--In which our protagonists miss out on the steak dinner--
The guy sitting next to me in the Club Acela in Washington was not a happy man. I was headed north on Regional 188, which was "on time," whereas he was headed south on the Silver Meteor, which was "delayed" with no estimate of arrival or departure.
"It figures," he said. "Never trust the Silver Snail."
I though about the guy a few weeks later as I hurried from work to Union Station to join my wife on a points redemption trip to Miami Beach. She was coming down on Regional 93 from Baltimore to meet me, and then we would board the Silver Meteor for out trip south. Well, even before I left the office, I got the texts about how the cab didn't show up at the house, and then she was stuck in a monumental traffic jam in Baltimore on the way to the station and was a bit concerned she would miss her train. She didn't need to worry, 93 was, as seems typical, about 45 minutes late into Baltimore and 45 minutes late into Washington. Well, at east we didn't have to worry about cooling our heels in the Club Acela for two hours.
When we entered the Club Acela, the departure screens claimed that the Meteor was "on time." This was most definitely a violation of the Truth in Advertising laws, as the train left New York at 3:56 PM, about 40 minutes late. (So says Amtrak Status Maps.) When we were settling into the Club Acela, the train was barely out of Wilmington, when it should have been in Baltimore by then. However, the departure screens were soon telling the truth, and as I amused myself by tracking the train's progress on the amtrak.com track-a-train, and observing its maddeningly slow journey through Maryland on America's only High Speed Rail track. "Silver Snail," indeed!
According to Amtrak Status maps, the train arrived in Washington at 7:58, one hour and 3 minutes behind schedule. This seems in accord with my memory, such as it is. However, the Amtrak Status map archive (http://74.242.204.75/scripts/archivefinder.pl?seltrain=97&selmonth=11&selyear=2015&selday=10) claims that the train left at 8:02 PM, or 4 minutes later. I know, they're pretty good at switching engines at Washington, but they can't do that in 4 minutes! Also, the time it took us to do the kindergarten walk to the train, find our sleeper, get settled in the room (and thanks to our SCA Ismael who hoisted that suitcase into the overhead cubby), wait for the power to be restored, and be given the green light to head for the diner, where we had a dinner reservation seemed to me to be a lot more than four minutes. And even after we were seated in the diner, the train didn't start moving for some time. I think we left Washington more like 8:15 or 8:20.
After we were seated, the waiter came by and apologetically informed us that the grill was kaput. (I think he used a different term.) It was rainy that day, there was a leak in the car, and somehow water got into the grill. He said they were drying it out, and they hoped to be able to serve more than the continental breakfast the next morning. (They did dry it out, and I did get my omelette for breakfast.) The new Viewliner diners can't come soon enough.
Because of that, no steak, and no crab/shrimp cakes. And the pork shanks and pad thai noodles were long gone, eaten by those who boarded up the line. Our choice was chicken, the vegetarian lasagna, and I think that's it. Sharon had the lasagna, though she tries to avoid gluten, and I had the chicken, even though I had already ordered red wine in anticipation of steak. Actually, the chicken was pretty good, they even managed to get the skin a little crispy. The available salad dressings were a little short on variety - it was light Italian and Ranch. Would it be such a problem to lay out some Bleu cheese, honey mustard, or balsamic? (I know, I'm such a critic, complaining about salad dressings when people are starving in the Third World.) Sharon had the chocolate mousse tart, which she pronounced to be excellent, I had the cheesecake, which was OK. The one they used to serve was better.
Well, back to our compartment, and we chilled for a while, I was playing with the GPS on my phone to see where we were, and I found the Silver snail was finally unleashed. When we were moving, which was most of the time, except for station stops, we were going 75-80 mph. I will say that the Viewliner roomette with two people is kind of "cozy." (That sounds nicer to say than "crowded.") This was especially true after Ismael set up the beds. There's also the issue of the in-room toilet. The alternatives are exile in the corridor or a trip down to the coach section. Unlike the Regional cafe cars, the long-distance cafe cars don't have restrooms. The coach restrooms were -- interesting. During the trip, it was clear that someone was trying to keep then clean, but they were fighting a hard battle. The train was pretty full, so I guess that's to be expected.
After my usual train sleep, I saw it starting to get light as we were approaching Savannah. The GPS is great, I could turn it on and see exactly which swamp we were riding through. I could tell when we entered Georgia, I could tell when we entered Florida. Anyway, we got to Savannah, my heretofore southernmost point that I had ridden on this train. (I've been to Tampa on the Star a couple of times,)
Pulling into the station, one can see the consist of the Palmetto, ready for its trip north.
We got ourselves ready,and went to breakfast while Ismael set up the roomette for the day. As i said, the grill was functioning, no more leaks as the sun was coming out, and I had the omelette with the maple flavored chicken sausage.
Well, we enjoyed our morning roll through coastal Georgia. We certainly weren't making up any time, in fact, we left Savannah 48 minutes late, but we got into Jacksonville an hour and 10 minutes late.I'm not sure why we lost time, we seemed to be going pretty quickly the whole time.
Stepping out of the train in Jacksonville felt like we had traveled back in time to the summer. It was nice to get some fresh air, a walk, and watch them fuel the train.
The rest of our trip was a complete tour of inland Florida from north to south. It took us 10 hours to get to Miami, and, for the most part, except when they held us to let the northbound train pass, we were rocking along at 75-80 mph. Florida is one big (or at least long) state!
Here we are in Orlando, unfortunately not much to see on the southbound platform. We made up some time, arriving 43 minutes late, but, alas, departing 58 minutes late.
Walking through the corridor of the sleeper on our way to lunch:
The lunch offerings seem, by the way t be even more limited than the dinner -- hamburger, veggie burger, lunch salad, and the special, in this case the bbq pork shanks. Since we don't eat pork, we were even more limited. I got the hamburger, Sharon got the salad. I would like to know how they can make a pre-cooked hamburger taste as good as it does. Wait, maybe I don't want to know.
It started getting dark on the outskirts of West Palm Beach, so we didn't see too much the last couple of hours of the ride. We did see some very heavy traffic on I-95, which paralleled the tracks most of the way.
Finally, we pulled into the Miami Amtrak station at 7:32, or 53 minutes late. The Silver Snail wasn't that bad, though it was dinnertime, and we certainly weren't going to find anything at the station. We grabbed a cab for the 15-minute ride to the MIA rental car facility. The fare was about $20, including tip. Maybe one day I will ride the train into the new station, which is right downstairs from the rental cars. (Sharon was not keen about getting off with all our luggage at Hollywood and waiting on a dark platform for the next Tri-Rail train, hauling the luggage into the commuter train, etc., so we cabbed it from Miami.)
Soon we were in our rental car, driving though the tropical (well, subtropical) night and on our way to our beach hotel.
--More to come,including our return voyage and a surprise that awaited us when we arrive home in Baltimore.
The guy sitting next to me in the Club Acela in Washington was not a happy man. I was headed north on Regional 188, which was "on time," whereas he was headed south on the Silver Meteor, which was "delayed" with no estimate of arrival or departure.
"It figures," he said. "Never trust the Silver Snail."
I though about the guy a few weeks later as I hurried from work to Union Station to join my wife on a points redemption trip to Miami Beach. She was coming down on Regional 93 from Baltimore to meet me, and then we would board the Silver Meteor for out trip south. Well, even before I left the office, I got the texts about how the cab didn't show up at the house, and then she was stuck in a monumental traffic jam in Baltimore on the way to the station and was a bit concerned she would miss her train. She didn't need to worry, 93 was, as seems typical, about 45 minutes late into Baltimore and 45 minutes late into Washington. Well, at east we didn't have to worry about cooling our heels in the Club Acela for two hours.
When we entered the Club Acela, the departure screens claimed that the Meteor was "on time." This was most definitely a violation of the Truth in Advertising laws, as the train left New York at 3:56 PM, about 40 minutes late. (So says Amtrak Status Maps.) When we were settling into the Club Acela, the train was barely out of Wilmington, when it should have been in Baltimore by then. However, the departure screens were soon telling the truth, and as I amused myself by tracking the train's progress on the amtrak.com track-a-train, and observing its maddeningly slow journey through Maryland on America's only High Speed Rail track. "Silver Snail," indeed!
According to Amtrak Status maps, the train arrived in Washington at 7:58, one hour and 3 minutes behind schedule. This seems in accord with my memory, such as it is. However, the Amtrak Status map archive (http://74.242.204.75/scripts/archivefinder.pl?seltrain=97&selmonth=11&selyear=2015&selday=10) claims that the train left at 8:02 PM, or 4 minutes later. I know, they're pretty good at switching engines at Washington, but they can't do that in 4 minutes! Also, the time it took us to do the kindergarten walk to the train, find our sleeper, get settled in the room (and thanks to our SCA Ismael who hoisted that suitcase into the overhead cubby), wait for the power to be restored, and be given the green light to head for the diner, where we had a dinner reservation seemed to me to be a lot more than four minutes. And even after we were seated in the diner, the train didn't start moving for some time. I think we left Washington more like 8:15 or 8:20.
After we were seated, the waiter came by and apologetically informed us that the grill was kaput. (I think he used a different term.) It was rainy that day, there was a leak in the car, and somehow water got into the grill. He said they were drying it out, and they hoped to be able to serve more than the continental breakfast the next morning. (They did dry it out, and I did get my omelette for breakfast.) The new Viewliner diners can't come soon enough.
Because of that, no steak, and no crab/shrimp cakes. And the pork shanks and pad thai noodles were long gone, eaten by those who boarded up the line. Our choice was chicken, the vegetarian lasagna, and I think that's it. Sharon had the lasagna, though she tries to avoid gluten, and I had the chicken, even though I had already ordered red wine in anticipation of steak. Actually, the chicken was pretty good, they even managed to get the skin a little crispy. The available salad dressings were a little short on variety - it was light Italian and Ranch. Would it be such a problem to lay out some Bleu cheese, honey mustard, or balsamic? (I know, I'm such a critic, complaining about salad dressings when people are starving in the Third World.) Sharon had the chocolate mousse tart, which she pronounced to be excellent, I had the cheesecake, which was OK. The one they used to serve was better.
Well, back to our compartment, and we chilled for a while, I was playing with the GPS on my phone to see where we were, and I found the Silver snail was finally unleashed. When we were moving, which was most of the time, except for station stops, we were going 75-80 mph. I will say that the Viewliner roomette with two people is kind of "cozy." (That sounds nicer to say than "crowded.") This was especially true after Ismael set up the beds. There's also the issue of the in-room toilet. The alternatives are exile in the corridor or a trip down to the coach section. Unlike the Regional cafe cars, the long-distance cafe cars don't have restrooms. The coach restrooms were -- interesting. During the trip, it was clear that someone was trying to keep then clean, but they were fighting a hard battle. The train was pretty full, so I guess that's to be expected.
After my usual train sleep, I saw it starting to get light as we were approaching Savannah. The GPS is great, I could turn it on and see exactly which swamp we were riding through. I could tell when we entered Georgia, I could tell when we entered Florida. Anyway, we got to Savannah, my heretofore southernmost point that I had ridden on this train. (I've been to Tampa on the Star a couple of times,)
Pulling into the station, one can see the consist of the Palmetto, ready for its trip north.
We got ourselves ready,and went to breakfast while Ismael set up the roomette for the day. As i said, the grill was functioning, no more leaks as the sun was coming out, and I had the omelette with the maple flavored chicken sausage.
Well, we enjoyed our morning roll through coastal Georgia. We certainly weren't making up any time, in fact, we left Savannah 48 minutes late, but we got into Jacksonville an hour and 10 minutes late.I'm not sure why we lost time, we seemed to be going pretty quickly the whole time.
Stepping out of the train in Jacksonville felt like we had traveled back in time to the summer. It was nice to get some fresh air, a walk, and watch them fuel the train.
The rest of our trip was a complete tour of inland Florida from north to south. It took us 10 hours to get to Miami, and, for the most part, except when they held us to let the northbound train pass, we were rocking along at 75-80 mph. Florida is one big (or at least long) state!
Here we are in Orlando, unfortunately not much to see on the southbound platform. We made up some time, arriving 43 minutes late, but, alas, departing 58 minutes late.
Walking through the corridor of the sleeper on our way to lunch:
The lunch offerings seem, by the way t be even more limited than the dinner -- hamburger, veggie burger, lunch salad, and the special, in this case the bbq pork shanks. Since we don't eat pork, we were even more limited. I got the hamburger, Sharon got the salad. I would like to know how they can make a pre-cooked hamburger taste as good as it does. Wait, maybe I don't want to know.
It started getting dark on the outskirts of West Palm Beach, so we didn't see too much the last couple of hours of the ride. We did see some very heavy traffic on I-95, which paralleled the tracks most of the way.
Finally, we pulled into the Miami Amtrak station at 7:32, or 53 minutes late. The Silver Snail wasn't that bad, though it was dinnertime, and we certainly weren't going to find anything at the station. We grabbed a cab for the 15-minute ride to the MIA rental car facility. The fare was about $20, including tip. Maybe one day I will ride the train into the new station, which is right downstairs from the rental cars. (Sharon was not keen about getting off with all our luggage at Hollywood and waiting on a dark platform for the next Tri-Rail train, hauling the luggage into the commuter train, etc., so we cabbed it from Miami.)
Soon we were in our rental car, driving though the tropical (well, subtropical) night and on our way to our beach hotel.
--More to come,including our return voyage and a surprise that awaited us when we arrive home in Baltimore.
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