Second Leg - The Empire Builder
In short, not bad. Not bad at all.
We left bout 40 minutes late - the equipment was slow to arrive.and then got stuck behind a Metra commuter train for a bit, but we weren't expecting on time at all points to begin with, so it didn't bother us. THings got worse outside of Redwing, when we took the siding to wait for a freight and it turned out that that freight had to stop while the police removed some "unauthorized passengers" from the freight. Then, of course, we lost more time travelling the flood weakened tracks across North Dakota (in places, even with the tracks raised, the waters were still awfully close to the ties), so we ran under some slow orders (well, not exactly slow orders so much as "If you can catch the snail on the tracks you're going too fast" orders). BUt we did get to see the results of one derailment where the tracks had given out under a freight, dumping cars and wheat along the track. Seems the derailment happened some days ago (our SCA noted he had seen them there the last time he came through) so kudos to BNSF for getting the tracks repaired, even if they still hadn't recovered the errant cars (my guess - because it would have shut down the line and there was still too much of a backup to permit a further shutdown to the line). Anyway, lots of birds enjoying the flooded land, even if the farmers weren't.
Without all the gory timetable details, we saw North Dakota and Montana a lot longer than expected and hit the scenic parts around Glacier National Park far too late to see anything. We lost some tme and made up some time and arrived in Seattle 4 hours late - not enough to complain about, especially since I was worried we'd end up getting bussed from Spokane.
As is planned for the entire trip, we had a bedroom in the 730 sleeper (Georgia - I'm better with names than car numbers -, on this train). One thing I never expected that requires a bit of a digression....
In the 1960, back when there was a draft, I served in the army for two years. Once, on field maneuvers, I thought I'd lucked out, getting to sleep in the medical Armorered Personel Carrier. It had (as I recall), stretchers stacked four high, with very little space between them and, during the night, I got turned around in my sleeping bag on one of the stretchers. I couldn't get out and I couldn't sit up and, for the only time in my life, I suffered serious claustrophobia. Well, the only time in my life until I climbed into the top bunk in the superliner and had to slither, rather than crawl to the head of the bunk. Long story short, since it didn't bother my daughter, I'll be in the bottom bunk for the rest of the trip (at least until the Crescent, which has more headroom for the upper bunk in it's Viewliners) - and my daughter will have something to hold over my head for the rest of my life.
Outside of that small detail, the accommodations were fine. We didn't see any need to visit the lounge at all. (Might have been different as we passed through Glacier National Park, if that had happened during daylight or dusk hours and the lounge was gone with the Portland section before we hit the Cascades) .
The staff was also great. Our SCA, Stan, had been at his job for almost 35 years and had 17 months left until retirement. Very friendly, very helpful and couldn't wait to retire. He was tasked with training newer SCA's (none on this trip) and didn't think they took sufficient pride in their work. We haven't had a bad experience yet, but we still have three more legs (and we've been warned that the crews out of New Orleans - in our case on the Crescent - aren't the best Amtrak has to offer.). The dining car crew were also fine. Our special of the day (Why does Amtrak call it the special of the day, when it's the same special every day on a given train?) was a pork chop. First night my daughter and I both had it for dinner and it was so good, my daghter stuck with it the second night - when it wasn't quite as good (a tad overcooked and dry). Second dinner, I had the steak (a hanger steak, whatever that is) and it was fine. I wouldn't recommend riding the rails for the cuisine, but our experience so far is that it's still better than my cooking (okay, so that's a very low bar....
). LUnch was trhe Angus BUrger (and, for the second day, when we got an unscheduled linch) it was a ham and cheese sandwich eaten in the room, snce the dining car crew had to set up for dinner on the eastbound EB that evening, before they got to turn it over to the crew for that trip.
Also learning that it isn't the food that makes a pleasant dining experience on Amtrak. It's the dinner companions. I'm a city boy. To me, the stuff growing in the fields is corn if it has tassles (I'm an authority on corn after sitting in a cornfield for 5 hours on the California Zephyr two years ago). After that if it's tall, it's wheat and if it's short it's soybeans. At one meal, we had companions who were from farming country and I am absolutely delighted to let the world know what I called soybeans really were soybeans. On wheat, well, I learned to differentiate wheat from rye (and promptly forgot, so it'll just be wheat until I get another dinner companion who knows better.) Another companion was a single traveler who, it turns out, was a Mechanical Engineer for the CP. We talked trains and my daughter was a good sport who didn't complain.
On the wine and cheese tasting...., well.... I'm no oenophile, but I'm not rushing out to buy wines from Washington....
Scenery summary: There's a lot space in North Dakota. Whoever designed it, made it far too big. It probably shows a lot of callousness to say I'm glad that much of it had been turned into a bird sanctuary by the flooding. But the Upper Mississippi had some great spots as did the short run along the Colombia and running through the forests in the Cascades also offered some beautiful moments. Now, all I have to do is pass through Glacier National Park in the daytime....
One final note. I am sorry to report that my nswer to the almost universal question, "Where are you headed?" won't' get quite the quite the looks it's gotten so far. I just don't see folks looking quite as perplexed as the ones on the Westbound EB looked when I answered "Hartford, CT - the long way" . Now for a long weekend in Seattle and then, on Monday, the Coast Starlight. If, perchance, anyone reading this is on that train and happens to ask a dining room compnaion where their headed and you get the answer "Hartford, CT - the long way", please do me a favor.... Look perplexed....
