sunchaser
Conductor
We arrived in Sacramento at 6:24 am, 14 minutes late. No biggie. We went into the station after the RedCap that Cruz had got for us brought us thru the tunnel with our bags. She got us a couple of carts for all our stuff. We hung out in the station for a bit, waiting for the Baggage guy, no worries, we had time. Since it was Sunday, the little snack stand was closed. There was vending machines, but $2.00 for a mt dew seemed a bit much. :huh: A young man asked us to watch his stuff for a short while. He works for BNSF, was heading to Reno for an Operation Lifesaver conference. I think he was an engineer. We checked the big ones (had to rearrange the weight on one) & stored our other stuff (wine cooler, two small bags). He charged us $2 per item to store them, which was fine, and then we headed over to Denny's for breakfast. Had build you own Slams, OJ & Coffee (coffee was wimpy), then headed back. A young woman walked up to us & asked hubby to watch her overnight stuff for her & her 7 daughters while they went for breakfast. She had recently lost her husband & was traveling with her girls back east to spend time together. She told hubby she could trust him because of his Marine hat. Made him feel good. Another man joined us at the table to use his laptop. Turns out he also was heading to Reno for the Operation Lifesaver Conference too. He was a retired fireman.
Hubby went over to the Starbucks to get an Iced Coffee. We all had a nice chat, and the young BNSF man joined us and discussed many train related things-from safety to the current situations with Amtrak & how to improve them. The lady came back with her girls, & we waited some more. There was a pigeon that kept coming in the station-for goodies I suppose-I thought he had wandered in by accident so I held the door for him to go out. He just came back in through another open door! It was kinda cute.
We wandered out to the platform to wait about 10:30. Hubby positioned himself to take video. Chatted a bit with some of the other pax, and waited. The Califorina Zephyr #6 arrived at 11:13am, and we boarded, bedroom E. This time it was much easier because we had checked the bags & we carried on two small bags, the wine cooler, his bag & my purse. I will pack everything better next time. Most of the 'in case of clothes', we used. Most of the clothes I brought were for wamer weather, & it rained for several days so I didn't use them. I'm sure I could get away with only 2 or 3 bags next time. Our Sleeper Car Attendant was Roy, another long time employee. This bedroom was oriented with the chair facing forward, not the sofa. The other sleepers we had were all oriented with the sofa facing forward. No worries, though, it was still a smooth, quiet ride. It was also in pretty good shape. After we got to our room and we were underway, he stopped by. Lunch was first come, first served, so hubby decided that he wanted to have lunch in our room, so we ordered the pastrami sandwiches. Got some ice for the cooler, which was in the drawer below the Coffeemaker instead of a styrofoam one in the hall. He had also put out a little tablecloth just like Cruz had, there was flowers & candy too. Since the train was moving pretty slow thru Roseville, because of trackwork & I had already decided I really needed to shower, it was time to try showering on the train, I gathered my stuff & went downstairs. The shower wasn't bad! Since we weren't going very fast, it wasn't too bumpy. I'm glad I did it downstairs, though. There was enough room to change clothes. The one in the bedroom is small. I may try that one next time. The bedrooms are smaller than they look in the pictures, but doable. I got back in plenty of time for our lunch. We finished off the half bottle of wine, then had our lunch. I had packed the salt & pepper, there was a small salad w/no dressing or pickle. He also brought a dark chocolate raspberry dessert that was good. The trackwork slowed things down quite a bit, it seemed like we were going to spend most of our day there! The LSA came by and I picked 6:30 for dinner, becauuse the Reno stop was running late. I didn't want us to miss the 'smoke stop' by being in the diner! We ended up being 2 hours behind because of the track work. We arrived in Reno at 6:00 for smoke/fresh air crew change. Hubby noticed a young man with a scanner in his back pocket & started talking to him. Turns out it was Matt Melzer, from Trainweb.com! He spent some time with us, talking about hopeful improvements for Amtrak. He also helped to set up the Depot Inn & Suites in La Plata, Missouri. Real nice guy! We reboarded, then waited for the 6:30 call for dinner. We had dinner with an older couple who were traveling to Ohio for his 50th reunion! (I think College)
They have been married for 54 years!!! He was a WWII vet, pacific theater. Such a nice couple, frequent train travelers too. We all had Salmon, but the Gentleman had the Flat Iron. Funny thing was they were already out of baked potatoes! He was such a nice guy, very attentive to hubby, thanking him for serving & apologizing to him for the bad treatment that the vienam vets got when they came home. I thanked him for serving as well, he had so many sad stories to tell about WWII. I kept catching snippets of a conversation from the next able over. It was Matt from Trainweb, trying to patiently explain to a tablemate that the LD trains with sleepers make money. The guy was not listening to what Matt had to say. He did not want to hear about the numbers, but he wanted Matt to convince him without that. Reminded me of our lively discussions of that and oher subjects on this board! I did notice that the diner ceiling was quite dirty. It had black streaks running from the center vents towards the windows. Other than that it seemed to be in good repair. We were stuffed, so we headed back to our room & consumed our last bottle of Pinot Grigio. Hubby was napping on the sofa.
I checked out the hall bathroom, it was clean, had flowers in it & Roy had hung an air freshener in there too. It's the little things that make the difference. Roy stopped by to see when we wanted the beds turned down. We told him at Winnemucca. He also said he would wake us up before Salt Lake City, too. We stopped in Winnemucca at 8:55pm, still amost 2 hours behind for a smoke stop/fresh air/crew change. As before, when we stopped there, they did not open the sleeper car door, we had to go down to the coach after the Sightseer Car. On the way back to our sleeper, we saw the lady with her daughters. I stopped and talked with them for a few minutes. My heart went out to all of them, such a hard thing to go through at any age. As we walked thru the diner, it was then that I realized the vestibule doors have the car #s and names on them! Big Duh, I didn't write down any #s, but we were in 'District of Columbia'. As promised, the beds were all ready to go when we got back. I grabbed some Apple Juice on Ice, & got ready & crawled into bed. Kind of keyed up, sorry that the trip was almost done, but also glad to get home to our pets, too.
Woke up early, about 3:30am, well before Roy was up. Got some juice, tidied up & got dressed. All before Roy was up. Was hoping for a cup of coffee, but wasn't too disappointed. Woke hubby up, he got ready. Roy came by to wake us, & was surprised we were already up. We arrived in SLC at 4:57am, still almost an hour late.
Got our bags, put them on carts, grabbed a couple Mt Dews from the station, called a cab and went home.
Observations:
The Zephyr was ok, but not near as fun as the Starlight. Hubby said it had a different feel to it. He commented that it would be better with a Parlour Car! I wasn't surprised by his comment at all. The cleanliness issues could have been easily addressed. I don't think it was so much a lack of caring as in time/supplies to accomplish what was needed. Our sleeper bathroom seemed to flush on it's own-usually if the occupants in bedroom D flushed first. Did not have any other bathroom function issues, although I did overhear someone saying the bathrooms in their sleeper weren't working. I was all prepared for the trains being late, & pleasantly surprised that they were not real late!!
What would I do different?
Pack better!
Get an immersion heater! (to use with the french presses)
Get a bigger tolietry bag
Make sure the 'in case' stuff is easy to get to.
Make sure I set up a smaller overnight bag for in the sleeper.
Pack an empty small bag for Souviners.
Book earlier!!!!!
Check the bags if possible!!! It would have been nicer if I had packed so that all the bags could have been checked at SLC. Then at SAC for the Starlight, with less bags, we could have easily stored them downstairs & carried up a smaller bag to the room. We did pack some gifts for them and pictures, some of which I won't need to take next time. The issue wasn't so much too many bags as not being able to check them on the Starlight. Next time, I'm sure we could get away with 3, possibly 2 instead of 4 bags, and have at least one much smaller carryon. The bags we brought were 28" x 18" x 12". They were difficult to get up the stairs because of their width. I also did not realize that they weighed 10.9 lbs empty until right before we left.
Will we go again? Yes!!! The question is when. Hopefully we can do a 'short run' to Glenwood Springs(GSC) with roomettes before the year is out. And then do a repeat of this one again next year.
Hubby went over to the Starbucks to get an Iced Coffee. We all had a nice chat, and the young BNSF man joined us and discussed many train related things-from safety to the current situations with Amtrak & how to improve them. The lady came back with her girls, & we waited some more. There was a pigeon that kept coming in the station-for goodies I suppose-I thought he had wandered in by accident so I held the door for him to go out. He just came back in through another open door! It was kinda cute.
We wandered out to the platform to wait about 10:30. Hubby positioned himself to take video. Chatted a bit with some of the other pax, and waited. The Califorina Zephyr #6 arrived at 11:13am, and we boarded, bedroom E. This time it was much easier because we had checked the bags & we carried on two small bags, the wine cooler, his bag & my purse. I will pack everything better next time. Most of the 'in case of clothes', we used. Most of the clothes I brought were for wamer weather, & it rained for several days so I didn't use them. I'm sure I could get away with only 2 or 3 bags next time. Our Sleeper Car Attendant was Roy, another long time employee. This bedroom was oriented with the chair facing forward, not the sofa. The other sleepers we had were all oriented with the sofa facing forward. No worries, though, it was still a smooth, quiet ride. It was also in pretty good shape. After we got to our room and we were underway, he stopped by. Lunch was first come, first served, so hubby decided that he wanted to have lunch in our room, so we ordered the pastrami sandwiches. Got some ice for the cooler, which was in the drawer below the Coffeemaker instead of a styrofoam one in the hall. He had also put out a little tablecloth just like Cruz had, there was flowers & candy too. Since the train was moving pretty slow thru Roseville, because of trackwork & I had already decided I really needed to shower, it was time to try showering on the train, I gathered my stuff & went downstairs. The shower wasn't bad! Since we weren't going very fast, it wasn't too bumpy. I'm glad I did it downstairs, though. There was enough room to change clothes. The one in the bedroom is small. I may try that one next time. The bedrooms are smaller than they look in the pictures, but doable. I got back in plenty of time for our lunch. We finished off the half bottle of wine, then had our lunch. I had packed the salt & pepper, there was a small salad w/no dressing or pickle. He also brought a dark chocolate raspberry dessert that was good. The trackwork slowed things down quite a bit, it seemed like we were going to spend most of our day there! The LSA came by and I picked 6:30 for dinner, becauuse the Reno stop was running late. I didn't want us to miss the 'smoke stop' by being in the diner! We ended up being 2 hours behind because of the track work. We arrived in Reno at 6:00 for smoke/fresh air crew change. Hubby noticed a young man with a scanner in his back pocket & started talking to him. Turns out it was Matt Melzer, from Trainweb.com! He spent some time with us, talking about hopeful improvements for Amtrak. He also helped to set up the Depot Inn & Suites in La Plata, Missouri. Real nice guy!
We reboarded, then waited for the 6:30 call for dinner. We had dinner with an older couple who were traveling to Ohio for his 50th reunion! (I think College)They have been married for 54 years!!! He was a WWII vet, pacific theater. Such a nice couple, frequent train travelers too. We all had Salmon, but the Gentleman had the Flat Iron. Funny thing was they were already out of baked potatoes! He was such a nice guy, very attentive to hubby, thanking him for serving & apologizing to him for the bad treatment that the vienam vets got when they came home. I thanked him for serving as well, he had so many sad stories to tell about WWII. I kept catching snippets of a conversation from the next able over. It was Matt from Trainweb, trying to patiently explain to a tablemate that the LD trains with sleepers make money. The guy was not listening to what Matt had to say. He did not want to hear about the numbers, but he wanted Matt to convince him without that. Reminded me of our lively discussions of that and oher subjects on this board! I did notice that the diner ceiling was quite dirty. It had black streaks running from the center vents towards the windows. Other than that it seemed to be in good repair. We were stuffed, so we headed back to our room & consumed our last bottle of Pinot Grigio. Hubby was napping on the sofa.
I checked out the hall bathroom, it was clean, had flowers in it & Roy had hung an air freshener in there too. It's the little things that make the difference. Roy stopped by to see when we wanted the beds turned down. We told him at Winnemucca. He also said he would wake us up before Salt Lake City, too. We stopped in Winnemucca at 8:55pm, still amost 2 hours behind for a smoke stop/fresh air/crew change. As before, when we stopped there, they did not open the sleeper car door, we had to go down to the coach after the Sightseer Car. On the way back to our sleeper, we saw the lady with her daughters. I stopped and talked with them for a few minutes. My heart went out to all of them, such a hard thing to go through at any age. As we walked thru the diner, it was then that I realized the vestibule doors have the car #s and names on them! Big Duh, I didn't write down any #s, but we were in 'District of Columbia'. As promised, the beds were all ready to go when we got back. I grabbed some Apple Juice on Ice, & got ready & crawled into bed. Kind of keyed up, sorry that the trip was almost done, but also glad to get home to our pets, too.
Woke up early, about 3:30am, well before Roy was up. Got some juice, tidied up & got dressed. All before Roy was up. Was hoping for a cup of coffee, but wasn't too disappointed. Woke hubby up, he got ready. Roy came by to wake us, & was surprised we were already up. We arrived in SLC at 4:57am, still almost an hour late.
Got our bags, put them on carts, grabbed a couple Mt Dews from the station, called a cab and went home.
Observations:
The Zephyr was ok, but not near as fun as the Starlight. Hubby said it had a different feel to it. He commented that it would be better with a Parlour Car! I wasn't surprised by his comment at all. The cleanliness issues could have been easily addressed. I don't think it was so much a lack of caring as in time/supplies to accomplish what was needed. Our sleeper bathroom seemed to flush on it's own-usually if the occupants in bedroom D flushed first. Did not have any other bathroom function issues, although I did overhear someone saying the bathrooms in their sleeper weren't working. I was all prepared for the trains being late, & pleasantly surprised that they were not real late!!
What would I do different?
Pack better!
Get an immersion heater! (to use with the french presses)
Get a bigger tolietry bag
Make sure the 'in case' stuff is easy to get to.
Make sure I set up a smaller overnight bag for in the sleeper.
Pack an empty small bag for Souviners.
Book earlier!!!!!
Check the bags if possible!!! It would have been nicer if I had packed so that all the bags could have been checked at SLC. Then at SAC for the Starlight, with less bags, we could have easily stored them downstairs & carried up a smaller bag to the room. We did pack some gifts for them and pictures, some of which I won't need to take next time. The issue wasn't so much too many bags as not being able to check them on the Starlight. Next time, I'm sure we could get away with 3, possibly 2 instead of 4 bags, and have at least one much smaller carryon. The bags we brought were 28" x 18" x 12". They were difficult to get up the stairs because of their width. I also did not realize that they weighed 10.9 lbs empty until right before we left.
Will we go again? Yes!!! The question is when. Hopefully we can do a 'short run' to Glenwood Springs(GSC) with roomettes before the year is out. And then do a repeat of this one again next year.
