# My First Coast to Coast Trip



## gdj (Mar 26, 2011)

I know I am late at posting this report; however, I am not much of writer. The more I thought about it and how much I've enjoyed reading other reports, I decided to give it a try.

While I periodically travel on the NEC, I had not traveled overnight since I was a young man when I made a CHI-WAS-CHI trip on the B&O Capitol Limited. At that time I could not afford a sleeper, but I did have dinner in the dining car both ways. I don't remember what I ate, but I still remember the cut flowers, china, silver and attention to detail exhibited by the staff. As the result of this trip, I always dreamed of doing a coast to coast trip. My wife knew of this dream and suggested that one of these years we should make a coast to coast trip.

Several years ago my daughter moved to San Diego County, CA. I now had a reason to make our trip and mom was ready to see her daughter. The first question that entered my mind was that my wife had never ridden a train further than Richmond to Baltimore. I have relatives in the Boston, MA area, so my first plan was to set up a trip to Boston to see if she would be OK on a longer trip. I opted for train 66 RVR – BOS in business class for the north bound trip. I figured that this would give her a night trip with some greater comfort. We arrived at BOS fully rested. On the way back we took a day train so that she could see the beauty of the coast between BOS and NYP. When she got back things had gone so well, I was satisfied that we could do this trip.

As I was making the arrangements for the trip and going over my AGR balance, my wife came in an started looking at the various amounts of points it would take for a three zone ticket. I had enough for a one way three zone in bedrooms. When she looked at the point differences, she immediately said book a roomette. If I like the trip, we will have some points for another trip. At that point, I panicked. SAN – RVR is a very long trip if she decides she doesn't like the trip in a roomette. I got her all the photos and drawings that I could find of a roomette and laid out the roomette dimensions on the floor. She looked at everything and said that she wanted us to save the points and go by roomette. Based on this I made the reservations for a noon departure on a Surfliner SAN – LAX, SW Chief LAX – CHI, Capitol Limited CHI – WAS, and Silver Meteor WAS – RVR.

The time for our trip arrived to San Diego arrived. We flew out. The trip was OK for an airplane trip. The next day after we arrived I decided to surprise my daughter and son in law with a train trip. A number of months previously she asked me for recommendations for short train trips in CA, but she never took any. I bought round trip tickets Oceanside to Santa Barbara. We had a pleasant trip up, walked around Santa Barbara ate lunch and returned to Oceanside. All too soon my visit with our children was at an end.

On the morning of September 27, 2010, I drove to the station in San Diego, dropped my wife off with all our luggage. We went inside printed the tickets and checked in. What a neat station! It was even better than the pictures I had seen. I went over to Hertz and turned in the rental car. They delivered me back to the station. As we waited for our departure, it got warmer and warmer. By the time the train was called the temperature was in the high 80's. We got on the business class car and I immediately set up my scanner and gps for the trip to LAX Shortly after we departed, the attendant brought us our snack and small bottle of wine. It was sufficient as my mind was really imagining a sandwich at Philippe’s in LA. The sky only had a few clouds as we pushed up the coast on the way to LAX. We arrived in LAX on time

As we got off the train, we were greeted with a blast of hot air that was utterly stifling. When we got up inside LAUS to my amazement it wasn't much cooler. It never crossed my mind that a large station wouldn't have air conditioning. We checked the bags we were carrying so we could head over to Philippe’s. Outside it was so hot I had second thoughts about walking . We both had the roast beef and it was just as good as reported on this list. We had hoped to walk around LA; however, with the heat we headed back to LAUS. Once back in the station we moved around trying to find someplace where it was cooler or at least some air moving. As soon as the SW Chief was called we all moved out to the train quickly in the hope of finding air conditioning.

My wife and I found roomette 7 quickly and settled in. When the SCA came by for our initial briefing and saw that everything was stowed and the computer, scanner and gps were all up and running, she laughed and said “I don't suppose you have any questions, but if you do I will be happy to answer them”. We were seated for dinner just prior to San Bernardino. Both of us had the steak which was prepared as ordered. A couple from LA were seated with us. I don't know whether their information was accurate, but they told us that we were so hot because the temperature had reached 114. After we went over El Cajon pass we retired for the evening.

The next morning I woke as we were arriving in Flagstaff. After a good breakfast, we watched the desert and small towns as we traveled through New Mexico. By the time we pulled into Albuquerque, we were an hour ahead of schedule. This gave us extra time walk around and see some of the sights near the station. The train left Albuquerque on time. We ate lunch and then watched the scenery as the train climbed up the grades in northern New Mexico. This part of the trip brought back memories as I was stationed in New Mexico in the early 1970's. That evening we were seated with a couple heading to Chicago. We had pleasant conversation as we ate our dinners to the backdrop of the setting sun and curious antelopes watching the train go by.

We awoke and went to breakfast as we arrived in Kansas City. The SWC was still running ahead of schedule. As we headed out across the farmlands of Missouri we ran into some track work and slow orders. This situation continued on past LaPlata The day was beautiful as we glided along through the cornfields and cattle farms. We arrived in CHI 30 minutes down.

We got off the train and headed to the Metropolitan Lounge to dump our carry on luggage. Next was a walk around downtown. We walked to the Dearborn Street Station and the sites of the LaSalle Street and Grand Central Stations as well as several of my old haunts from years ago. From here it was back to the station, a quick visit to the Great Hall and back to the Lounge to await the departure of the Capitol Limited.

The Capitol Ltd departed on time. As the train proceeded through south side Chicago, it was fascinating to compare our routing to the routing the Capitol Ltd used 40+ years ago. At dinner we were seated at one of the semi-circular booths. After a bit, the staff seated a gentleman from Tampa with us. He was on the return leg of a Tampa to Reno trip. We had the roast pork for dinner which was very good. The CCC wasn't busy so we hung out with our new friend until the staff started shutting down.

The next morning we awoke southeast of Pittsburgh.  It was raining hard and the train speed was slower. The conductor announced that due to concerns about rain caused track damage, would arrive late in WAS. For the rest of the trip it rained hard and we had stretches of slow orders. The Cap arrived in WAS a little more than an hour down.

When I made our reservations, I requested to go from WAS – RVR on the Silver Meteor so that we would have time to walk around DC plus I wanted to get some experience in a Viewliner roomette.. With the rain coming down, we explored the station and hung out in the Club Acela until the Silver Meteor was ready for boarding

As soon as we left WAS, the conductor announced that due to rain and concern for track damage, the train would be running slow and that he had no idea when the train could be operated a normal speeds. The scanner squawked with various slow orders and instructions for the engineer. Our SCA already had dinner reservations for us. As we departed ALX, we were seated for dinner. My wife and I had the steak again. As usual it was very good. After poking along our way, we arrived at RVR well over an hour down. My checked baggage from SAN came through fine. As soon as we got home, I downloaded the data file from my gps. We never went faster than 42 mph between WAS and RVR.

We both handled the trip well and thoroughly enjoyed it. She now wants to go back to SAN; however, this time she wants to travel both ways via train.


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## JayPea (Mar 26, 2011)

Great report!  I remember that time of year last year; we up here in the Pacific Northwest had some of our hottest weather of the year at that time too. I also remember that LA set an all-time record for heat during that time. No wonder you were hot!

Glad things went relatively smoothly for you. It must have been good if your wife wants to travel both ways by train next time!!


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## Dovecote (Mar 26, 2011)

Nice report. I had a very similar trip just a few weeks that I enjoyed as much as you and your wife did. Thanks for posting.


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## ColdRain&Snow (Mar 26, 2011)

Thanks for your trip report as it was a nice read. That couple wasn't pulling your leg that day about the temperature in Los Angeles. 9/27/2010 was the hottest day in Los Angeles ever recorded since record keeping began. And as I understand the story, the official NWS thermometer in downtown LA rose to 113 degrees and then broke. So, it's quite possible and probably pretty likely that the temperature actually peaked beyond 113. You were part of a historical day in Los Angeles to be sure. I live along the SoCal coast, and it was hot as Hades even at the ocean that day.


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## duke_gal_05 (Mar 27, 2011)

gdj said:


> I know I am late at posting this report; however, I am not much of writer. The more I thought about it and how much I've enjoyed reading other reports, I decided to give it a try.
> 
> While I periodically travel on the NEC, I had not traveled overnight since I was a young man when I made a CHI-WAS-CHI trip on the B&O Capitol Limited. At that time I could not afford a sleeper, but I did have dinner in the dining car both ways. I don't remember what I ate, but I still remember the cut flowers, china, silver and attention to detail exhibited by the staff. As the result of this trip, I always dreamed of doing a coast to coast trip. My wife knew of this dream and suggested that one of these years we should make a coast to coast trip.
> 
> ...



My Daughter and I are heading to San Diego in June.... COME ON AND JOIN US  It's our first train trip and we're doing NC to NYC with a day for sight seeing and shopping... then to CHI from there the Texas Eagle in a roomette to LAX and then to SAN.... Look for us if you travel mid June


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## gdj (Mar 27, 2011)

duke_gal_05 said:


> My Daughter and I are heading to San Diego in June.... COME ON AND JOIN US  It's our first train trip and we're doing NC to NYC with a day for sight seeing and shopping... then to CHI from there the Texas Eagle in a roomette to LAX and then to SAN.... Look for us if you travel mid June


Actually, we will probably beat you there. My son in law graduates on May 28. We have events on the 27th and 28th. Right now we are working on our itinery. We are looking at an Empire Builder - Coast Starlight - Texas Eagle loop. I have enough AGR points to do two 2 zone trips so I will pay for the tickets in the eastern zone.

Gary


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## LucyTwo (Mar 27, 2011)

Very good report. Thank you for sharing. We are planning our very first Amtrak travel from Charlotte to New Orleans. I am so enjoying these posts. We are looking for tips and advice from those who have traveled Amtrak before.


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## Shanghai (Apr 3, 2011)

Thanks for the great report. Glad you enjoyed the roomette.


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## Ryan (Apr 3, 2011)

Great report!



gdj said:


> Actually, we will probably beat you there. My son in law graduates on May 28. We have events on the 27th and 28th. Right now we are working on our itinery. We are looking at an Empire Builder - Coast Starlight - Texas Eagle loop. I have enough AGR points to do two 2 zone trips so I will pay for the tickets in the eastern zone.
> 
> Gary


My wife and I did the exact same thing on our honeymoon last year (except we came back across on the Southwest Chief). I definitely agree that redeeming as a two zone and paying for the eastern zone portion of the fare is a much better way to go.


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## rrdude (Apr 3, 2011)

Ryan said:


> Great report!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Why, cause it's only a short trip, one night, from east coast to Chicago?


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## Ryan (Apr 3, 2011)

Mostly because it's cheap for us in the mid Atlantic.


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## gdj (Apr 5, 2011)

Ryan said:


> Great report!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I was actually able to get my plans set over the weekend. Because I am attending a couple of events, I didn't have alot of flexibility on travel days. I originally hoped to be able to take the Empire Builder to Portland and the Coast Starlight to Oceanside; however, I couldn't get a roomette on the day I needed to leave CHI. Not being able to go on the EB allowed me to take the Cardinal to CHI. I will then be on the Southwest Chief. On the way back, we will be on the Texas Eagle to CHI and the Cardinal again. I will be in coach between CVS and CIN both ways unless I can snag a roomette at the last minute or maybe on board. Even if I can't get a roomette, CIN is not that far.

Gary


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