I just returned home from my recent AGR awards trip, which didn't exactly get off to the right start. Here is the topic that discusses our rather rough beginning: http://discuss.amtraktrains.com/index.php?/topic/41472-oh-crap/ I posted that whole topic again rather than rehash everything. I guess for preliminaries, I flew from Spokane to Denver, Denver to Midway, waited about 4 hrs at Midway, then took a bus from Midway to Bloomington. I then spent a couple of days at my uncle and aunt's, who live between Bloomington and Champaign. I will also say in passing that the short trip from Champaign to Chicago was without incident, and was early. Nothing too earth-shattering there.
Anyway, rather than avoid the near-riots that happen every time coach passengers board a long-distance train at CUS, my uncle got ahold of a redcap who "promised to take care of us". He did, too. He got my uncle, his granddaughter and myself, along with our luggage, out to the platform several minutes before the announced boarding time of the SWC. We were second in line, only behind several groups of Boy Scouts headed for the Philmont Scout Ranch and the Raton stop in New Mexico. We were able to avoid that mad dash that way. And the redcap was rewarded handsomely for his efforts: $25.00. After all that, we still had assigned seats, which was no surprise, as the train was sold out. In fact, two extra coaches were added to accomodate those of us displaced from the cancelled California Zephyr and who were rerouted to Los Angeles. My uncle and his granddaughter of course sat together: I was left to the fates as far as seatmates goes; the fates at first were very unkind as I not only had an aisle seat, which I don't like, but the the guy to me at the window seat not only reeked of stale cigarette smoke, but he had obviously not made an acquaintence with Right-Guard. :angry: :angry: If I had to ride all the way to LA like that.....Fortunately, I didn't, as the couple in front of us got lucky and got to upgrade to a sleeper, opening a couple of seats. Mr. Odiferous moved to the seats in front of us, so we had seats to ourselves all the way to Los Angeles. After that I only caught an occasional whiff of him.
Our only meal this day was dinner, and as was the case the next night, us coach passengers were left with Last Call as the only dining option. Last call on this night was about 8PM. The food and the help were both pretty good, as I had a low-cal cod dish and sugar-free cheesecake. The salads to me seemed a little bit more substantial, meaning they seemed to have much more lettuce than I remember.
Our train was on time, or reasonably so, and due to a shortened service stop at Kansas City, we were right on time leaving KC, and would be either on-time or even early throughout the night in Kansas. I experienced much trouble sleeping in the coach seats, however, due almost entirely to Mr. Odiferous and his @#(*&* of a &^#$*())ing cell phone. That idiot was yapping on it constantly from the time we left Chicago, and when it was time to sleep, he didn't have enough intelligence or common courtesy to shut that blasted phone off or even put it on vibrate. And when he was yapping on it, he did so in such a loud voice I'm sure the engineer could have heard it. :angry2: :angry2: Unfortunately there was were no car attendants to be had the entire first day, so we couldn't have them shut the guy up. Finally after my uncle had shushed him loudly enough times, the guy got huffy and moved to the sightseer lounge, where I'm sure he annoyed the bejesus out of those passengers in the SSL. Added to the din was the fact we were seated near the front of the coach car and the Boy Scouts, seated in the car back of us, kept running back and forth to the SSL all night. Not one of my most restful nights sleeping.
(to be continued)
Anyway, rather than avoid the near-riots that happen every time coach passengers board a long-distance train at CUS, my uncle got ahold of a redcap who "promised to take care of us". He did, too. He got my uncle, his granddaughter and myself, along with our luggage, out to the platform several minutes before the announced boarding time of the SWC. We were second in line, only behind several groups of Boy Scouts headed for the Philmont Scout Ranch and the Raton stop in New Mexico. We were able to avoid that mad dash that way. And the redcap was rewarded handsomely for his efforts: $25.00. After all that, we still had assigned seats, which was no surprise, as the train was sold out. In fact, two extra coaches were added to accomodate those of us displaced from the cancelled California Zephyr and who were rerouted to Los Angeles. My uncle and his granddaughter of course sat together: I was left to the fates as far as seatmates goes; the fates at first were very unkind as I not only had an aisle seat, which I don't like, but the the guy to me at the window seat not only reeked of stale cigarette smoke, but he had obviously not made an acquaintence with Right-Guard. :angry: :angry: If I had to ride all the way to LA like that.....Fortunately, I didn't, as the couple in front of us got lucky and got to upgrade to a sleeper, opening a couple of seats. Mr. Odiferous moved to the seats in front of us, so we had seats to ourselves all the way to Los Angeles. After that I only caught an occasional whiff of him.
Our only meal this day was dinner, and as was the case the next night, us coach passengers were left with Last Call as the only dining option. Last call on this night was about 8PM. The food and the help were both pretty good, as I had a low-cal cod dish and sugar-free cheesecake. The salads to me seemed a little bit more substantial, meaning they seemed to have much more lettuce than I remember.
Our train was on time, or reasonably so, and due to a shortened service stop at Kansas City, we were right on time leaving KC, and would be either on-time or even early throughout the night in Kansas. I experienced much trouble sleeping in the coach seats, however, due almost entirely to Mr. Odiferous and his @#(*&* of a &^#$*())ing cell phone. That idiot was yapping on it constantly from the time we left Chicago, and when it was time to sleep, he didn't have enough intelligence or common courtesy to shut that blasted phone off or even put it on vibrate. And when he was yapping on it, he did so in such a loud voice I'm sure the engineer could have heard it. :angry2: :angry2: Unfortunately there was were no car attendants to be had the entire first day, so we couldn't have them shut the guy up. Finally after my uncle had shushed him loudly enough times, the guy got huffy and moved to the sightseer lounge, where I'm sure he annoyed the bejesus out of those passengers in the SSL. Added to the din was the fact we were seated near the front of the coach car and the Boy Scouts, seated in the car back of us, kept running back and forth to the SSL all night. Not one of my most restful nights sleeping.
(to be continued)
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The fun began between Raton and Las Vegas, when we had to stop so the conductor could inspect a bridge before crossing it. I knew there had been washouts earlier in New Mexico and assumed that was the reason for the short delay. Once we crossed the bridge, we started moving----sloooowly. I brought a new toy for the trip-a GPS unit-and according to it we were moving at no more than 20 mph, and mostly well under that. The reason given by the conductor was "poorly-maintained signals" by the BNSF that weren't allowing speeds faster than 20. I don't know how long we moved at 20 mph or less, but by reading highway signs, that began somewhere about 60 highway miles from Las Vegas. We traveled slowly like that enough that when we finally arrived in Las Vegas, we were more than an hour down. The three of us had decided to forego lunch in the diner and grab something from the snack bar because the only lunch reservations we would have had would have put us in the diner during the passage of the S curves outside of Las Vegas. Now as it turned out we'd have been fine. Oh well.
