rtabern
Conductor
Here's a little review from my trip which included time on: BART, MUNI, CalTrain, Coast Starlight, San Joaquin, Pacific Surfliner, Sunset Limited, Texas Eagle, Hiawatha:
I got pretty freaked out because my airline mixed up my reservation. I was originally scheduled to go on a direct flight from Milwaukee to Los Angeles. AirTran called in June and said that they were cancelling direct service and I would have to rebook on a different flight (for no fees). Since they didn't charge a fee to re-book I decided to take a couple of extra days and fly into San Francisco instead to visit a friend who lived there and to take the Coast Starlight down to Los Angeles. Well, the day before I was set to leave, I got an email confirmation from AirTran saying I was on a flight into Los Angeles (via Atlanta). NOT GOOD. I called and it turned out to be their fault, but the flight to SFO was already booked... so I was stuck on the flight into LAX. Luckily I was able to book a Virgin American flight from LAX to SFO so I still got to go to San Francisco... I just lost part of a day for sightseeing.
Anyhow, next crisis. I was on the Coast Starlight on Friday, Sept. 12th... and was about 3 or 4 hours on the same train line behind the Metrolink accident. We learned about it when we pulled into the San Luis Obispo station. Amtrak kept us parked at the SLO station until they decided what they were going to do. After about an hour we were rolling again and told #11 would be allowed to go as far as Santa Barbara... and that would be it. We got into Santa Barbara and Amtrak was still trying to arrange for buses to come and pick us up... I was getting frustrated and just asked my friend to drive the 70 miles to pick me up. So he picked me up from Santa Barbara -- not sure if everyone else got their buses or what. I ended up getting a $250 voucher for the whole thing... not bad I guess since my ticket from EMY-LAX was $199.60.
But, on to the positive side -- the new Pacific Parlour car was just amazing. Not only do they still have the bartender in there... you can now eat your meals in there too if you want. They only offer about 2 selections for each meal, but they were all pretty good so I ended up eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the Parlour Car. The wine and cheese tasting was also a nice touch (even though it's now $5 instead of being free like it was the last time I took it). I think I spent my whole time in the PPC.
I spent 2 days visiting LA visiting my best friend from high school... went out to Palm Springs one day and then did about 8 miles of hiking at Malibu Creek State Park the other day. One of the highlights at Malibu Creek was hiking out to see the site where they filmed M*A*S*H*.
Let's see, Monday 9/15, I took the bus from LAX to Bakersfield and then caught the San Joaquin train to Hanford. I was pretty impressed with the Capitol Corridor train -- the snacks they had on there were cheaper than the normal Amtrak fare... and the food was good. They even had cheese-filled hot pretzles!
I went to Hanford... rented a car... and spent 2 days in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park -- very nice and beautiful. Things got a little crazy when there was a wildfire that broke out near the park. I was staying in a log cabin not too far from the fire... so I was a little nervous... but it all was okay. The rangers said if the fire got close enough they would have to evacuate us.
Then back to Hanford... down on the San Joaquin to Bakersfield. I spent the night in Bakersfield (cheaper than staying in LA) --- then the next morning, September 17th, I took the bus back into Los Angeles. I went for a quick ride on the Surfliner to Santa Ana and back into LAX.
Then a quick turn-around and caught #422. This was THE FIRST train going all the way through from LAX to CHI via SAS. Trains for the past 2 weeks were cancelled because of Hurricane Ike and flooding between STL and Fort Worth.
#422 was a very interesting train --- I guess people get a little crazy on there because you are aboard for 3 nights and parts of 4 days. I always like the ride between than #4 because you get a lot more time on the train -- and in the same sleeping car.
Interesting things that happened:
1. We hit a pedesterian between Los Angeles and Pomona, CA. (the first stop). I thought it was a fatality because I thought I kept hearing "dead" on the scanner... but it was actually "deaf" because the guy was in fact hard of hearing. The conductor said it ripped his arm off or something, but it wasn't a fatality... atleast at that point.
2. We had 3 people kicked off the train... including a guy who almost punched out the conductor on the platform at the Dallas station.
3. There were 2 medical emergencies... 1 guy locked himself in the bathroom at Marfa, Texas and they had to call in police and an ambulance. The conductor said he was a former military guy and was having a panic attack. Another person had a stroke and had to be taken off in San Antonio.
4. The rail broke in front of us just west of Del Rio, Texas. It took 7 hours to fix... so we were about 7 hours and 20 minutes late into SAS. Since you sit there most of the night, we were able to make up the time... and only left SAS about 30 minutes late. (We were about 3 hours late into Chicago)
5. Met a girl who has actually posed in Playboy magazine. (Grrrr!! For real!!)
I have my pictures posted too on my website...
http://www.rtabern.com
(click on Photo Album)
(then click on Recent Photos)
I got pretty freaked out because my airline mixed up my reservation. I was originally scheduled to go on a direct flight from Milwaukee to Los Angeles. AirTran called in June and said that they were cancelling direct service and I would have to rebook on a different flight (for no fees). Since they didn't charge a fee to re-book I decided to take a couple of extra days and fly into San Francisco instead to visit a friend who lived there and to take the Coast Starlight down to Los Angeles. Well, the day before I was set to leave, I got an email confirmation from AirTran saying I was on a flight into Los Angeles (via Atlanta). NOT GOOD. I called and it turned out to be their fault, but the flight to SFO was already booked... so I was stuck on the flight into LAX. Luckily I was able to book a Virgin American flight from LAX to SFO so I still got to go to San Francisco... I just lost part of a day for sightseeing.
Anyhow, next crisis. I was on the Coast Starlight on Friday, Sept. 12th... and was about 3 or 4 hours on the same train line behind the Metrolink accident. We learned about it when we pulled into the San Luis Obispo station. Amtrak kept us parked at the SLO station until they decided what they were going to do. After about an hour we were rolling again and told #11 would be allowed to go as far as Santa Barbara... and that would be it. We got into Santa Barbara and Amtrak was still trying to arrange for buses to come and pick us up... I was getting frustrated and just asked my friend to drive the 70 miles to pick me up. So he picked me up from Santa Barbara -- not sure if everyone else got their buses or what. I ended up getting a $250 voucher for the whole thing... not bad I guess since my ticket from EMY-LAX was $199.60.
But, on to the positive side -- the new Pacific Parlour car was just amazing. Not only do they still have the bartender in there... you can now eat your meals in there too if you want. They only offer about 2 selections for each meal, but they were all pretty good so I ended up eating breakfast, lunch, and dinner in the Parlour Car. The wine and cheese tasting was also a nice touch (even though it's now $5 instead of being free like it was the last time I took it). I think I spent my whole time in the PPC.
I spent 2 days visiting LA visiting my best friend from high school... went out to Palm Springs one day and then did about 8 miles of hiking at Malibu Creek State Park the other day. One of the highlights at Malibu Creek was hiking out to see the site where they filmed M*A*S*H*.
Let's see, Monday 9/15, I took the bus from LAX to Bakersfield and then caught the San Joaquin train to Hanford. I was pretty impressed with the Capitol Corridor train -- the snacks they had on there were cheaper than the normal Amtrak fare... and the food was good. They even had cheese-filled hot pretzles!
I went to Hanford... rented a car... and spent 2 days in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park -- very nice and beautiful. Things got a little crazy when there was a wildfire that broke out near the park. I was staying in a log cabin not too far from the fire... so I was a little nervous... but it all was okay. The rangers said if the fire got close enough they would have to evacuate us.
Then back to Hanford... down on the San Joaquin to Bakersfield. I spent the night in Bakersfield (cheaper than staying in LA) --- then the next morning, September 17th, I took the bus back into Los Angeles. I went for a quick ride on the Surfliner to Santa Ana and back into LAX.
Then a quick turn-around and caught #422. This was THE FIRST train going all the way through from LAX to CHI via SAS. Trains for the past 2 weeks were cancelled because of Hurricane Ike and flooding between STL and Fort Worth.
#422 was a very interesting train --- I guess people get a little crazy on there because you are aboard for 3 nights and parts of 4 days. I always like the ride between than #4 because you get a lot more time on the train -- and in the same sleeping car.
Interesting things that happened:
1. We hit a pedesterian between Los Angeles and Pomona, CA. (the first stop). I thought it was a fatality because I thought I kept hearing "dead" on the scanner... but it was actually "deaf" because the guy was in fact hard of hearing. The conductor said it ripped his arm off or something, but it wasn't a fatality... atleast at that point.
2. We had 3 people kicked off the train... including a guy who almost punched out the conductor on the platform at the Dallas station.
3. There were 2 medical emergencies... 1 guy locked himself in the bathroom at Marfa, Texas and they had to call in police and an ambulance. The conductor said he was a former military guy and was having a panic attack. Another person had a stroke and had to be taken off in San Antonio.
4. The rail broke in front of us just west of Del Rio, Texas. It took 7 hours to fix... so we were about 7 hours and 20 minutes late into SAS. Since you sit there most of the night, we were able to make up the time... and only left SAS about 30 minutes late. (We were about 3 hours late into Chicago)
5. Met a girl who has actually posed in Playboy magazine. (Grrrr!! For real!!)
I have my pictures posted too on my website...
http://www.rtabern.com
(click on Photo Album)
(then click on Recent Photos)
