Are The Rooms Worth The Extra Money? It Is Up To You To Decide

So, what was life like on an AMTRAK trip?

First off, each train trip is different. You have the day trips, where you get a chair and watch the scenery. You pay for your food and a some of the time, you try to get into the lounge car, for the views. A very inexpensive way to travel, but in the world of COVID, not the safest one.

Our second trip from St. Paul to Chicago, was like this.

Our first trip was a 2 day journey in the Family Room. We had a window on each side of the train and couches throughout the entire room. My side was actually 2 chairs for kids and what I ended up doing, as you can see in the second photo, is that I had my feet up on the opposite chair. My daytime viewing was excellent. It was the night, that was a problem for me.

I didn't realize when I booked the family car, that the side bed is substantially smaller then the adult bed. As in, a person needs to be 4' 9" or less, to be comfortable. I am nowhere near that height, so most of the time, I ended up curling my feet onto my husband's bed. To say the least, I slept a lot during the daytime part of the journey. Well, it was only Montana and North Dakota's flat dry prairie anyway. This room, though big has no bathroom of its own.

When you book a room, you get all your meals (for free) in the dining car. You are treated like royalty and they even have coffee and cold drinks available in the sleeper car, at all times. I just had the water, but Hubby did partake of a cold drink, as you can see in the first photo.

I will recommend a few things.

The Roomette: It looked much more comfy, if it was occupied by just a single person, instead of a couple of adults. I saw one of them set up with the bed down all the time and the person seemed to be sleeping, most of the time we were moving. I saw a 94 year old lady who had the roomette to herself and spent her time making little crosses for presents, or maybe for selling. The conductor in our car was always worried when she wanted to walk the 6 cars to the dining car, but she seemed to make it just fine.
The Roomette is very crowded with 2 people and you spend all your time, rearranging things, as you move from day to night or just from viewing to wanting to read or watch a movie. I enjoyed it, but it was tight quarters. The plus is it is substantially cheaper than the Bedroom. It also does not have a bathroom of your own.

The Bedroom: It has a larger bottom bed (probably a little tight for 2, but you might be able to swing it) It also has an overhead bed and a chair. It also has a restroom and shower of your own, which is kind of nice. As to COVID, it is the BEST option health wise. Is it worth the extra money? You decide.

All in all, a fun way to travel and explore this land of ours.

Cool Sites Monday: The North Platte River

It's Cool Sites Monday.

This photo is from a train trip across the Country.

Once in a while the announcer on the train brings something to our attention. That is what happened here.

They made an announcement that the North Platte River was coming up and I managed to get a quick photo of it, as we crossed a bridge.

It didn't look too impressive to me and after doing the research on it, I found out that it has 9 dams along the way and that this causes the river to be a very small one with lots of mud and not much depth.

The thing that makes it amazing is the fact that it runs 500 miles, from the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, to its confluence with the South Platte River in North Platte, Nebraska. The two rivers (now one) then become the Platte River and drain into the Missouri River at Plattsmouth, Nebraska. The Missouri drains into the Mississippi River, just north of St. Louis and then the water heads out to the Gulf.

I found the history interesting and I hope you did too. As the 49er's used to say: The Platte River was "too thick to drink, too thin to plow", but it brought growth and green trees to a desolate part of the Great Plains.

Enjoy.

The Empire Builder: Portland Or Seattle?

The Empire Builder is the only AMTRAK train that starts in two different locations and then combines into one trainset at a stop along the way.

You can either take the train from Seattle, Washington or Portland, Oregon. The trains combine in Spokane, Washington on the Eastbound run. Obviously, if you take the train from Chicago, Illinois, the opposite happens. Your train is split in two at Spokane and you travel either to Seattle or Portland.

When we went in 2012, we decided to start in Portland. We had a nearby hotel that was on the TriMax (public transportation system) and it let us off right by the station. Easy, with luggage and no car. Of course you could take other ground transportation, according to how safe you need to be.

Booking the trip is easy. You just put in your choice. PDX or SEA and your destination, in this case CHI.

What you will find out is that the price is slightly different for the two locations.

When we went it was substantial, like $100 different. Now days it was like a dollar or two. Oh well...

Here are the prices I pulled up for September 6th.

Coach: $151
Roomette: $769
Room: $1,653

Since we were on the Portland train, we just had the viewing/snack car. We were in a room, so for our dinner, it was a boxed dinner. The Seattle train has the full dining car. That might have been the difference in price for our trip.

We followed the Columbia River for hours before turning north just before Spokane. It was probably the most beautiful section of track on an inland train (you can see a photo of that trip on the top right side of this blog).

The Seattle route goes through the 8 mile Cascade Tunnel, which has a fan to clear out the diesel fumes from the train. I am not interested in being on that route. Just a personal opinion.

No matter what, it is an excellent trip.

You Are Intrigued About Traveling By Train, But You Have No Idea Where To Begin

I am here to instruct you on how to use the website amtrak.com.

You might want to do a short trip your first time around, to get your feet wet.

Say you live in San Diego and want to go to Santa Barbara.

There are two ways to get where you are going, but we will choose the AMTRAK way, which is called the Pacific Surfliner.

It has less stops then the Metrolink trains and you will not have to deal with commuters. Both pluses in this still COVID world.

You type in your station of origin and chances are you will want to leave from the Santa Fe Depot by San Diego Harbor. The code for this leg is SAN.

Your destination also has several Santa Barbara choices, you want the one by the harbor, SBA.

Choose your date and then hit Find Trains.

In this example you have 3 Pacific Surfliner Trains that are a direct service for $45.
Down the list a bit there is one with 2 segments for $56 (A Pacific Surfliner out of San Diego and then you connect to the Coast Starlight in Los Angeles for the second leg).
The next option is mixed service (train and bus) for $45.
The last one of the night is 2 buses for the same price and you definitely don't want that.

You choose your train and that is it. Put in your payment information and all is well.

If you want to book a round trip, you would put in the return date when you place your choices in at the beginning of the process.

You then would chose your train for going to your destination and then after you do that you scroll down to the choices for your return trip. Remember, you want to make sure your times are reasonable, pick up and drop off times.

Chances are good that you will stay at least overnight for a trip of this length. Hotels are right down the street from the station, so it is not a difficult thing to do. Food is also right there, as is the Santa Barbara Pier.

Welcome to traveling by AMTRAK.

How AMTRAK Helped Me Visit 49 States

I have been to 49 out of 50 States.

I had a very demanding career, that gave me small vacations and I never used all the days off that I had, so how did this happen?

It all started when I was a child. My parents loved the Civil war and took us down to the South, many times. By the time I was 18, I had visited many of the battlefields of the Civil War. It gave me an appreciation of the fact that we do not EVER want this to happen again. (Try to find common ground people.)

We visited my Mother’s sister many times and she lived in Florida. That meant that we drove down on I-95 (many times before it was even finished). When you hit a stretch of road that was incomplete, they sent you on the backroads of that area. It seemed that the state of Georgia was the last one to finish, so we passed many run down houses on back roads with trucks driving on them, too. It always made me sad to see the conditions these people lived in. All these trips meant that I had visited the entire Eastern Seaboard, minus New England (above Connecticut). From all those trips, I had a deep appreciation for South of the Border, Howard Johnson’s, Stuckey’s Restaurant and 10 States.

When I was 19, my family decided to take 6 weeks off and visit the United States. I was their oldest child and would soon be leaving home and they wanted us to experience this vast Country of ours. We did the upper and middle going West and then returned via the South. This added 17 more states to my tally. 5 years later, my friend and I decided to move West, to make our fortune. Once again, we drove the Southern route, though a few states were added at that time. Such as Tennessee and Arkansas.

I started my career and one of the things we had to deal with, was attending conferences. Most were in Virginia, but occasionally a Mid America State was the destination. That is how I added Colorado and Missouri to my list. On several occasions, (since I had settled and married in California) we would drive up to Canada. That added Oregon and Washington to my ever expanding list. None of these decisions were made with the purpose of getting to all 50 States, until we visited my family in the Boston area. We decided to do New England at that time and thus added Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine to the list. Beautiful States and worth a visit, btw.

The big change, as we got older and the 9/11 TSA air checkpoints got worse and worse to deal with, was the decision to start riding the Amtrak trains, to get places.

The first trip we took was one I would hear called as I waited on the Metrolink Train Platform, at LA Union Station. Every evening they would call the station stops and after years of this, I finally asked my Husband if we could ride this train (The Southwest Chief), so I could see some of these places. We did this trip in 2010 and added Kansas (in the middle of the night) to the list. Note, I woke up when we were in Topeka, so I have a great memory of their Capitol building, all lit up.

The next year we did an interesting trip from NY Penn Station to Pittsburgh on The Pennsylvanian. We spent a few days there, visited Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater and then rode the Capitol Limited to Washington, DC. That brought us through West Virginia, a new State for us. The Appalachian Mountains are just stunning and you follow the Potomac River, almost from its source, to DC. Again, a highly recommended trip, due to the the scenery and historic Harper's Ferry, WV.

2012 brought us to a trip I have wanted to take for quite a bit, The Empire Builder. We started in Portland, Oregon and I went through four new States, along the way to Chicago. A wonderful station was in Glacier Park in Montana. Maybe someday we will return and stay a few days. That was definitely God’s Country and so easy to get to, via Amtrak.

2013, I decided to go back to college almost 3,000 miles from home. On our way to the school, we shipped our car out and took the train. The Sunset Limited and the Texas Eagle were our routes and my Husband added Arkansas to his list.

2014 and Graduation from College came along. On our way home we took the Lakeshore Limited and then the California Zephyr. We had some track trouble along the way and they detoured us through Wyoming, which was a new State for my Husband. He and I added Nebraska to our growing lists.

2015 We had a wedding in Boston and so on our way home, we took the Crescent to New Orleans and spent a day there and then The Sunset Limited back to L.A. My Husband added new States and I did not. The time spent in New Orleans was worth it, though. I hope to travel back to that lovely City again.

2017 I planned a trip to New York and on the way back home, we made a quick stop in Oklahoma City and spent two days there, looking around, visiting the OKC Bombing Site (much better than the 9/11 Site we had visited a few days earlier). This took another State off our lists and we got in a visit with a friend from Oswego, NY.

2019 we booked a cruise to Alaska for my Husband’s Birthday. He wanted to revisit old places he had been to over 40 years earlier and it worked out well for me, because I have added a new State to my list. Two States to go.

Hawaii ended up being a birthday cruise for me in early 2020. Just a month before the COVID 19 lockdown in March. Obviously, we are held back from our last few states, but look forward to travel in the next year to finally finish this up.

I have so many great memories of places I have visited, over the years and I thank Amtrak for bringing me to America. Oh and also my Parents, who started this whole thing, all those years ago. Thanks for giving me an appreciation for History and a love for this vast Country of ours.

Plugs, Prunes And A Pillow

During the Pandemic I have been watching YouTube videos on different subjects.

One of them is a travel guy named Jeb Brooks, who lost the ability to travel by plane. So what does he do? Travel by train.

Thus, he is a total newbee on the train, but the one thing I learned from him were the three "P's".

They stand for Plugs, Prunes and Pillows. You can watch the video I found out about this on this Youtube link. Amtrak Southwest Chief.

I brought all three on my journey this time and was glad I did.

The one that worked the best...were the plugs.

We bought an extension cord with different types of plugs. As you can see, we had different things plugged in at one time.

Very convenient and it stored easily on the train.

Highly recommended.

Chicago: The Place Where All Trains Seem To End

Any long distance trip on AMTRAK seems to end in Chicago (at least for us West Coast types). If you are changing trains, chances are you will do it in Chicago.

This is actually a good thing. Union Station Chicago is right in the loop, so you are close to public transportation (if needed) and hotels. Food can sometimes be a problem (especially on the weekends) so I suggest if everything is closed, head to Giordano's Pizza at 223 West Jackson Blvd. It is about 3 blocks from the station at the corner of Franklin and Jackson. We have actually used it when we are between train arrivals and departures. It is not cheap, but it is always available and the food is great.

The reason why trains depart and arrive in Chicago is because of the history of our rail transportation. Most rail was built in the late 1800's after the Civil War. The Great Lakes, stockyards and grain were in Chicago and neighboring states and so moving things around the rest of the Country hinged on Chicago.

A hint if you are scheduling a transfer in Chicago. If you are in a sleeper car, either Roomette or Bedroom, you can use the Metropolitan Lounge at Chicago, to rest between trains, get a snack or check your bags so you can explore the station or the downtown area adjacent to it.

We have walked to our hotel, but it is very easy to get a taxi outside the station. Follow the signs inside the station to the Canal Street exit. You will see a whole line of taxi's and an attendant to help you. The cost is fixed at $3.25 plus tip.

A true blessing after a tiring trip.

In My Humble Opinion, Booster Shots Just Punched A Hole In Flying

I have not flown since February of 2020. Just a few short weeks ahead of the United States being shut-down for COVID.

I have no plans to use an airplane for at least the rest of this year, if not 2022. I do not feel safe traveling that way and people who do not have the same feelings as I do (masking, 6 feet apart, keeping public areas clean, etc...) seem to gravitate to flying, because it is fast and currently cheap.

I also am not a fan of taking a bus and many times AMTRAK uses busses to get people to places the train does not go to. On my first trip away from home (post COVID shots), I took the AMTRAK Southwest Chief to Chicago, IL. I had 2 choices, The AMTRAK Lakeshore Limited to Toledo with an arrival at 3AM (then a bus to Ann Arbor, MI that left 4 hours later). That did not seem like a good idea to me and so we got a hotel room in downtown Chicago and then took the Wolverine (Michigan Service) the next day to Ann Arbor.

It was coach car style seating, but only 2 to a row and so, with masks, I did feel safe, or safer than a full airplane would be. I want to stress that you need to be aware of what you are booking, when you book a trip by train. Click the details tab for the choice you are about to book. I will discuss more on booking, another day.

FYI: This photo is taken from the back car of the Wolverine, looking toward Chicago.

Cool Sites Monday: La Cuesta Grade, San Luis Obispo Area

I am going to have a dedicated day for cool sites that you can experience on the rails. This is my first one.

Since we are on the subject of The Coast Starlight, I thought I would show off one of the gems of the journey. Note: there are many gems on this trip.

La Cuesta is just north of the San Luis Obispo Station. It brings you down, or up, according to which direction you are traveling and changes your elevation.

Since passenger rail does not go through the Techapai Loop (east of Bakersfield, CA), it is the only service that gives you this experience in California.

The photo was taken just before we entered a tunnel while on a southbound train heading to Los Angeles.

Worth it to experience, especially from the viewing car.

Why Is It So Difficult To Book Travel? An Example

I have used AMTRAK for the past 11 years, with small trips that go back to the early '80s.

I consider myself a fairly knowledgeable user of their website (amtrak.com).

In spite of that fact, I find that it has become more difficult to book travel and make connections, I think because of the Pandemic.

I recently wanted to take the California Zephyr to Denver and what I found out is that (at this time) there is no way to get from Bakersfield, CA to Sacramento, CA by train. You need to get off at Stockton, CA and then board a bus. If a bus is not something you feel comfortable taking during this time, it is a "game over" moment.

In good news, for me, I can take the Coast Starlight from Los Angeles, CA to Emeryville, CA (just across the bay from San Francisco, CA) and then catch the Zephyr the next morning. It does mean a hotel stay in Emeryville, but at least it can be done. I am sure I would not be the only person getting off the train at that stop.

Things to watch out for when booking a trip to Emeryville. The train gets to the station at 9:54PM. That is late and I would think if you agree with this, you should check out if the hotel you are staying at will pick you up, before booking one. The other thing is that there is a hotel that is right across the tracks from the station. It has a fly-over bridge to get you from the hotel parking lot to the station. It is over $200 so it might not be to everyone's liking, but remember, this is San Francisco. Nothing is cheap there.

I hope you find this information useful. More to come.

Twitter Asked For Best Photos On AMTRAK

Hi and welcome to the first post on my new blog.

We will go into tips and tricks to get the most of your AMTRAK rail experience, but for now, here is one of mine that celebrates 50 years of AMTRAK.

For AMTRAK'S 50th Birthday in May of 2021, their Twitter account asked for our best shot from a train.

Instead of going through all my thousands of photos, I did a search of AMTRAK on my personal blog and found THIS story and photo.

I have so many of this section of the Columbia River. We were chasing a sunset and a rainbow, but you could not get both into the picture at the same time.

I really love this photo though. It shows off the best of riding the rails. FYI: The photo was taken out the back window of the final car of the train.

Thanks AMTRAK for the memories and maybe I will be able to make some new ones, someday.