coast, which gave us longer stops at both Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo.

My uncle had spent a good part of the afternoon in the parlor car conversing with a couple of men, and they joined us for dinner. This dinner crew, with Trisha as the LSA wasn't nearly so loose and outgoing as Veronica and her crew on the SL. They did their jobs, though. We had a new menu as of this day, which didn't seem much different than the old one. I had the mahi-mahi, which was excellent.

As we made our way up Northern California, we continued to be on time. No UP freights to slow us down. On a couple of occasions, we were joined in our room briefly by a man who, rather loudly and drunkenly proceeded to, pun intended, rail about the slow and inadequate Amtrak passenger system as opposedd to the glory days of the steam age. Last we saw of him he was headed back to his room, two bottles of Heiniken in hand. Gilroy, CA is known as the "Garlic Capital of the World" and as we passed through, it was very apparent on this day why. The odor of garlic was overpowering!

We arrived in the twlight at San Jose early, so we again got an extended stop. Our fantastc luck as far as running on time or early ended just outside San Jose. We were held up for little over half an hour waiting for a CalTrain. Both the CS and TE/SL were very good about announcing reason for delays.

Just after we got going again, we decided to hit the sack. Day 5 now complete, another great day to be traveling Amtrak!


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## Guestlsa (Aug 11, 2013)

I was your server that serve you at breakfast time. I have pass message on to Veronica and she was very please. Hopefully I see you again as I intend to work the starlight in the winter . I usually work in the diner 

Once again glad you had pleasant experience .


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## JayPea (Aug 11, 2013)

I was the one traveling with my uncle. I wore a UP shirt one day and a GN shirt the next. We will be back on the CS from Portland to Sacramento Sept. 7th


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## Guest lsa (Aug 11, 2013)

You was one with ice tea.i also had up you guys lunch ( your uncle had diet Pepsi and you had the sandwich with ice tea and cheesecake with stawberry topping .)


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## JayPea (Aug 11, 2013)

.


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## Rail Freak (Aug 11, 2013)

Guest lsa said:


> You was one with ice tea.i also had up you guys lunch ( your uncle had diet Pepsi and you had the sandwich with ice tea and cheesecake with stawberry topping .)


I'll be on the #14 this coming Saturday & Sunday from LAX-PDX, hope to meet ya!!!

RF


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## TVRM610 (Aug 12, 2013)

Toni is an amazing SCA... One of my favorites. Tricia however, I am not a fan of. Any issues in the dining car?

Specifically..

Does Tricia still wear a hoodie while working as if uniform requirements don't apply to her?

Does she still walk around writing names on a white board as if she is a kindergarten teacher?

Does she still announce on the PA that cell phones and all other electronic devices are not allowed in the dining car?

And is "C. Walsh" still on her crew as waiter? (The absolute rudest Amtrak employee I have ever encountered).

Sorry for all the negatives... I'm just curious. Coast Starlight is one of my favorite train rides ever no matter the crew... It's just that good of a trip.


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## JayPea (Aug 12, 2013)

Re Trisha:

She didn't wear a hoodie on this trip

She did (as did her cohorts) use a white board to write names on. She made the announcement, too, about cell phones, though she didn't ban them altogether, just asked they be turned off

I didn't see a "C. Walsh" in the dining car this trip. Doran and Andrew were our servers. Neither would win any awards for friendliness, but they were in no way rude either.

Yeah, I don't think much of Trisha either. Too rude and consescending for my taste. Toni, on the other hand, is excellent--proof positive such employees do exist within Amtrak.

And I agree wholeheartedly about the CS. I just wish it were a longer ride!


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## TVRM610 (Aug 12, 2013)

Good... Sounds like C. Walsh got replaced then. I had a good experience with Andrew but after a few meals with C, anyone would seem polite.

Thanks for the reply... And yes Toni is amazing. Thankfully I've run into a few others as good as Toni... They are out there!


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## JayPea (Aug 18, 2013)

Finishing up my report five days after I returned home, mainly because my computer was in the shop and it's very tedious for me to try to type on my phone. 

Day 2 on the Starlight found us somehow losing an hour sitting in the Sacramento station, so we were now 1 1/2 hrs behind. I have no idea what the problem was, as I was sound asleep at the time. I awoke and took a shower at the same precise place I always seem to wake up and take a shower northbound on the CS: at Dunsmuir. I have taken four northbound trips on the CS and have awoke and showered at Dunsmuir all four times. While we had won the CS lottery with regards to the ocean view, we of course lost it with regards to viewing Mt. Shasta. I was in the parlor car by this time, with my uncle and chatting with our companions of the night before, and as I was unable to get a right hand seat, missed it. I'm told, though, it was especially pretty. We had breakfast with our two companions. I was daring again and tried the breakfast special, the breakfast burrito. It was very good! We'd made up about half an hour of time between Sacramento and Dunsmuir, and half an hour more at Klamath Falls, so we were only about 30 minutes down out of Klamath Falls. Unfortunately we lost time out of Klamath due to some mandatory inspection and due to freight traffic. At least we were stopped next to Klamath Lake, giving us something of interest to ponder while we waited. And speaking of freights, between Dunsmuir and Eugene, I saw more freights on this trip than I had the other times combined. Other than this one instance, though, we didn't have to wait for any.

We quickly lost time out of Klamath, and we were about an hour down into Chemult. The day was sunny and gorgeous, giving us great weather for sightseeing through the Oregon Cascades. At lunch, we were seated with a couple, probably in their late 50s or early 60s, from Australia. The man was originally from Germany, and he was visiting the United States for the first time ever. He and his wife had flown from Brisbane to Los Angeles, and, on a reccomendation from friends of the couple, took the train from LA to Seattle. After a week or so in Seattle, they were going to fly to Las Vegas, rent a car, and travel to some of the national parks throughout the west, including the Grand Canyon, Bryce, Zion, and Canyon de Chelly. A possible trip to Yellowstone was in the cards as well. They would then return to Las Vegas and fly home. They were just amazed at the beauty of the Northwest and asked us many questions about the area and the US in general as well. They were very impressed by what they'd seen so far of our country. I had the usual, the Angus burger slathered with cheese and bacon, and it was good as usual. We continued to be about an hour late into Eugene, and made up a bit of time at both Albany and Salem. At Portland, we'd made up about half an hour, so the connection between the CS and EB was not an issue. At Portland, we lost one of our engines, as apparently the engine on the EB was DOA, so they had to borrow one of hours. Fortunately we didn't lose our one remaining engine between Portland and Seattle.

We promptly began losing time out of Portland, but still ultimately arrived in Seattle 20 minutes early. With the amount of heavy freight traffic from both the UP and BNSF the line sees, the tracks were extremely rough. We had dinner with a couple around 70, and it was interesting to say the least. They were from Los Angeles, and the man had a mouthful of sour owls look about him, and seemed unhappy with life in general. As far as I was concerned, it was soon apparent why. His wife, an otherwise pleasant, talkative woman, nagged and yanged at him about every little thing, telling him what to eat, how much to eat, criticizing about every thing he did, with the man all the while griping right back. If I had a wife like that, I' be sour too.  Nonetheless, when she wasn't micromanaging every move hubby made, she was interesting to talk to. As we had with our companions from the parlor car and dinner the night before and breakfast this day, we gave the couple a tutorial about how the AGR program works. In both cases, our companions had lots of questions and lots of misconceptions, and we were able to set them straight. I think AGR ought to compensate us for our roles as AGR spokesmen! :lol:

We got into Seattle as I said 20 minutes early, caught a cab to our hotel, the Moore, and crashed. The next day, after breakfast and an early trip around Pike Place Market, we decided to ride the ferry to Bainbridge Island. I'd never been to Bainbridge other than to get off one ferry and right back on another during the 2011 gathering, and my uncle had never been on a ferry at all. We toured the shopping area on Bainbridge, which didn't do much for either of us. Upon our return to Seattle, we walked back to our hotel. On the way, we had to walk a block or two out of the way, as a several square block area had been sealed off and was crawling with cops and news media.  Turns out a guy had shot a bus driver, tried to hijack a private vehicle and city maintenance truck, jumped on another bus with the idea of hijacking it, and ended up shot to death by the cops, even with passengers still on the bus. We didn't know this at the time, however. You don't see that kind of excitement in Wishram, WA! :lol:

After catching our breath at the hotel, we wandered back down to Pike Place, had lunch, and wandered around the shops and the general vicinity downtown, doing some souvenir shopping. We eventually made our way down to the Crab Pot, on the Seattle waterfront, where we met my sister, brother-in-law, niece, nephew, his wife and their two sons for dinner. The meal was good and a good time was had by all. Afterward, we retired to our hotel. We both had to fly back home early the next morning, so we took the light rail from Westlake to the airport. We parted ways at the Alaska/Horizon airlines ticket kiosks. Just to irritate the I-hate-flying-and-anyone-who-flies crowd :lol: I will touch on a few things about the flight. Three things I'd never seen before: 1) There are two security lines at Sea-Tac, at least at the Alaska gates. One is for regular folk, and the other for premium ticket holders and for those of us on a Portland or Spokane shuttle. Our line was the shorter of the two. After finishing the TSA circus, I found a place for breakfast. The flight was on a small prop jet, and here I saw the other two things I'd never seen: one is that passengers loaded at both the front and back doors of the plane, and there was a cart for people to use for carry-ons that they didn't want to stow above their seats. Both saved a lot of time both loading and unloading the plane. The flight back to Spokane was uneventful, except I actually had a conversation with the woman seated next to me. I can go several years on planes without a real conversation. And that ended that!!

A few random ramblings: The service on the CS was great. Toni, our SCA, is very good at her job. The dining car staff was efficient if not particularly friendly, especially LSA Trisha. Nanette, in the parlor car, was of the same ilk: good and efficient at her job, but not really that friendly. On the TE part, we had the great Invisible SCA, Brad, and his tip was invisible too. The dining car staff, Chris and Thelma, were very good, if not fast. Having only two work the diner, even in the CCC, may have played a role in that. And Chris went above and beyond, allowing Jim Hudson to sit with us even though the CCC was packed and even though Jim was unable to have dinner with us. On the SL portion, again had an invisible SCA. Never did learn his name in fact. Our LSA, Veronica, whom I've seen in the parlor car, is very friendly, very upbeat, and very nice. A credit to Amtrak! She's also very young; I hope she doesn't become one of those veteran jaded Amtrak service attendants you see from time to time. And our server, C. Gamble, was very good, too. She even remembered which drinks we preferred from one day to the next! Very good employee as well. The food in most if not all cases was very good. The Mahi-Mahi in particular was excellent! My one disappointment was with the steak the first night. It wasn't thick like I remember in the past. It was thin and tough, and was about like trying to eat an old baseball glove (not that I've tried eating old baseball gloves :lol: ) The usual bland soggy vegetables were better than I remember. And they've upgraded the salads: you get two grape tomatoes instead of one! :lol:

This was a great trip. No real problems of any kind, good to excellent attendants, at least in the diner, and what time we lost on our way we eventually made up. Now I'm ready to go again next month!

I will add photos once I get my computer back again. It's still not 100% right (no sound and need my printer software back) so it goes back into the shop. Once I get it back will wade through the huge number of pictures I took and will post them at that time.


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## TinCan782 (Aug 18, 2013)

Was on the SL/TE last week #422 leaving LA on Wednesday...a pretty good trip as far as on time goes .. only a couple of red flags! Unlike our (same) trip in December, the Border Patrol was nowhere to be seen in El Paso! And yes, loooong stretches of little or none cell coverage! Returning next week.


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## JayPea (Aug 18, 2013)

FrensicPic said:


> Was on the SL/TE last week #422 leaving LA on Wednesday...a pretty good trip as far as on time goes .. only a couple of red flags! Unlike our (same) trip in December, the Border Patrol was nowhere to be seen in El Paso! And yes, loooong stretches of little or none cell coverage! Returning next week.


Oh, yeah, forgot about the Border Patrol. I saw one Border Patrol vehicle in West Texas somewhere west of Sanderson, I believe, and two or three at El Paso. And about three or four more at the border west of El Paso, where train runs within 30 feet of the village of Puerto De Anapra, Chihuahua, Mexico.


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## TinCan782 (Aug 18, 2013)

JayPea said:


> FrensicPic said:
> 
> 
> > Was on the SL/TE last week #422 leaving LA on Wednesday...a pretty good trip as far as on time goes .. only a couple of red flags! Unlike our (same) trip in December, the Border Patrol was nowhere to be seen in El Paso! And yes, loooong stretches of little or none cell coverage! Returning next week.
> ...


My comment about the border patrol (ICE?) was that they "walked the train" during our stops at El Paso last December. Yes, their trucks were seen everywhere - no so last week.


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## JayPea (Aug 18, 2013)

The only two Border Patrol agents I actually saw were at the station in San Antonio. They weren't doing anything more imposing than standing there.


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## Bob Dylan (Aug 19, 2013)

Jeff; Glad you made it back to the Sticks after visiting Civilization!  It was good to meet your Uncle and see you again, and as you said, Chris the LSA on #21 was especially friendly when he let me sit with yall in the CCC between TPL and AUS! It sure goes by fast doesnt it, we make our Plans, Wait and Anticipate for Months and then then Trip Zooms by!  Looks like your Marginals hve a pretty good Team on the way, they kicked the strangers butts 4 out of 6 and now the A's are catching up again! Maybe youll get to see a Big League Game in SEA yet! ^_^

My Computer is also on the fritz also (I'm Looking forward to your pics when you get them processed and the old Machine is back in Action!) and Im waiting for my Computer Wizard to come tune it up but its one of those Dells that Michael Dell made in his Garage when he was a Teen Age Whiz it's so Old! Bada-Bing!!! :giggle:


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## JayPea (Aug 24, 2013)

Finally! Got my computer fixed (for the time being) and got my pictures ready. It takes me so much longer than most because I tend to take a lot of pictures and then have to weed them out. This particular trip for instance saw me take nearly 300 photos, so had to scale that way back in order to not put anyone to sleep. :lol:

At any rate here are my photos:

Jim, I know what you mean about making plans, waiting in anticipation for months, and then ZOOM! it's over. Fortunately we have our bonus trip coming up in a couple of weeks, Spokane-Portland-Sacramento-Chicago-Washington DC to look forward to. After that, it's live vicariously through other's trips, and start planning for next year. And the Marginals are showing some signs of life. Maybe in a few years they might have a better team in Seattle than they do in their AAA team in Tacoma! :lol:


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