greatcats
Engineer
I have made two other writeups in the past two weeks, eastbound on the Southwest Chief and Cardinal to Washington, and a sidetrip to Greensboro, NC. Three days ago I was about to head to Union Station to take the Capitol to Chicago, when a message was received from Amtrak that # 29 was cancelled, which has been discussed in the forum. " No alternate transportation. I did learn later that buses were provided for some from Washington to Pittsburgh and then another one to Chicago, which one man told me was an unpleasant trip, although he did arrive Chicago about an hour ahead of the scheduled train time.
Greatcats here elected to make his own arrangements - my invaluable little laptop reserved me a flight from National Airport to O'hare at 4:43pm and I reserved a nice Kimpton Hotel ( The Monaco, recommended ) Arriving at the airport, the helpful agent put me on the 3:35 flight - security wasn't too bad - and I collapsed into an aisle seat. I am not complaining about United - they did their job OK, but I would rather have been riding through West Virginia and Maryland through light green spring foliage. Two boring hours later we landed a few minutes early at O'hare and I made my way to the CTA train, which 38 minutes later dropped me off at Lake and Clark and I walked four blocks to the hotel. The front desk recommended the nearby Andy's Jazz Club, which made my disrupted travel plans turn into lemonade. A good dinner while listening to two jazz organ trios made me very happy.
Now to resume the planned itinerary: arrived well ahead of the departure for #3 and enjoyed using the laptop in the First Class Lounge. We departed on time, greeted by my sharp looking attendant, Leonard Woods. I'll mention the negatives of the train first. On the second day out, the toilets failed on the other sleeper. I know this is not a new problem, but for the money passengers pay for sleepers, it is not so great when one has to go to the next car to use facilities. My sleeper was in pretty good working order, but Leonard agreed with me that the rest rooms, while clean, are shabby looking. The rest of the trip was very positive. I have never had such a good time on a long distance train as I had on the Southwest Chief this week. The car attendants and dining car staff were first rate, some of them having been on my eastbound trip. The much discussed dining car cuisine has found a fan in me. While it is not upscale dining , my two dinners on this train of the Barbequed Brisket and Pasta were satisfying in every respect. Most other passengers seemed pleased with the wuality of the food.
What really made the trip a pleasure were the cool people I met on this trip. At each of the four meals I sat with different folks and we had a good old time. One man persuaded me to sing, as he wanted to videotape me, so I gave a brief concert in the lounge car of two songs I do as a tour bus driver, pertaining to the Grand Canyon and Alaska. ( One of the dining car servers, Cynthia, came over to the lounge to listen. ) One man has motivated me to put my extensive travels of this year to Japan, Hawaii, and Washington down in writing.
I applied for a refund this morning at Flagstaff ticket office for the cancelled portion of the trip. That was to have been a bedroom, so the hefty refund will balance out my other travel arrangements. Tomorrow morning will start the drive to Ketchikan, Alaska for the summer, the last portion of which will be by ferry. No Amtrak trips anytime soon, but this last one from Arizona to the east makes for a good memory.
Greatcats here elected to make his own arrangements - my invaluable little laptop reserved me a flight from National Airport to O'hare at 4:43pm and I reserved a nice Kimpton Hotel ( The Monaco, recommended ) Arriving at the airport, the helpful agent put me on the 3:35 flight - security wasn't too bad - and I collapsed into an aisle seat. I am not complaining about United - they did their job OK, but I would rather have been riding through West Virginia and Maryland through light green spring foliage. Two boring hours later we landed a few minutes early at O'hare and I made my way to the CTA train, which 38 minutes later dropped me off at Lake and Clark and I walked four blocks to the hotel. The front desk recommended the nearby Andy's Jazz Club, which made my disrupted travel plans turn into lemonade. A good dinner while listening to two jazz organ trios made me very happy.
Now to resume the planned itinerary: arrived well ahead of the departure for #3 and enjoyed using the laptop in the First Class Lounge. We departed on time, greeted by my sharp looking attendant, Leonard Woods. I'll mention the negatives of the train first. On the second day out, the toilets failed on the other sleeper. I know this is not a new problem, but for the money passengers pay for sleepers, it is not so great when one has to go to the next car to use facilities. My sleeper was in pretty good working order, but Leonard agreed with me that the rest rooms, while clean, are shabby looking. The rest of the trip was very positive. I have never had such a good time on a long distance train as I had on the Southwest Chief this week. The car attendants and dining car staff were first rate, some of them having been on my eastbound trip. The much discussed dining car cuisine has found a fan in me. While it is not upscale dining , my two dinners on this train of the Barbequed Brisket and Pasta were satisfying in every respect. Most other passengers seemed pleased with the wuality of the food.
What really made the trip a pleasure were the cool people I met on this trip. At each of the four meals I sat with different folks and we had a good old time. One man persuaded me to sing, as he wanted to videotape me, so I gave a brief concert in the lounge car of two songs I do as a tour bus driver, pertaining to the Grand Canyon and Alaska. ( One of the dining car servers, Cynthia, came over to the lounge to listen. ) One man has motivated me to put my extensive travels of this year to Japan, Hawaii, and Washington down in writing.
I applied for a refund this morning at Flagstaff ticket office for the cancelled portion of the trip. That was to have been a bedroom, so the hefty refund will balance out my other travel arrangements. Tomorrow morning will start the drive to Ketchikan, Alaska for the summer, the last portion of which will be by ferry. No Amtrak trips anytime soon, but this last one from Arizona to the east makes for a good memory.
Ive always had good luck and great OBS on the SWC! 
