# 2 forum members on 9000 mile 10 day Amtrip



## rtabern

We will use this thread to post updates but here is the itinerary:

mar 5 chi pdx

mar 7 pdx kel 506

mar 7 kel lax 11

mar 9 lax san 768

mar 9 san lax 583

mar 9 lax chi 4

mar 11 chi nol 59

mar 13 nol was 20

mar 14 was chi 29

mar 15 chi mke 333

Near williston nd now on 27


----------



## WhoozOn1st

Looks like a fun trip, and looking forward to updates. Have a blast, Rob & Mike!


----------



## the_traveler

Why such a *SHORT* trip (by the_traveler's standards)?


----------



## Ispolkom

Mrs. Ispolkom and I were glad to see you last night at MSP. I was tempted to come along, at least as far as Minot. I've always been happy in a bedroom, but the bedroom suite was really something! Happy trails!


----------



## rtabern

((Written last night at Red Wing, MN, but not uploaded until 5pm today when I mooched a free internet Wifi connection at Havre!!)

And in the beginning! Day 1 of my 10 day cross country train trip. I started things out by parking at the Milwaukee Airport Rail Station... and catching the 11:00am Hiawatha to Chicago. I decided to park at the Milwaukee Airport Station instead of the downtown Milwaukee station because it’s closer to where I live and the parking is a little more secure. As usual, the Hiawatha (#334) ran like clockwork. I spent most of the trip down playing with my new smart phone which I got a week ago... so far, it’s okay... lots to figure out. I got into Chicago around 12:30pm. I ended up hitting the ATM and taking out an extra $100... there aren’t a lot of Chase Banks out west... so I wanted to be prepared. From there it was off to the Met Lounge to drop off my bags. One of my favorite attendents, Jennifer, was working. I noticed that Union Station was especially packed today... lots of people... especially on the 12:16pm to Michigan for whatever reason. It was then off to Giordano’s to meet “J-1 3235”, my traveling companion for the journey... and also my friend “Trogdor”... who was just meeting us for pizza. Despite Giordano’s recent bankrupcy they were quite packed. We delved into our mushroom and sausage. There surprsingly wasnt a lot of time... the next thing I knew it was almost 1:30pm and we had to hit the road. “Trogdor” followed us over to CUS and parted ways... We had about 5 minutes to kill before #27 boarded.

We walked right out to the train and we were the back sleeper as usual except when they have the MSP coach on, which of course wasnt the case because of the fact its still winter. Our sleeping car attendant is J. She was a bar tender and has been at Amtrak a year. It’s nice to see one of Amtrak’s newer hire with so much enthusiam. “J-1 3235” and I decided to go with the bedroom suite on the first leg of the trip... Days 1-4 (CHI-PDX-LAX). I am in Room C of the 2730 car and “J-1 3235” has Room B in the 2730 car. When we arrived the adjoining door was closed and lock when we got on, but our attendant J was very prompt about tracking whoever had the key down... and get it open. Both of us never had a Bedroom Suite before --- and though we’d give it a try.  So far, total thumbs up... we feel like we are in the lap of luxury... and would do this again for sure.

We were trying to figure out the whole way they did dinner though. The dining stewart said he started with our sleeper, but the only times left were 7:15pm and 7:45pm. That was fine with us I think because we were pretty full after the pizza... so we went with 7:15pm. The dining car steward’s name was Robert and today was his birthday... so half-way through dinner we sung him HAPPY BIRTHDAY. Our waitress (her name slips my mind right now) was nice... she recognized me from Trails & Rails. Dinner for “J-1 3235” included a steak, green beans, and rice... and I had the bison meatloaf, green beans, and baked potato... pretty decent. From there it was back to the room... just before pulling into Red Wing... as I am writing this. “J-1 3235” and I are planning to stay up to Minneapolis-St. Paul and meet forum members “Ispolkom” and “Mrs. Ispolkom” at the station for a quick meet and greet.


----------



## rtabern

Whooz, got anything going on Tuesday night?? Want to ride with us on #11 into LAX?? I think you have my cell... would be nice to see you on #11 coming into LAX. We should be in touch... would be nice to see you...


----------



## WhoozOn1st

rtabern said:


> Whooz, got anything going on Tuesday night?? Want to ride with us on #11 into LAX??


Thanks for invite! Greatly appreciated, and please see PM.


----------



## Alice

rtabern said:


> ... there aren’t a lot of Chase Banks out west...


Chase has been on a buying spree out here, they are all over the place in CA, WA, and OR.

Sounds like a really great trip!


----------



## WhoozOn1st

Alice said:


> rtabern said:
> 
> 
> 
> ... there aren't a lot of Chase Banks out west...
> 
> 
> 
> Chase has been on a buying spree out here, they are all over the place in CA, WA, and OR.
Click to expand...

Not really a typical buying spree. Chase took over Washington Mutual in the wake of the subprime meltdown, in which WaMu was a major culprit/player. That's how I came to Chase.

EDIT: But yeah, they're all over the place out west these days. Some places you can't swing a dead cat...


----------



## Bob Dylan

:hi: Nice trip Rob! Which one of ya'll has the "backward facing couch?  Ive never had a Bedroom Suite either but did ride in Bedroom E on the Builder twice, once in each direction, pretty sweet! :wub: Seems like CHASE branches are growing like weeds here in Texas, they are Everywhere! 

Look forward to the rest of the trip reports and your pics, you always do such a fantastic job! Hope the weather stays nice for yall!


----------



## had8ley

I'm jealous, I'm jealous, I'm jealous :angry: :angry: :angry:


----------



## rtabern

Thanks for following our journeys!!! Mike and I are in the Met Lounge at Portland... with about a 90 minute layover... We got off #27 which was 5 minutes early... and are waiting on #506 to Kelso-Longview... where we'll have about an hour and catch the S/B Coast Starlight down to LAX.

Where should I pick up?? I guess where I left off in Red Wing!!!

Anyway, I called "Ispolkom" just after Red Wing and we arranged for a "meet and greet" with Mike and I at the MSP station. I wasn't sure he and Mrs. Ispolkom would still want to meet us since we were an hour late... but he was more than happy to come at 11PM on a Friday night. VERY COOL!! As a side note, I met "Ispolkom" through the forum about a year ago. He saw one of my trip plans and we found out we'd be riding #3 and #14 together... so we met up when he got on in ABQ... and we had almost every meal together. He's a very nice guy... funny... and knowledgeable about trains and esp the Great Northern. Since then, I visited him while volunteering in Oct 2010 for the Friends of the 261... and he was also (totally randomly) on the same Cardinal Dome trip we were on back on October 30-31.

"Ispolkom" came up to the #27 sleeper almost after we got on... We gave him and his wife a quick tour of the Bedroom Suite. As I mentioned, up until this trip... I never did that before... and I dont think they saw the partion opened. I am convinced (and I think "Ispolkom" too... that the Bedroom Suite is THE WAY to go if you have the cash or AGR points for it. A lot of space during the day and privacy at night.

Unfortuneatly with the fact we were running late -- the stop at MSP was not very long at all -- maybe 20 minutes. So we went down and chatted for a bit in the vestiubule... so they wouldnt get trapped on the train.

Thanks for the "goodies" BTW "Ispolkom" you "donated" to our trip... VERY THOUGHTFUL and ABOVE AND BEYOND... your Felipe's mustard will be in the mail as soon as I get back to pay you back for everything.

After they left, we ended up calling it a night... I fell alseep by St. Cloud.

I slept okay on the train the first night -- but was wide awake for whatever reason by 5:30AM the next morning... sorta sat in bed until around 6AM before drawing open the drapes.

We were about 25 miles east of Devils Lake, ND -- and yes -- there was a raging blizzard going on out there. NOT what you want to see when you open the blinds... right?? But it was kinda cool -- the road were snowcovered and we didnt see a soul out on US 2 which parallels the tracks.

We had breakfast that morning with a woman who was from ND, but lived in Florida now... what a shock to the body I'm sure. She was mentiniong more about the fact that Devils Lake is expected to flood over the tracks this spring and summer. AND, there was a newspaper article about the same thing in the Minot paper which we got later in the morning. I guess Amtrak is already planning the bus bridge to Grand Forks.

We got off in Minot... the stop again was shortended because of the delay... but I still had time to hike it up to the engine and grab a picture.

All through ND and MT... the ground was very snow covered and it was on and off snow showers.

I did get off in Williston, but we were allowed on the ground for 2 minutes with conductors being dilligent about making up time.

For breakfast on Day #2 I had the pancakes... Mike had the omlet. For lunch on Day #2 it was grilled cheese for me...

After a little nap, we got off in Havre, MT... at this point we were an hour late and again, shortened time. Just enough time to get a shot of the steam engine and the little park behind the station with the US and Canadian Border patrol shaking hands. Speaking of the Border Patrol, there were 2 agents walking the platform at Havre. Again, not really sure what the point was -- they were friendly, smiled, and walked past us.

Kinda weird about the wine and cheese tasting... no one seemed to know when it was going on. The dining car stewart said 3PM, but the sleeping car attendant said not until AFTER Havre. Well, it ended up being after Havre... and because of a lot of frieght traffic near Harlem, MT... they didnt start the wine and cheese until 4:30PM... and it was sorta rushed because there was 5PM dinner. Mike and I did make out with 2 of the 4 bottles of wine they have away at the trivia game. The attendant saw my Amtrak t-shirt and declared NO Amtrak trivia because "this guy will win it all"... Hahahaha.

On the train at Havre, I ran into 2 friends of mine from Montana... Larry and Art. A very random meeting since I didnt know they'd be on the train. The 3 of us met on #421 either back in 2007 or 2008. We got to chatting because I knew they were railfans taking #421 from CHI-LAX instead of #3. Hahaha... NO ONE except rail fans would do #421 from CHI to LAX because of the extra day on the train. That was really the "trip from hell"... so we had on a bonding experience on tha train. "Trip from hell" because the boarding was delayed in CHI when they found a dead body in the restroom of CUS... they hauled off a guy with a loaded gun in the next roomette to me at SPI... there were a hooker working the train from DAL to AUS... and we got bussed from Tucson to LAX due to a derailment. So we spent the evening re-counting our crazy trip. I guess Art & Larry were heading to Winter Rail in Seattle.

Mike and I called it a night after Whitefish. I was awake at Spokane when I had to use the bathroom -- but decided not to go outside and take pictures... it just seemed WAY too cold.

We woke up this morning just west of Pasco, WA. Had the "continental breakfast" in the lounge car... watching the Columbia River Gorge. There was a railfan on board from PDX who sat next to us and pointed out some of the sites along the way in the Gorge like Multnomah Falls and Bridge of the Gods, etc.

We arrived into PDX 5 minutes early.

I am writing this while Mike is going for a stroll. At 12:15PM PT we are catching #506 upto Kelso, WA and then will have an hour layover there and will catch the Coast Starlight SOUTH. We're doing that to ride the Cascades -- and normally without the extra 2 hour delay on #11, you couldnt ride #506 to Kelso.

Should be fun... I have only been on the Cascades once before... and that was for like 10 minutes. We'll only have 50 minutes this trip, but better than nothing... right???

Until we meet again...


----------



## rtabern

Day 1 & 2 trip photos

http://rtabern.shutterfly.com/15488


----------



## had8ley

WhoozOn1st said:


> Alice said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> rtabern said:
> 
> 
> 
> ... there aren't a lot of Chase Banks out west...
> 
> 
> 
> Chase has been on a buying spree out here, they are all over the place in CA, WA, and OR.
> 
> Click to expand...
> 
> Not really a typical buying spree. Chase took over Washington Mutual in the wake of the subprime meltdown, in which WaMu was a major culprit/player. That's how I came to Chase.
> 
> EDIT: But yeah, they're all over the place out west these days. Some places you can't swing a dead cat...
Click to expand...

Chase is open in Louisiana on Saturdays and that's almost a below the belt blow to the older institutions that never knew what is was to be open on Saturdays...progress...I guess ???


----------



## Rail Freak

rtabern said:


> Day 1 & 2 trip photos
> 
> http://rtabern.shutterfly.com/15488


Enjoyed the photos! Nice to see the scenery in the opposite direction of my #28 trip a couple of weeks ago!

(minus the bedroom suite) 

RF


----------



## Shanghai

Thanks for the pictures. I have a cousin 40 miles from Wolf Point, MT. Enjoyed seeing the snow while being warm

and comfortable in my house. Glad you guys are having a good trip.


----------



## MrFSS

Great pictures, Rob - looking forward to seeing more and hearing how the trip is going.


----------



## Ryan

Excellent pictures, it's cool to see near identical pictures to ones that I took, but completely covered in snow - it really is like taking the trip over again.


----------



## The Chief

*Robert*, nice pics and report, thanks for sharing. My fave line so far:

_because we were pretty full after the pizza..._

HA! Why am I not surprised! Fair winds and following seas!


----------



## pennyk

Great trip report and photos Robert. Hi Mike!!

I am jealous - wish I were there (except for the cold weather).

The bedroom suite sounds wonderful. When I was on the EB last summer in Bedroom E, all of a sudden the door between D and E opened to the surprise of the elderly couple in D and to me. Fortunately everyone was awake and decent. I assume your "suite" experience was much better than my "accidental suite" experience.


----------



## Pastor Dave

Great report and pics. Looking forward to reading more about your trip.


----------



## MikefromCrete

Great reports and photos. Keep it up for the rest of the trip. It's like we're traveling with you.


----------



## the_traveler

MikefromCrete said:


> It's like we're traveling with you.


Forget about that. I *WISH* I was traveling with you!


----------



## Ryan

I think even the Bedroom suite would get a little crowded with all of us in there!!!


----------



## Railroad Bill

Great report Robert. Hope you and Mike have a wonderful trip.  Can hardly wait to hear of your upcoming ventures.


----------



## AlanB

Ryan said:


> I think even the Bedroom suite would get a little crowded with all of us in there!!!


Probably, but it would still be a suite ride! :lol: :lol:


----------



## the_traveler

AlanB said:


> Ryan said:
> 
> 
> 
> I think even the Bedroom suite would get a little crowded with all of us in there!!!
> 
> 
> 
> Probably, but it would still be a suite ride! :lol: :lol:
Click to expand...

The penthouse suite is still suite-r!


----------



## rtabern

Greetings all on the wee hours of the morning on Day #5 of the trip... writing this from the 4th floor of the Metro Plaza in LA.

So, let's rewind to where Mike and I left off... Portland.

Mike went for a walk around downtown PDX while I wrote the posting... we met up around 11:45AM and boarded the Northbound Cascades #506. Part of me wanted to stay in Portland, but part of me also wanted to do a quick ride on the Cascades since the only ride on the Cascades I did before was a super quick jaunt from SEA to Tukwilla back in 2007. I think the deciding factor was that normally you couldnt take #506 even for a quick ride with the normal connection time between #27 and #11... we were only able to do it with the later Starlight schedule.

Anyway, the attendant in the PDX Metro Lounge was great. I wish I remembered his name, but very friendly and very helpful in getting the WiFi up and going. Props to him!!!

We boarded #506 BC and quickly headed North... the conductors didnt get our tickets to after VAN, which only gave us about 40 minutes to enjoy wandering #506. Mike and I opted for the cafe car... I had some good mac & cheese and Mike had some chowder (surprise, surprise, he's from Boston) -- and I guess surprise surprise with me too with the mac & cheese being from Wisconsin.

I ended up buying 4 tins of mints with the Cascade logo on them... and 1 bottle of water with the Cascades on them too.

Just as we were finishing... it was almost time to de-train already in Kelso-Longview. We had about an hour before the Starlight. We spent the time checking out the old Northern Pacific depot... and then walking around the town. It was quite dumpy... the odd thing was people had falling down houses, but often had classic cars sitting outside. Just odd -- Mike is into classic cars and pointed out a lot of the models to me... pretty neat to hear some info about all of that. We also spend a good chunk of the time visiting gas stations in the town... the lounge car guy on #506 said there was a Washington State Lottery Scratch-off game featuring the Talgos... and even had one he showed us, but not a single gas station we walked into in Kelso had the game. UGH!

We made our way back to the depot and #11 arrived just a few minutes late.

Since we were traveling AGR, we had sleeper tickets CHI-PDX on #27 and PDX-LAX on #11. So we ended up getting a $12.60 coach ticket on #11... hoping we'd be able to sweet talk the conductors into letting us get into our bedrooms early and not sit in coach for 30 minutes from KEL-PDX. The first person I asked about that was the coach attendant and he said we had to sit in coach until PDX. As he said that, the Parlour Car attendant was calling people into the PPC for the wine tasting... we ran into the conductors and they were cool and let us into our rooms early at KEL... even though from KEL-PDX we were engaged in the wine tasting.

(To be contiuned in the morning)


----------



## AlanB

rtabern said:


> We also spend a good chunk of the time visiting gas stations in the town... the lounge car guy on #506 said there was a Washington State Lottery Scratch-off game featuring the Talgos... and even had one he showed us, but not a single gas station we walked into in Kelso had the game. UGH!


You were a day too early! Those lottery games only went on sale on the 8th and if I'm doing my calculations right, you were in Kelso on the 7th.

As an interesting side note, some of the proceeds from the game will go into the Cascades service. The story can be found here.


----------



## rtabern

Alan, interesting stuff about the lottery ticket thing... wish he mentioned that. You wouldnt imagine the weird looks you get when you walk into a gas station all excited asking about an Amtrak scratch-off ticket... and the clerk having no idea what the heck you're talking about!!! :wacko:

Back to the blog...

So from KEL-PDX we ended up doing the wine tasting. It was a good time as always, but I was a little sad to see they replaced the cheese from the past couple of years... They had this really really good purple moon cheese for a couple of years on there that I couldnt get enough of... and they replaced it with jalepeno pepper cheese and some burnt/smoked cheddar thing. I found the pepper cheese not very edible and the burnt/smoked cheese just okay. The wines were good though... as nice as ever.

We had 2 Parlour Car attendants the first day. Our "real" attendant was named Michelle Orr... and she was assisted the first day by Alan, who I guess was in the diner the second day training someone. Michelle was one of the nicest PPC attendants I had. She really did her research on the wine tasting and had a lot of nice things to add. She admitted she wasn't a "wine person", but did her research on-line about wine for the PPC wine tastings. I think that was cool. I have had some good wine tastings (especially with PPC attendants Richard and Jane)... and some lousy ones (like on the Empire Builder on this trip where they did the wine tasting too late and rushed us to drink 4 glasses of wine ina bout 20 minutes). Michelle was very nice -- one of Amtrak's best.

For the 8th time in a row (not bragging or anything :blink: ) I won a wine trivia question. The prize was a free glass of wine at dinner. I was hoping to win a Coast Starlight teddy bear like in years past or one the pewter spoons or something -- but I guess they are out of a lot of that stuff now and are just giving away glasses of comp wine.

As the wine tasting finished up we rolled back into Portland, OR. Mike and I stored our bags in the Met Lounge in PDX because it was easier to do. My friend Brandon's friend lived in PDX and he wanted us to meet him... so we did a quick "hello" in the main area of the station before re-boarding #11.

Rolling southbound, we passed the falls in Oregon City. I poined them out to Mike and mentioned a little how they were officially "the end" of the Oregon Trail. I am trying to remember how I heard of that before -- either someone with Trails & Rails on the train one time -- or the fact that I was obsessed with playing the 1980's video game "Oregon Trail" during computer class.

By the time we got to Eugene-Springfield, it was dark... and it was dinner time. I ended up just having the rice and vegetables (I find myself not too hungry with the wine tastings)... and Mike had the beef. Mike and I decided it was a good idea to try and eat all our meals in the PPC instead of the diner -- because we liked the PPC selection -- and since we still had several days of ahead of us with the regular Amtrak menu on the Southwest Chief, City of New Orleans, Crescent, and for me the Capitol Limited back to Chicago.

We ended up socializing with some of the crew... who seemed very happy it wasn't summer yet... and that they could sit down for 30 minutes and swap stories and enjoy some tea with us. We are also quite amuzed with this 20-something year-old girl (very cute BTW!)... who was starting to freak out because she couldnt get a WiFi connection and her cell phone didn't work... as we were climbing up the pass at Chemult, OR. Everyone tried to explain that the reception of the WiFi in the PPC was based on cell phone signal and that we probably wouldnt get service until around Klamath. I guess she was a grad student from the Bay Area, but was originally from Canada. She just kept freaking out worse and worse until she finally got a signal -- it was bizarre -- but I hate to say -- slightly amuzing to us and the crew how connected to technology people are. Yes, I would have liked to get a signal to get this blog up sooner -- but jeez -- the reason Mike and I are doing the long train trip -- is partially to get away from technology and stress -- and just to enjoy the scenery.

I think we headed back to the room around 11PM and ended Day #3.

I got up around 6:30AM on Day #4... We weren't supposed to get into Sacaramento until around 8:10AM, but at 6:30AM, I noticed on my GPS that we were only 21 miles out. I knocked on Mike's door because he seemed awake... and advised that either my GPS was really off... or we'd have an hour or more to kill in Sacaramento, CA. We quickly got dressed and were ready to de-train in SAC at 7:10AM or so when we rolled in.

We decided our game plan was to hit the Starbucks. We wanted a Starbucks Hot Chocolate... and I also collect the "city mugs" that Starbucks puts out... they have the name and outline of the city... and I knew there was a Sacramento mug I didn't have.  So the first Starbucks we hit didnt have one, but the second one in sorta an in-door/out-door mall had one. From there, we did a quick walk over to the California State Capitol and got a picture of us there. We sorta lost track of time... it was after 8AM already... so we did a quick walk back to the train. Turns out we had plenty of time... so we did a little photo shoot next to the Cap Coordior train.

At the next stop, my friend Brandon joined us for a couple of hours. He used to be a conductor friend of mine on the Chicago-St Louis cooridor trains, but moved out to San Franciso in 2008 to be a conductor for Cal-Train. He's since become an engineer for Amtrak and runs to Reno on #5 and #6... and also down to Merced on the Cap Cooridor trains. Brandon rode with us in the PPC from Davis down to San Jose. He's a great guy... and pointed out all of the scenery and railroad history as we passed through the Bay Area stops of Oakland, Emeryville, Martinez, and San Jose.

We parted ways with Brandon at San Jose... made a quick jump into the station to buy a bag of popcorn (the whole crew was doing it)... and we were on our way.

Lunch... Mmmm.... lunch!!! Mike and I both had the eggplant paramesian. It was THE BEST... THE BEST... THE BEST... meal I have ever had on Amtrak. I guess they load some of the PPC meals on fresh at some of the service stops... and this meal was loaded on in Oakland. It was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good. Michelle in the PPC was so nice to set an extra meal aside and I had it for dinner too. I wish this could be shared system-wide.

We stopped in Salinas... and held there for over an hour because of track work. This is a good time to mention that ORIGINALLY, Mike and I were going to take #11 to EMY and then go home on #6 with spending part of the day in the Bay Area. However, a "little birdie" who works for Amtrak tipped us off that this #11 was going to probably detour over the Techapi (? spelling) Pass because of track work... so we extended the trip into LAX. It turns out that we didn't detour. We knew this before leaving, but decided just to keep the train plan to the same... we didnt mind going into LAX for the extra time in the PPC... and Mike and I are talking about a trip now possibly to the Bay Area in early 2012 anyway. So, yeah, we held in Salinas for an extra hour because of the track work. Of course the conductors wouldnt "gurantee" that we would be there for any given time... so we played it safe and stayed around the station. FOLKS -- if you ever have the chance -- go inside the Salinas station!!! It's amazing!! It looks like you stepped back 30-70 years. They have Amtrak posters from before I was born (1979) up still in the station --- and the coolest thing was they have a picture of the 4449 in the tile... from the original SP days.

We made our way down California... the highlight was the sunset just as we were going around the Horse-shoe Curve north of SLO.

We got a little nervous about how long it would take us to get into LAX when we met #14 at SLO. It was 7PM... meaning... did it take them 6 hours and 45 min just to reach SLO??  That would put us in the very very wee hours of the morning if they left on-time. #14 was pulling out of SLO as we were pulling in... it was kinda cool.

They conductors announced that we were going to do a "safety stop" at Goleta, CA -- because I guess the crew at Oakland forgot to do the train's 24 hour inspection and it had to be done before Midnight. However, it was later decided that they would blow through Goleta in hopes of making it to LAX before Midnight. My thinking there was some UP dispatcher in Omaha laughing that the train would go dead at 11:59PM right before making the platform... BUT NO... We ended up getting into LAX at 11:40PM with about 20 minutes to spare.

From there, it was a quick walk over to the Metro Plaza... where I started the blog... went to bed ending Day #4... and now Mike and I are just getting up here... I'm finishing the blog while he's in the shower.

The game plan for today (Day #5) is for some breakfast, a quick day trip on the Surfliner down to Solana Beach... sit on the ocean for 2 hours... and then head back to LAX to catch #4 out at 6:15PM.

Thanks to everyone for following our trip!!!


----------



## rtabern

The 250+ pictures from Day #3 and #4 from the trip...

http://rtabern.shutterfly.com/15637


----------



## J-1 3235

Hi Penny!

Just a quick addition, the PDX attendant was Ken, and he did a fine job.

Thanks for following along and for your comments and well wishes.

Now off to the Surfliner 

Mike


----------



## the_traveler

rtabern said:


> Rolling southbound, we passed the falls in Oregon City. I poined them out to Mike and mentioned a little how they were officially "the end" of the Oregon Trail. I am trying to remember how I heard of that before


Please give me credit where credit is due!





Don't forget the_traveler knows everything - especially the area around CTW!


----------



## TraneMan

Thanks for sharing these photos!

I am itching to take a LONG trip like this.


----------



## hello

_Thank you, great review ... keep it coming!!_


----------



## Shanghai

Enjoyed the photos and the verse.


----------



## rtabern

Greetings... We are just about to leave chicago on 59... We wrote super long blogs in Word but couldnt post due to lack of wifi in chi met lounge... Hope to post if we get a signal going thru mem or when we get to nol tomorrow... Thanks again for following us.


----------



## surfgeek

rtabern said:


> The 250+ pictures from Day #3 and #4 from the trip...
> 
> http://rtabern.shutterfly.com/15637


Ha! I'm in photo 103_3597.JPG ! (Barely.) I like the framing -- patriotic flag, patriotic bags of chips... Wish I'd know we had "visiting firemen" on 11 that day, I'da said hi.


----------



## rtabern

Still without good wifi so trip report updating will have to wait... Just doing a quickie on the iphone... Rolling into meridian md on 20. Will be joined by bill haithcoat from birmingham to atlanta.


----------



## rtabern

Had a nice afternoon with Bill Haithcoat... Just leaving atlanta on northbound 20


----------



## rtabern

Well, Mike and I have officially parted ways... with Mike continuing Northbound on #20 to NYP where he is catching the Acela to Boston... while I have about 6 hours to kill in Washington, DC to catch the Capitol Limited/Hiawatha back to Milwaukee.

I'm at Club Acela at WAS now writing this.

Below I am going to upload the trip report from LAX to CHI that I wrote followed by the trip report Mike wrote.

We were hoping to upload it in Chicago, but couldn't because of no WiFi in the Met Lounge there.

It's a nice day in WAS and I'm itching to walk around the monumnets and such instead of sit here in the lounge... so I am going to work on the eastern half of our trip report and will hopefully have that up later in the week when I get back to Milwaukee... but we did have a nice time on the "eastern leg" of the 9,000-mile trip.


----------



## rtabern

Robert's trip report from #4 Southwest Chief: Los Angeles - Chicago March 9-11, 2011

Well, its about time for an update on Mike and I’s cross country adventure... as we finally got Wireless Access here at Chicago Union Station.

But, of course, let’s back-up a bit... to the morning of Day #5 where we left off.

We started off Day #5 (March 9, 2011) by waking up at the Metro Plaza Hotel. Mike and I briefly decided to part ways to run a quick errand – I wanted to mail back the 4 bottles of wine that I bought on the Coast Starlight and Mike wanted to drop off his laundry at a laundromat he found along the way. I like wine... and like brining home wine from the Coast Starlight. It’s a real treat since normally I fly home from riding the Coast Starlight and dont check bags – so I cant usually bring CS wine home. However, I also didn’t want to drag it the remaining 6,000 miles of our trip if possible. Well, I walked to the main post office annex across from the Metro Plaza – and after boxing the wine up – was told that since 9/11, USPS couldnt ship wine or any other alcohol. I was a little surprised... but then got to thinking... when I briefly joined Vinesse Wine Club for the points it came via UPS not the USPS. UGH! So I was pretty much out of luck there and walked back to the hotel. A few minutes later Mike arrived – also with a failed errand. Apparently the laundry he was planning to use only shipped the clothes out and they wouldnt be ready to the next day – so no help to Mike – as we were leaving LAX that night at 6:15pm on #4.

After a discussion, Mike decided to skip the trip down to Solana Beach on the Surfliner... with plans to head over to Hollywood and find a laundry mat there where he could do his wash. I guess he didnt have enough clothes to get to Chicago – so that idea wasnt do-able. I was kinda sad because it was a perfect day (80 degrees and sunny in SoCal)... and I could tell Mike really wanted to go too. But, he skipped out of the trip – and headed to Hollywood (he’ll have to write his own blog to tell what he did during the day there...)... and I stored my bags and walked over to LAUPT to get some breakfast. Of course, one of my favorite places to eat is Union Bagel. I love the variety there. I have to admit – I was dispaointed though... they cut back on the number of bagel choices. They had a really good “salt bagel” which I never had anywhere before... but they said they scaled back the flavors. I settled for an egg and a garlic and headed out catch Southbound #768.

I was glad to find that Business Class wasnt totally packed... I was worried this train might be full because it was coming all the way from Goleta... so I was figuring I wouldnt get an “ocean side” single seat to myself... but it worked out great!! I did have to bug a business man and ask what side of the ocean was on... hahaha. But now I know... going NORTH, you want to sit on the side facing away from the station area... and going SOUTH, you want to sit towards the station side. It makes sense I guess if you figure the station ends with stub tracks and then the train either have to turn going north or south. I had a cinnamon roll – and some apple juice. The ride south was nice... lots of people along the beach and enjoying the ocean front parks... esp in San Juan Capistrano.

Even though I had a ticket on #768 to San Diego, I decided to hop off in Solana Beach and spend the time going down to the Pacific Ocean. I wouldnt have really had time to do that in San Diego with the quick turn-around... nor do I know if there is a beach in downtown proper.... or more just like docks? Anyway, Solana Beach it was. I found that the Amtrak/Coaster station was just 2 blocks from the Ocean a couple of years ago when I took the Surfliner down from LA, where I was visiting my best friend from high school. I wanted to use Amtrak to get to the beach and found Grover Beach on the north end of the Surfliner route... and Solana Beach on the south end... to be great jumping off spots for that. Anyway, I had exactly 2 hours between trains in Solana Beach. After getting off the train, I made the 7 block hike up the main drag in town to hit a Starbucks. One of my guilty pleasures whenever I am on the road is picking up a Starbucks “city mug” as my souviner.... I also collect Hard Rock Hurricane glasses. So, I got the mug... and then walked back down to the beach where I spent 1 hour and 10 minutes just walking along the beach... and of course checking out at the California hotties in their bikinis... 

From there it was a 2 block walk back to the train station where I caught #583 back to LAX. The trip was pretty uneventful... I spent the first part of the ride back looking at the ocean again... and then after Irvine I spent time editing some of my pictures. Got the white wine and snack pack as I was once again Business Class on the Surfliner.

I arrived on Track #11 at LAUPT at 4:05pm, right on time. I guess there was some sort of service disruptions that day with the other Surfliners because something to that effect was mentioned on the intercom – and there were a lot of people waiting to get on the train – and I think Amtrak was turning that train set back to San Diego ASAP. I had just enough time to snap a couple of quick shots at the front of the engine there before more and more crowds kept coming. I was guessing that the Southwest Chief, which Mike and I would be getting on in about 2 hours, was also going to either be on Track #11 or Track #12 because there were piles of juice and SWC route guides sitting on the platform.

As I was heading thru the station, there was Mike waving me down... I thought we were going to meet back at the hotel, but he did a ride on the red line and was at the station anyway...  We ended up making a V-line for Philippe’s (? – spelling). Mike ended up having the French Dip Beef and I had French Dip Turkey... we also picked up some mustard for a certain forum member in the Twin Cities who decided to come and visit us on #27 earlier in the week. We took our time... went back to the hotel... and got our baggage.... and headed over to LAUPT.

The last time I was at the station was in Sepetember 2010, and it surprised me all the new shops and things going in there... very cool.

I told Mike I thought #4 would be coming in on Track #11... so we headed out there around 5:35pm. We saw the conductors, engineers, and Red Caps on the platform, but no train. We got to chatting with the engineer... who along with a co-engineer go all the way from LAX to Kingman, AZ... said the yard crew was running late, and it would be out around 6pm. He was right... the station backed into the station around 6:00pm, and left just a few minutes late. They did a good job of hustling everyone on.

For the first part of the trip on the Empire Builder and Coast Starlight, Mike and I had ajoining Bedroom suites on the train – but we didnt want to burn that many points doing that for the rest of the trip... so we decided to share a Bedroom on the Southwest Chief, City of New Orelans, and Crescent (and I have my own roomette on the Capitol Limited going back). So, we boarded... and headed to Bedroom C in the #0431 car. We sat with the lights off for awhile watching the lights of LA fade as we passed through Fullerton and San Bernardino. We finally went to the diner... Originally we were only going to get dessert because of the late lunch at Phillippe’s... but decided to have a full dinner... esp after Mike found out the special was crab cakes. Can’t blame him I guess being a New Englan’dah. (sorry, Mike!)

We came back to the room around 8:30pm... Mike said he was pretty tired from his thrilling day in Hollywood and thought he’d go to bed early. So, he volunteered to take the top bunk... so I could sit up in the seats in the lower section and continue to work on my laptop and look out the window.

Well, that’s when the “fun” started with the bed.

The support rod on the upper bunk wouldnt latch into the ceiling bracket. Our attendant, Vanessa, tried... NOPE. I tried... NOPE. Mike tried... NOPE. Another 2 attendants tried... NOPE. Vanessa was going to try and get the conductors to try, but they were getting passengers off in Victorville, CA by then. Vanessa did get the sledge hammer from the emergency kit in the bottom of the Superliner car, but again... no luck even with that!!!!!

Another attendant went to talk with the conductor about what we should do because the bed wouldnt go down and you couldnt use the upper bunk. The other attendant said that we could move down into “Room A”... I wasn’t too thrilled with that because as I am sure most of the people on the forum here know, Room A is smaller than Rooms B to E. And to me, it seemed silly that we had to move everything into the smaller Room A just because the bed wasn’t working... esp when there were plenty of other rooms on the train. Our attendant was pretty insistant that we move into A, however I thought a compromise up... We get to keep Room C... and then during the night... I’d be able to use a roomette to sleep in. I dont think our attendant liked that idea too much – but she probably finally went along with it to probably get me to stop bitching... hahaha... Anyway, so for the day parts of the trip, Mike and I spent time in Room C... and then at night... Mike used the lower bunk in Room C, while I went and slept in Roomette #2 which was open all the way from LAX to CHI.

What got me a little upset was that the attendant acted like putting me in a roomette was “too much work”... When I first suggested the idea, she said, “Oh, I can’t just put you in a Roomette... it’s a lot more complicated than that”... I was like, “Yeah, I know... I ride a lot... you just have to ask the conductor to block out a roomette”. She was VERY surprised I knew that and knew it wasn’t “a lot” of work to have that be done. Then she almost acted like there were no more rooms open... NOT TRUE. I got a peak at the manifest – there were several roomettes open all the way... PLUS... the attendant decided to move into Room A, which was open all the way from LAX to CHI.

I dont think what I was asking for was unreasonable – I just don’t think Mike and I should have been moved to a smaller Bedroom because of a problem that was out of our hands.

Anyway, honestly, the rest of the trip on the Southwest Chief was pretty un-eventful. We ended up getting off at ABQ... where we had about 45 minutes due to an early arrival and the nomal dwell time there. We were going to walk over to the Starbucks and get a New Mexico mug for me... but the closest location didnt have them (called ahead), but one about a mile away did. It was questionable if we could do the walk, get the mug, and get back in time... so we decided to cab it over to the Starbucks. Ironically, an AUF member was our cab driver... Kim... I think her handle was Roxanne 64 or something like that. (She gave me a card, but it’s packed away now). She mentioned she checked the forum a lot, had a daughter who worked at the station – and almost made it to the gathering in Boston. She was really nice – I told her I’d buy her some pizza if she and her daughter ever came through Chicago. I would definetly come down from MKE to see you gals.

Had some nice weather going over the mountains... Mike got some good shots from the room and I made it back to the “rail fan window” in the back of the last coach just in time to get us coming out of the Raton Tunnel and entering Colorado.

We were actually running early into La Junta, CO and switched our dinner time to an early dinner time so we’d have more time to get off in La Junta. Using my GPS, we found a railroad themed bar right across from the station. We sat there for 40 minutes, which was just enough time to go in the bar and get Mike and I’s signature drink when we travel together – a Long Island Ice Tea. He sorta got me hooked on it and whenever we travel, we have to try and have atleast one a day, The bar was nice... had railroad stuff all over the walls – even a logo from the Chicago North Shore & Milwaukee. After the drinks, Mike and I ended up chatting until around 9pm when we hit the Colorado-Kansas border.

I sorta dozed off between Garden City, KS and Dodge City, KS, but got up to use the bathroom as we were pulling into Dodge City. The conductor let me off for just about 2 minutes... just enough time to snap a picture, but not really enough time to get a good look at the cool station there. It looked like it might have had a Harvey House or hotel at some point... From there... lights out until just before Kansas City. I awoke about 6 miles west of Kansas City sititng in the yards there. It was kinda funny... right out my window was a Santa Fe freight engine in its old colors. I actually had to close the windows to change in the morning because the loco of the Santa Fe engine with 2 engineers was right next to my window... Hahahaha.

Anyway, I found Mike (who was up already) and we decided to explore the Kansas City station, since we were again 40 minutes early. I was only there once before... and was not able to make it to the gathering in STL when most of you were there. I loved the old hall... and thinks its very cool how they restored it and everything. I wish more cities would take suit!!!

From there, it was back on #4 for the final stretch into Chicago. I decided to re-organize thing in my suit case and spent much of the time between KCY and La Plata doing that. My hope here is that we can store my bigger of 2 suitcases (now filled with dirty clothes) somewhere at Chicago Union Station and I can just pick that up on Tuesday when I am back in town... No point in dragging all that half way around the country on the Eastern portion of the trip which begins shortly. So we shall see... havent asked the nice folks in the lounge yet.

Then, I hopped off in La Plata, MO real quick to say “hello” to Bob Cox, who is the station attendant at La Plata... and also runs the Silver Rails Gallery in La Plata. I went to the hotel there and the gallery and met Bob last fall... and am working with him on getting some of photos displayed later this year in his art gallery in La Plata. Since La Plata wasnt a smoke stop, I was allowed to get out... get a pic with Bob... and get right back on the train. Maybe 90 seconds, but it was nice of the conductors to let me hop.

From there, it was a quick stop at Fort Madison, IA... where I again jumped off an got a quick photo.

Then... actually got some rare mileage... or should I say... a rare MILE?? BNSF was doing some track work on Cameron Junction... which is the double wye... where the Southwest Chief jumps off the old Santa Fe route and swings on the old CB&Q route into Chicago. Because of the track work on the wye, our train had to proceed about a mile down the old Santa Fe route... then back through the wye... so we got about a mile of rare mileage on the old Santa Fe route and then 2 rare legs of the wye. You can check out some of the photos – Mike and I tried to document this as best as we could. It was pretty cool though... but the whole process took about 30-40 minutes more than normal. As you recall, the Southwest Chief used the old Santa Fe route until the mid-90’s (I believe) – and now shares the same route as the California Zephyr from Cameron Jct (MP 170) into Chicago.

Then... thu Galesburg, Princeton, Mendota, Naperville, and a pretty much on-time-ish arrival into Chicago...

We have some time to kill between now and 8pm when we leave for the eastern half of our trip though Memphis, New Orleans, Birmingham, Atlanta, and Washington. From there, I head back to Chicago/Milwaukee via the Capitol – and Mike gets home on the Acela.

C’ya in the Big Eah’Zee, my friends...


----------



## rtabern

Mike's Trip Report - written aboard the Southwest Chief 3/11/2011

As Rob mentioned in his last post, this is my report on my day in LA:

I brought the remainder of our luggage down to store behind the desk at the Metro Plaza after Rob left for Solana Beach. I spoke with the manager about laundry, and he provided me a Google-map of local laundromats. I had to explain that I arrived by train, and had no automobile; he then gave me directions for the bus.

I had to walk a few blocks northof the hotel, then board a #2 bus. The bus driver knew where the shops were, and pointed out the stop I should take. Of course, I had to buy laundry detergent at the shop next door, and at that point I realized I should not have chosen French in high school .

After finishing my laundry chores, I took the bus back downtown, and repacked it into my bags. Since I now had to go with Plan B, I went over to LAUPT and boarded a red line train towards North Hollywood. I rode to the Hollywood and Vine stop, and walked over a couple of blocks to Sunset. I was headed for the In & Out Burger, which I vaguely remembered was on Sunset Blvd. After walking about 1000 numbers down Sunset, I realized I should have rode one more stop on the subway 

I enjoyed a double/double with fries, which was pretty good. The kids of a friend of mine had visited I & O when they were here, and insisted I try it the next time I was in California. From In & Out I walked up to Hollywood and continued on to the Chinese Theatre area and the Hard Rock cafe. I figured while at the Hard Rock, I would enjoy an adult beverage.

From the Hard Rock, I hopped back on the Red Line to Union Station, and waited for Rob to come in from the beach trip.

So, all in all, I had a wonderful day in So Cal ;-)

Thanks again for following along on our adventure.

Mike


----------



## rtabern

Again, hope you enjoy the above 2 trip reports from the Southwest Chief leg of the trip.

I/we will report on the City of New Orleans, Crescent, and Capitol Limited/Acela sections of the trip in the coming weeks... as well as posting more and more pictures here as I can upload them.

I'm at the Club Acela in WAS now. I was sorta thinking of uploading the photos and finishing the trip report NOW... BUT... c'mon... Washington, DC?? I gotta get out on the streets and see the monuments and everything... I can do the trip report from home...


----------



## amamba

Thanks for sharing your trip report! Sounds like you did a great job of making lemonade out of lemons with the busted bunk in your bedroom on the SWC. Can't wait to read the rest.


----------



## J-1 3235

Hello from the Club Acela in New York Penn Station!

After saying goodbye to Rob,I continued on to NYP on the Crescent. Number 20 arrived on time into New York Penn. The trip from WAS was uneventful; the dining car offered a one-seating lunch shortly after eleven. I passed, as I had a full breakfast and plan to enjoy dinner on train 2168, in FC of course!

Overall, the trip was great. A few low spots from a few employees...more of an annoyance then any real problems. For the most part, the onboard staff performance ranged from above average, to absolutely perfect (Michelle on the PPC). I will speak with Customer Relations tomorrow, and report on the problems (with the rolling stock), and the sevice provided by the employees.

Thanks to all we met along our journey (sorry we missed you Surfgeek), and to those who followed along at home!

Mike


----------



## hello

_Enjoyed both reports ... thank you!! I,also, should have chosen at different language .... 4 years of French ... not very handy!_


----------



## rtabern

Hi everyone...and mike... Just left WAS on 29 ontime. This breaks my capitol limited jinx. The last 3 times I took it we were 3 hours late out of the gate. More posts to follow...


----------



## rtabern

Well, just about to finish up the "home stretch" of the trip on the Hiawatha to MKE, but I have about 45 minutes of time to kill and the WiFi in the Met Lounge in Chicago actually seems to be working here -- so I thought this was a good time to finish up the text trip report.

We'll rewind to Chicago on March 11th... when the WiFi wasn't working.

We arrived into Chicago pretty much on-time on #4... and was greeted by "Trogdor" at the boarding gate. We talked about what we wanted to do in Chicago... but the plans were kinda decided when the folks at the Met Lounge didnt want to hold my big bag for 4 days. Just before getting off #4, I put all of the old clothes and stuff I wouldnt need into my big suitcase and was hoping to keep it in the Met Lounge until I got back today -- because it didnt seem to be any point in draging all of that to New Orleans and Washington and back here. However, the lady at the lounge said you couldnt really leave stuff overnight. I guess that sorta makes sense because you dont want the lounge to become a storage room for days or weeks for people... but it also put a crimp in my plans. Oh, I also had the box of wine I bought on the Coast Starlight with me that I couldnt mail in LAX.

Anyway, I decided to call up my mom... she lives near the Glenview station... and "Trogdor" and Mike were game for catching the Metra up there and meeting her so she could take the wine and the big suitcase. We were hoping to catch the Hiawatha up there for the AGR point, but it didnt time out well. We took the 3:55PM Metra up to Glenview (ran express), had dinner at Grandpa's which is a GREAT place (been going there since I was a kid)... and met my mom and passed off the wine and big suitcase. She was going up to my condo in MKE anyway to watch my cat so it worked out great. I think Mike was more relieved than I was... as he was nice enough to trot around the wine through LAX for me and on to #4.

We got back around 7:00PM to the Met Lounge... and tried to upload the trip reports, but no luck with no WiFi -- so we decided to go for some adult beverages.

When we got into the Lounge, the attendant said they expected #59 to leave ontime, however there were diner issued and she said they probably wouldnt start serving until 8:15PM. I was a little surprised by the announcement because everytime I have taken #59 they didnt start serving until that time anyway!!!

We boarded pretty much on-time for #59... Mike and I shared a Bedroom.

Mike and I's original travel plans called for us to go down to EMY on #11 and then cut across the country on #6. However, when we heard #11 might be detouring over the Techapi (?-spelling) Pass, we took #11 to LAX and then got tickets for #4. If we did do #6, it would have been a VERYYYY close call... as #6 came in at 7:55PM. They did hold #59 for about 10 minutes so those passengers could connect in, but I am glad we did #4 instead of #6 so we wouldnt have to bite our nails about making the connection. If we missed #59, the whole eastern leg of the trip would probably have been scrubbed.

Anyway, dinner was delayed and delayed on #59. First they said 8:15PM, then 8:30PM, then 9PM... and then 9:30PM. I dont think we sat down until 9:45PM. It was crowded... but atleast they had the bread pudding which is my favorite dessert on Amtrak and is only served on the CNO and the Crescent. 

We went to bed somewhere after Champaign-Urbana.

I woke up the next morning (March 12) somewhere just north of Memphis, TN. I went to college about 60 miles northwest of Memphis, and wanted to get up and see the Pyramid and the Mississippi River and the approach to Memphis. As usual, #59 was a good 30-40 minutes EARLY into Memphis. I peeked out of the window and got some pictures of the bridge over to Arkansas. If you are ever in Memphis, you need to ride the Riverfront Loop trolley. For about 1.5 miles, the trolley tracks actually parallel the CN/Amtrak CNO tracks and they actually share some grade crossing signals. The TN welcome center located off the I-40 bridge is also a good place to get some info about Memphis and Tennessee... 

Mike was still sleeping when I got dressed and headed off the train at Memphis. We sat there for an hour... I got off and got lots of pictures... including some cool sunrise shots with the engine and some blossoming trees. We left MEM on-time.

The trip through Mississippi was pretty un-eventful... Mike and I got off in Jackson and noted how much warmer it was becoming. 

We also kept noting what a bad idea the Cross Country Cafe was and is. I'm glad the whole project stopped before they started messing with my beloved Sightseer Lounge Cars and converting those. I guess the CCC is a good idea on a low-capacity train or on less scenic route, but its just not working on the current configuration. I mean they dont even use half of the car anymore -- it just sits there vacant -- cutting down the capacity of the seating in almost half. #59 was a sold out train and it was hard to get in for meals some of the time... there was a VERY VERY long waiting list for lunch on #59... and I think some people didnt even get served. Oh, also of note on this trip was that we got the proto-type CCC, #37000. Also, the curved booth configuration was removed from the car and had regular booths back in. I am going to start a seperate thread about that -- and if that was something they were experimenting with on CCC's, or if the original booth design being put back in the car is something happening system wide.

Our sleeping car attendant was from Baton Rouge was really knowlegeable about the area. He narrated for us for the last hour of the trip, which is the most scenic part of the route. He pointed out an alligator cage located along the tracks... an eagle's nest (we saw the eagle baby!!!)... and some of the other sights through bayou country... it was nice to hear what we were seeing. We backed into the New Orleans station pretty much again on-time.


----------



## rtabern

Phew, just wanted to save that in case the Met Lounge WiFi went down. 

After arriving at the New Orleans station, Mike and I decided it was so nice outside (70-80 degrees) that we were going to walk to our hotel in the French Quarter about 1.5 miles away. We decided to stay at the St Peter House Hotel, located at St Peter and Burgundy in the northern part of the French Quarter. Mike and I discovered the hotel in March 2010 and loved it!!! It's very affordable... and is located in a historic 1805 building. VERY AUTHENTIC. There arent a lot of amenities, so if youre looking for that stay with the chains on Canal St -- but if you are looking for a room to crash and spend lots of time in New Orleans and a great location -- St Peter House is the way to go. I dont think I would ever stay at any other hotel in New Orleans. Of course, I love cats... and they even have a resident kitty who likes to come and welcome you when you check in. They are super friendly there too and very accomodating. Mike and I decided to get the 2 bed suite so we'd have a little extra room.

After a little organizing, we decided to pound the pavement and explore New Orleans...  We walked Bourbon Street which was somewhat crowded, but wasnt quite hopping yet at 4PM. So we worked out way over to Canal St to get some bread pudding at the Palace Cafe. It was recommended by someone we met on the train... they said Palace Cafe has the best bread pudding in New Orleans... and I have to say... I agree!!! It was VERY tasty. From there, we walked over to the first stop on the Riverfront Trolley loop and rode it end-to-end and back. Then we connected to the Canal St. line and rode that all that way to the end of the line... the Cemerteries stop. Then we headed back into town. We walked around some more -- and went for dinner at the Market Cafe. VERY GOOD. Mike had seafood and I had Red Beans and Rice. It was THE BEST red beans and rice I ever had!!!!! YUM!!! It was getting a little chilly, so Mike and I stopped by the rooms to get jackets and then did a stroll down Bourbon again which was hopping. We made our way back to the Palace Cafe again for more bread pudding, but they were just closing up... and we didnt get any.

By this point, it was already 10:30PM... and we had to be up at 5:30AM the next morning to catch the Crescent at 7:05AM. Making it even worse, the time change... making the 5:30AM wake-up call, really a 4:30AM wake-up call in standard time. Because of that, Mike decided to call it a night and he headed back to the hotel. Despite the early wake-up I decided to stay out for a couple of more hours. I hit a bar on Bourbon that had 3 beers for $5... and spent a good 2 hours watching the crazy crowd... and even partaking in some New Orleans hijnixies and traditions. What happens in New Orleans stays in New Orleans... so I'm not really going into detail here. Let's just say, I won't be posting all of my pictures from that night!!!

By the time I got back to the hotel it was 1AM (yikes!!!)... and got about 3 hours of sleep only.

We woke up at 5:30AM to catch a cab over to the station and get the Crescent.

Well, my Hiawtha isnt too far away from boarding, so I'll have to finish up the Crescent and Capitol Limited reports soon... as well as posting most of the pictures. Stay tuned to this thread. I hope to have everything up by the end of the week...


----------



## rtabern

Ok, time to finish the trip report.

Mike and I left New Orleans on the Crescent #20 at 7:05am on March 12th. We were both pretty tired from staying up in New Orleans... but we managed to get up and make it over to the station on time. We got quite a good scare at the station – fearing #20 was not going to run – or there might be a detour. Around 6:45am an Amtrak Police Officer came out and stated that passengers who were going between New Orleans and Atlanta were going to be BUSSED. Of course, the Amtrak cop wouldnt give any more details... so we thought maybe there was going to be a detour or something between New Orleans and Atlanta. While that would have been fun – I was making a connection to the Capitol Limited in Washington and only had 6 hours. I was worried some wacky detour could throw even off the connection between #20 and #29. The thought of scrapping the trip and flying home from New Orleans even crossed my mind!!! We needed to get more info – so Mike went off trying to find the conductor – while I decided to try my luck at the ticket agent. Well, it turned out we were fine. I guess one of the coaches were bad ordered – so they were running with just 3 instead of 4 – meaning the train was oversold and they had to bus some passengers. Anyone in coach going from New Orleans to Atlanta were bussed. And then we later found out in Atlanta, that any coach passengers going between Atlanta and Lynchburg, VA were also getting the bus. WOW... I hate busses... and couldnt even imagine that. I guess that’s another reason to always go sleeper (atleast that’s my opinion).

Leaving New Orleans, we got some pretty interesting views of the neighborhoods devistated by Hurricane Katrina. In 2005, I was a television producer and spent a couple of weeks in New Orleans covering the events for CBS... so I was pretty familiar with the disaster. But, it was still sad to see neighborhoods in ruins going on 6 years later now. There were some signs of life... you could see people building new homes on stilts along the tracks. I’d say maybe 1/3 of the homes appear to be re-built. From there it was great views of Lake Ponchatrain (?-spelling) and north.

They made the call for breakfast around 7:30am. Mike went... but I decided to skip the meal and get some sleep. I nodded off around Slidell. Mike came back to the room about an hour later... He was getting pretty tired and crawled into the upper bunk and also took a nap. I think we both woke up around 10:30am as we were coming into Meridian, MS. I felt pretty crappy getting just a few hours of sleep, but it was my own doing staying out so late in New Orleans... but how can you not party it up in NO? As much as I like the Crescent and the train, there was part of me that was wishing it would leave later. I dont know if I would do the early morning turn on #20 again... hahaha.

After getting some shots on the Meridian platform, I set out to get some pictures on the train – and especially of the Heritage Diner. I had some cell/internet reception on my phone near Meridian and was able to Google the car and find out that it was Budd built in 1952 and served as a lounge/parlor car on the PRR. I am still amazed with my iPhone that I got a week before leaving for the trip – and though it was cool I could actually know the history of the car instead of wondering about it and then checking when I got home. All of the pictures of the car showed it on the Lake Shore Limited – but I guess it was swaped out on the Crescent for us. I think its VERY cool Amtrak still has the Heritage Diners. Mike and I spent some time as we rolled across the Mississippi-Alabama State Line wondering what the future of the great cars would be after the Viewliner Diners come out in a couple of years. It’s too bad they are single level cars and couldnt be turned into some special First Class car (like a PPC) on the Empire Builder or something. I just hope they dont scrap them... or even sell them off... it’s nice to ride in a car that was built when my dad was only 16 years old and my mom was only 11. 

Anyway, for a couple of months now, we were planning to meet AUF member Bill Haithcoat at the Birmingham, AL station and he was going to ride with us to Atlanta, GA. Bill told us he was planning to take #19 from Birmingham to Atlanta in the morning... would layover in Birmingham for a couple of hours and then ride home with us. Anyway, we thought those plans would have to be cancelled... as when we rolled into Birmingham we learned that #19 has not made it through at all due to engine problems. AND there was no sign of Bill. We thought maybe he would have to jump in Anniston, AL – or maybe he just decided not to go at all knowing the late train. The station platform and the station itself were completely crazy from what I heard... I guess delayed Southbound passengers werent paying enough attention to the announcements and were trying to get on our Northbound train... The conductors were trying to sort out the mess. Anyway, thinking Bill wouldnt be able to join us – I decided to run up the head end and get some photos.

Well, when I returned – there was Mike AND Bill. Yeahh!! Bill said he was worried about making the connection between #19 and #20 in Birmingham because of the time change... so he decided to come down to Birmingham the night before and ride back with us. Bill got a coach ticket, but sat with us in the sleeper. We had a great time getting caught up and sharing stories. Bill was nice enough to bring a couple of timetables from his collection – including a Great Northern and a couple from the Southern Railroad on which we were traveling. It was amazing to see all of the old trains that used to pass through Atlanta and Bill’s hometown of Chattanooga. It’s sad that only 1 train each direction now passed through ATL. All 3 of us wished that Amtrak would restore some sort of service from Chicago to Florida. Right now you have to connect via NYP or WAS – and it’s a 2 night trip. No family who is going to Disney World from the Midwest is going to want to use 4 days of their 7 day vacation to go via Amtrak – if it was just a 1 night trip each direction – more would consider it I think. What was really impressive about Bill’s Southern timetable collection was that he was the ORIGINAL owner of them... actually going down to the station in the 50’s and 60’s to get them... one owner!!! Very cool!!!

Since Bill was getting off at 7PM-ish in Atlanta, we decided to get the first call for dinner and continued the pleasant conversations. Bill ended up getting me a Starbucks tumbler glass (I collect Starbucks city mugs like that) from Atlanta and I exchanged an old magazine ad from 1941 that I found at a train show talking about the new Pullman sleeping cars on the Tennesseean and the Southern Crescent. I think he really got a kick out of them. Anyway, we got off in Atlanta and saw Bill off. He gave us about a 3 minute brief tour of the station. We ended up leaving ATL about 20 minutes late... I am not 100 percent sure what the delay was about – but it appears it might have been for some woman who was having trouble getting down the stairs and into her sleeper because of the BIGGEST stroller I have ever seen in my life... **groans**... Mike and I stayed up to we passed through Toccoa, GA... and hit the hay. I was so tired I dont even remember waking up once. I was sorta hoping to get up to get some shots of the station at Charlotte, NC... but that didnt happen.

Day #10 (March 14, 2010) began when I woke up when the northbound Crescent came to a stop at Lynchburg, VA around 6AM. I could see one of the Lynchburg regionals sitting on the track there at the station... I noticed in the timetable that it left Lynchburg at like 7:30AM and made it to Boston by 7:30PM, actually getting Mike home a couple of hours sooner than taking #20 to NYP and transfering to the Acela. I say joking of course because I dont think you could have paid Mike (or anyone else) enough to give up the nice bedroom we had through NYP – and his First Class on the Acela to BOS. Yeahhh... as much as I like Amtrak... I also couldn’t picture sitting in coach from Lynchburg to Boston on a 12 hour trek. Even though Lyncburg was a smoke stop and I could have gotten off, there really wasn’t time because I was still in my jammies... hahaha.

Mike went back to sleep after we passed through Lynchburg, but since I would be getting off in a couple of hours in Washington, I decided I’d better start packing my bags up and take a shower... I let Mike sleep in... and ended up taking a shower down the hall... then I hung out for awhile in the other Bedroom on the car waiting for him to finish. What I really should have done is head to the diner to snag a seat in there... but I didnt think it was going to be that crowded. Well, I was wrong... they were at capacity... and the hostess said to come back in 15-20 minutes. According to my GPS, we were only about 70 miles away from WAS... so I didnt think there would be time for breakfast and I was pshyc-ing myself just to skip it and get something off the train. Mike convinced me that we should give it a try... and we actually were able to squeeze in breakfast... despite the somewhat slow service in the diner. We didn’t finish though until between Manassas and Alexanderia... leaving me just enough time to head back to the room, use the bathroom, and head out.

When we got to Washington, Mike got off the train with me – and we watched them take off the Diesel engines and put on the electric ones. I pointed out how ugly I thought the “toasters” were – but Mike said he still had a certain fondness for them – comparing them to his love for classic cars that were also considered “ugly” in many people’s books. Hahaha. It was sorta funny... we were keeping our distance from the crew members switching... but one of the guys really barked at us and told us to go back to our sleeper. Well, a couple of minutes later “grumpy pants” walked away and the other 2 guys involved with the switching appologized and said we could go back to where we were standing to get some more photos. I can see how the switching crews would find some rail fans annoying... as I have seen some people out at Spokane taking pictures like inches behind the crew trying to get the cars off... but Mike and I knew to keep a respectable distance... over 20 feet away. Maybe “grumpy pants” was just having a bad day or had a bad run-in with a rainfan who wasn’t be respectful.

I walked with Mike back to the sleeping car and we chatted for a few more minutes... I joked with him how he was going to explain my “disappearance” to the sleeping car attendant (who was still “sleeping in” at WAS and letting the attendant in the #2011 sleeper handle her duties for whatever reason). What had happened, is when we made the reservation I explained to the agent that I we wanted the Bedroom from New Orleans to New York-Penn – but I would be just traveling in it from NOL-WAS while Mike would be traveling from NOL all the way to NYP. The agent made Mike the primary person on the reservation, but I told the agent that was wrong – I wanted to be the primary person on the reservation as I was paying for that leg of the trip and wanted the AGR points to go into my account. The agent said she didn’t think she could make a reservation where the primary person was getting off before the secondary person – so she said she was just going to ticket us both through to NYP, even though she knew I would be hopping in WAS and Mike would solo it between WAS and NYP in the bedroom.

Mike and I parted ways just a few minutes before #20 was to continue its journey north. Be sure and read Mike’s seperate post that he wrote and posted a few posts before this to hear about the remainder of the trip on #20 between WAS and NYP... and his trip on the Acela up to Boston.

After saying goodbye to Mike – I made my way up the escaltor. I saw a few gates down that there were some people getting off the Acela – and decided to try my chances with security there and head out to the 2 Acelas that were sitting there and get some pictures. I had pictures of myself with Superliner, Viewliner, Surfliner, and the Talgos on the Cascades Service from this trip – so why not complete the whole Amtrak cycle and get some pictures with the Acelas??? I got my photos... and surprising no one ended up hassling me on the platform. The whole trip I have been using a new tripod for my digital camera with magnectic feet – I was sure some Amtrak cop was going to come out and question what I was doing by using one of the platform poles and attaching my tripod too... but nope. Got some good photos to complete the Amtrak equipment cycle. I actually thought about staying on #20 and riding it up to Baltimore and then heading back to Washington on the Acela – just to say I rode Acela, Superliner, Viewliner, Talgo, and Surfliner equip all on the same trip – but the prices were just way too redicilous on the Acela from BAL to WAS. It was something like $40+ for Business and almost $79 for First Class. I have ridding Acela before and will be taking it a lot in July when I am out railfaining the NEC – so really $79 was not worth it just to say I rode on the Acela and all of the equipment. Plus, it was a nice day in Washington and after 10 days on the train – I wanted to stretch my legs and get some walking in there. So, I checked into the Club Acela and dropped off all my bags... bringing just my wallet and camera and map of Washington, DC with me.

The first stop on my extreme walking tour of Washington was the US Capitol... I got some shots of myself outside. From my many visits to Washington, DC as a television producer, I could tell that the US Senate was in session, but the House was not. You can tell if the flags over each side of the building are up or down. There were a lot of tourists all taking pictures outside of the Capitol. Using my tripod and help from strangers... I think I got some nice shots there. From there, walked over a block to the US Supereme Court and got a quick picture... then made a loop around the Capitol again... and headed down the National Mall... stopping to take pictures of the Capitol which was behind me and also of the Washington Monument which was getting closer and closer. I noticed that they put fences up over the grassy sections along the National Mall again – I know in 2008 and 2009 they did that to try and restore some of the grass – but removed it in 2010 when the grass was back. I wonder if this will be a permanent thing or not. I guess you cant trust people to stay on the paths!!! Hahahaha.

Anyway, walked upto the Washington Monument... and then continued along the National Mall until I hit the World War II Memorial. I remember when they were building that – and think its one of the nicest memorials in Washington. I continued my stroll and noticed that crews had a lot of “closed areas” between the World War II Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial. I guess they were doing some work on the Reflecting Pool because it was totally drained of water – I’ll have to Google what they are doing, but it looked like putting in new retaining walls or something. Crews also looked to be making some progress on the new Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. I guess there was a plaque or something there before, but they are going to be building an actual memorial to MLK. I am curious to see what it’s going to look like when they’re done. All I could sneak a peak through the fence was the rounded top of some sort of the monument. I also wonder when it’s going to be done!!!!

I made a quick jaunt over the Korean War Memorial – and finally the Lincoln Memorial. I dont know if its because of the fact I was born in Illinois and lived there until I was 18 (and we had Land of Lincoln crammed down our throats!)... but I love reading about Lincoln and the Lincoln Memorial is always my favorite Washington, DC monument. So, I walked up the steps... got my picture with his statue... and spent about 10 minutes sitting on the steps just enjoying the view. When Mike and I went to Washington in March 2010, we learned that there was actually a mis-spelling on the text that was engraved into the Lincoln Memorial on the right side. I think a “P” was made a “R” or vice-verca or something like that. Anyway, they tried to fill it in... but you can still see it. If you ever make it to the Lincoln Memorial ask one of the National Park Service rangers about it... I am sure they can point it out.

From there, I made a quick jaunt by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and over to the White House. I took my picture on the south side of it... and then the north side of it. I always prefered the shots and seeing the White House from the north side because you are so much closer to the building. There was a pretty good sized protest going on there... so I tried to get my picture, but also stay clear of the people. I am not sure what they were all upset about – it sounded like they were asking for the release of some prisoner or something. There was some dude just walking around in a jock strap... it was pretty disturbing... and that was when I knew it was time to go. There was a pretty good police presence out there too watching “jock strap man”... probably 10 squads from the US Park Police... and a few Secret Service squads. Since I work for a police dept in Wisconsin, I snapped some pictures of the Secret Service squads... I am surprised I didnt get questioned about that. Then again, maybe you have the right to take photos as long as you are out in a public spot???

From the White House, I ended up walking a few blocks over to Metro Center and caught the Red Line to Shady Grove/Glenmont – and took it just a few blocks to Union Station. I ended up meeting a friend of mine at 2:15pm for some tea... We had a nice time chatting and getting caught up. I haven’t seen this friend in about 4 years now... so it was good to hear what was going on. He recently got a job in Washington DC and was wrestling with the decision to stay where he had been living... or move to Washington – which apparently is really expensive. I wonder what the costs for an apartment are in Washington... because I hear from everyone it’s super expensive. I wonder how it compares to Chicago or New York?

Anyway, the next thing I knew it was 3:30PM already when we were done chatting. I made a quick stop off at the Starbucks inside Union Station to see if they had my city mug that I collect... and surprisingly they did!!! YEAHH!!! I ended up getting one. Everytime I passed through there before... they didnt have them. When I was in Washington in 2010, I even made a mad trip around Washington looking for the mugs and no one seemed to have them. My parents are big history buffs, so I ended up also buying them mugs. The lady at the Starbucks at Washington was really nice – and since I was just buying the mugs and not waiting for coffee – she let me skip to the front of the line. You rock!! And from there, it was a quick dash by Aunt Annie’s Hot Pretzels (yummm!!) before going back to Club Acela.

By the time I made it to Club Acela it was 3:40PM and the sleeping car passengers were just leaving... I couldnt have timed it perfectly. I walked out to the train and got on around 3:45PM. It was just enough time to stash my bags and get some pictures of the train. I forgot that the Capitol had 2 ½ sleepers on it (well, 2 real sleepers and they sold some rooms in the Transition Sleeper)... I dont know I was thinking that the Capitol was like the Texas Eagle and City of New Orleans and only had 1 ½ sleepers. Basically, the consist of the Capitol was 2 engines – baggage – transition sleeper – 2 sleepers – diner – SSL – and 3 coaches. There were actually an equal number of sleepers and coaches!!!! The 2 other things I noted while walking the outside of the train and getting pictures was the fact that the ‘real’ diner was back on the Capitol. When I took it in November 2010, they were still running Cross Country Cafe Cars. Also, I noticed that our lead engine on the Crescent (Engine #52) was NOW the lead engine on the Capitol. It was kinda cool to know I got the same engine from NOL-WAS and I was going to get WAS-CHI. My guess is they pulled it off #20 to put the electrics on and then tacked it on the Capitol Limited.

This (the Capitol Limited) was the only part of the trip I was going in Roomette... on the Empire Builder and Coast Starlight sections of the trip Mike and I had our own seperate Bedrooms with the adjoining doors open during the day and closed at night. Then, on the Southwest Chief, City of New Orleans, and Crescent legs... we shared a Bedroom. When I went to book the Capitol Limited, the difference between a roomette and a bedroom was like $170 more. I really couldn’t justify spending that much for a bedroom – specially on the Capitol – where you pretty much get on at 4PM, eat dinner, go to bed, and wake up outside of Chicago. It was still weird to have a Roomette after having 7 nights in a bigger Bedroom.

I opted for the last seating at dinner (7:30PM) – despite the fact the LSA was really pushing for everyone to take an early diner time. However, with my stop at Aunt Annie’s in the station and the fact I wanted to get off and get some photos at the 7:14PM smoke stop at Cumberland, MD... I insisted on the later time. There was a VERY VERY light passenger load (sleepers) on #29... and I’m thinking that the LSA wanted to wrap up dinner as early as possible so he could get to bed sooner. Can’t blame him I guess... He said #30 on 3/15 out of CHI was totally sold out and it was going to be a long trip. Shoot, I wish I remember his name... but the voice of the dining car LSA was great... he should have been on the radio. He had a French Carribean accent – and I wish he made all of the announcements through the whole trip – it sounded like you were enterting a fancy restaurant. I had dinner with a nice woman who lives part of the time in Sandusky, OH and part of the time in Washington. She was a substiute teacher and also hosted a religious talk show on the radio. So we mainly swapped stories about radio... since I worked at a radio station in the late 90’s. She was nice company... very cheerful and upbeat. Even with that, I was sorta missing Mike’s company... It was weird to eat alone after having 27 meals on Amtrak on this trip together!!! Hahaha... I think I almost said “party of 2” when entering the diner.

It was almost 9PM when we finished... and I was the last one out of the diner. When I got back to the room, I crawled into bed and stayed up for about an hour watching some of the countryside and stars go by outside the window... one of my favorite things to do on Amtrak after dinner and at night. Just before pulling into Connellsville, PA, I heard the dining car LSA get on the PA and say “AC & Conductor needed in the Lounge Car immediately”... Having done Trails & Rails for Amtrak for 5 years... I know that is one of the key words said in an emergency. We sat at Connellsville for 20-30 minutes, but I didnt really see any activity (police or fire) out on the platform... and wasnt really picking up anything on my scanner... so I decided just to go to bed and not worry about it. From what I heard the next morning, someone might have jumped from the moving train in a suicide attempt somewhere between Cumberland and Connellsville. I dont know if that was the truth, but that is what some of the people at the dining car table were talking about the next morning. I fell asleep about 20 miles before Pittsburgh.

And now, we’re on to today... the final day of the trip... March 15, 2011. I slept REALLY good... not waking up until we were crossing the Ohio/Indiana State Line. I checked my watch and saw that it was already 6:40am – and wanted to get some breakfast before they stopped serving at 7:30am. I had the cheese omlet, my usual breakfast on Amtrak, except on the Empire Builder wherer I get the fresh pancakes sometimes. By the time I got back to the room we were just rolling through South Bend... I spent a few minutes getting the room together... and watching the steel mills fade and Chicago grow closer and closer. Pulling into the yard, I noticed an engine that looked like it caught on fire. Once I get my photos up in the coming days, you can check it out.

We got into Chicago right at 9AM... checked into the Met Lounge... waited an hour. The WiFi was up so I was able to post about the trip on #59. Around 10AM, I posted, headed to the Hiawatha gate.... and caught the 10:20AM to Milwaukee... getting to the Milwaukee Airport where my car was parked for the last 11 days... and yes, now I’m home.....

So, there it is... 2 AUF members on a 9,000 mile cross country trip.

Hope you enjoyed the trip reports.

Between today and the weekend, I will be uploaded photos from the trip and posting the links here.


----------



## Railroad Bill

Really enjoyed the fantastic trip reports. 

Your detailed report gives such a great feel for riding Amtrak. Thanks for sharing those experiences.

Glad we only have about four weeks left until we leave on our birthday loop trip (CLE-CHI-WAS-CLE).


----------



## amamba

rtabern said:


> By this point, it was already 10:30PM... and we had to be up at 5:30AM the next morning to catch the Crescent at 7:05AM. Making it even worse, the time change... making the 5:30AM wake-up call, really a 4:30AM wake-up call in standard time. Because of that, Mike decided to call it a night and he headed back to the hotel. Despite the early wake-up I decided to stay out for a couple of more hours. I hit a bar on Bourbon that had 3 beers for $5... and spent a good 2 hours watching the crazy crowd... and even partaking in some New Orleans hijnixies and traditions. What happens in New Orleans stays in New Orleans... so I'm not really going into detail here. Let's just say, I won't be posting all of my pictures from that night!!!
> 
> By the time I got back to the hotel it was 1AM (yikes!!!)... and got about 3 hours of sleep only.


You are a rock star! :hi:


----------



## amamba

rtabern said:


> From there, I made a quick jaunt by the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and over to the White House. I took my picture on the south side of it... and then the north side of it. I always prefered the shots and seeing the White House from the north side because you are so much closer to the building. There was a pretty good sized protest going on there... so I tried to get my picture, but also stay clear of the people. I am not sure what they were all upset about – it sounded like they were asking for the release of some prisoner or something. There was some dude just walking around in a jock strap... it was pretty disturbing... and that was when I knew it was time to go. There was a pretty good police presence out there too watching “jock strap man”... probably 10 squads from the US Park Police... and a few Secret Service squads. Since I work for a police dept in Wisconsin, I snapped some pictures of the Secret Service squads... I am surprised I didnt get questioned about that. Then again, maybe you have the right to take photos as long as you are out in a public spot???
> 
> From the White House, I ended up walking a few blocks over to Metro Center and caught the Red Line to Shady Grove/Glenmont – and took it just a few blocks to Union Station. I ended up meeting a friend of mine at 2:15pm for some tea... We had a nice time chatting and getting caught up. I haven’t seen this friend in about 4 years now... so it was good to hear what was going on. He recently got a job in Washington DC and was wrestling with the decision to stay where he had been living... or move to Washington – which apparently is really expensive. I wonder what the costs for an apartment are in Washington... because I hear from everyone it’s super expensive. I wonder how it compares to Chicago or New York?


I bet they were protesting the treatment of the wikileaks soldier - I think his name is Bradley Manning? He is a soldier that released classified info to wikileaks and he is being forced to sleep naked every night and then stand naked outside of his cell before they give him back his clothes.

As to the costs of an apt in Wash DC, I have several friends who live there. It is less expensive than NYC but much more expensive than Chicago.

GREAT trip report. What an amazing experience!

What are your plans for your NEC trip this summer?


----------



## rtabern

> I bet they were protesting the treatment of the wikileaks soldier - I think his name is Bradley Manning? He is a soldier that released classified info to wikileaks and he is being forced to sleep naked every night and then stand naked outside of his cell before they give him back his clothes.
> 
> As to the costs of an apt in Wash DC, I have several friends who live there. It is less expensive than NYC but much more expensive than Chicago.
> 
> GREAT trip report. What an amazing experience!
> 
> What are your plans for your NEC trip this summer?


Yep, that was it... Bradley Manning. Never heard of the name before -- but I dont want much news. I used to work in the news business and got laid off about 2 years ago... and am just burnt out from watching the newschannels, etc.

Wow, MORE expensive than CHI? Yikes!

In Mid-July, I am "cat sitting" for my sister who is going to Europe on a business trip. AKA a free place to stay for 7 to 8 days in NYC. I have 3-4 days just to explore the city and the other days I am planning daytrips around the NEC -- down to WAS if I can get a White House tour -- down to BAL to see Fort McHenry -- and a daytrip to mid-PA on 43 & 44.


----------



## Trogdor

If you really think Chicago is expensive, you need to get out more.


----------



## GG-1

rtabern said:


> Wow, MORE expensive than CHI? Yikes!


Aloha

Then you really dont want an apartment in Oahu, Hawaii. My 470 sq. foot Apartment cost me 1175 dollars per month. It was as older one and at the bottom of the price range. Worse there were no Amtrak trains.


----------



## amamba

I actually think CHI is the best deal in terms of big cities in the US. I think apartments are pretty reasonable there, but maybe I just lived in Boston for too long.


----------



## pennyk

Thanks Robert and Mike for the fabulous trip report.

Mike, don't feel bad about taking French in high school. I took Spanish in high school and college, then I went to South America in 1979, went into a bar where no one spoke English and tried to order a beer. It took a long time using hand signals and pointing for the bar tender to figure out what I wanted. Bottom line is that they did not teach me the really important stuff when I was in school. Of course, I know the word cerverza (sp?) very well now, but I can still say "where is the library and Juan ate meatballs for lunch" in Spanish. :lol:

Back to the trip report - I felt like I was traveling with you - thanks again.


----------



## rtabern

Got all the photos from Day #5 and Day #6 of the trip uploaded tonight:

http://rtabern.shutterfly.com/15913

These are photos from my Surfliner trip down to Solana Beach and photos from the Southwest Chief through CA, AZ, NM, and CO.

I will try and get the rest of the photos up in the next couple of days. Come back to this thread!!!


----------



## had8ley

rtabern said:


> Got all the photos from Day #5 and Day #6 of the trip uploaded tonight:
> 
> http://rtabern.shutterfly.com/15913
> 
> These are photos from my Surfliner trip down to Solana Beach and photos from the Southwest Chief through CA, AZ, NM, and CO.
> 
> I will try and get the rest of the photos up in the next couple of days. Come back to this thread!!!


Just an observation from an engineer who lost all his air~ those F-59's look a heck of a lot safer than the regular Amtrak P-40 and 42's. Every inch counts in a crossing accident at 79 mph. Enjoy the trip; looks like you two are having a ball.


----------



## Trogdor

had8ley said:


> Just an observation from an engineer who lost all his air~ those F-59's look a heck of a lot safer than the regular Amtrak P-40 and 42's. Every inch counts in a crossing accident at 79 mph. Enjoy the trip; looks like you two are having a ball.


Maybe, but if you have to get out of the way, there's nowhere to go on an F59.


----------



## jb64

Really enjoyed the pictures, thanks for sharing! The beach in So Cal looks oh so inviting.


----------



## frugalist

Very thorough trip report, and great photos. Quite enjoyable to read. Makes me even more excited about our trip this summer where we'll be criss-crossing the country.


----------



## TraneMan

They got window washers!!


----------



## rtabern

TraneMan said:


> They got window washers!!


Only place I have seen that is at ABQ on #3/#4 and at DEN on #5/#6


----------



## rtabern

rtabern said:


> TraneMan said:
> 
> 
> 
> They got window washers!!
> 
> 
> 
> Only place I have seen that is at ABQ on #3/#4 and at DEN on #5/#6
Click to expand...

I'm gonna lobby Amtrak to have some window washers on the platform at Glenview for all the Hiawathas that come through... they're the trains that REALLY need some window washers!!!


----------



## rtabern

Ok, folks... here at the photos for Day #7 and Day #8 of the trip.

http://rtabern.shutterfly.com/16194

Day #7 was of course the last morning on the Southwest Cheif coming into Chicago, a quick layover in Chicago, and departing on the City of New Orleans

Day #8 was the morning/early afternoon on the City of New Orleans... and our arrival into New Orleans and the night we spent in New Orleans.

The last batch of pictures (Day #9-11) should be coming today or tomorrow...


----------



## rtabern

Ok, pictures from the last 3 days of the trip!

http://rtabern.shutterfly.com/16407


----------



## MikefromCrete

Thanks for taking us along. It was a great trip, especially that night in New Orleans!


----------



## Shanghai

I know you guys had a great trip. Would you take the same trip in coach??

Thanks again for the verbage and the pictures.


----------



## J-1 3235

Shanghai said:


> I know you guys had a great trip. Would you take the same trip in coach??
> 
> Thanks again for the verbage and the pictures.


An overnight, possibly.....ten days, not likely  

Mike


----------



## rtabern

J-1 3235 said:


> Shanghai said:
> 
> 
> 
> I know you guys had a great trip. Would you take the same trip in coach??
> 
> Thanks again for the verbage and the pictures.
> 
> 
> 
> An overnight, possibly.....ten days, not likely
> 
> Mike
Click to expand...

Nah, I'd NEVER overnight in coach. I don't think coach is that bad if you are a heavy sleeper -- but I am a super light sleeper -- and need an actual bed to sleep in. I am such a light sleeper I have NEVER fallen asleep in a chair nodding off watching TV even!! With that said, if it's a daytrip... definetly coach (I do coach daytrips around the Midwest all the time) unless I am on the Coast Starlight and then sleeper for the PPC access.

With that said, coach is the more affordable way to go... (even though I'd rather cut back on the number of trips I do a year and always go sleeper). We used AGR points for most of the trip, but if we actually paid for the whole thing it would have been like $5,200 a piece I calculated for the big bedrooms.


----------

