Riding the Rails on Amtrak
Woman in the Middle | May 13, 2016On our recent vacation we rode Amtrak for the very first time. Two days and two nights zipping across a significant portion of America. Here are my thoughts.
The Wonderful Things
1. You meet interesting people. We got a Superliner bedroom, and that comes with all meals in the dining car. In the dining car they have booths that seat four people. They like to fill the booth if at all possible. So we ate with a couple from Australia who were here taking the train to Chicago. There they planned to rent a car and then drive from Chicago back to California on Route 66. They said that was a bucket list item for most Australians. Who knew? We ate another meal with a man from Trinidad and Tobago. He was here to participate in a couple of bicycle races and, that done, was now traveling on the train to see other parts of the country. He has done this before. We met a nice coupe from Chicago when were returning from four months in Scottsdale, Arizona, where they are “snowbirds” every year. They always travel to and from Arizona on the train because they don’t like to deal with O’Hare airport. We met a man who was a birdwatcher from Pennsylvania. He had seen 25 new birds in a park near Silver City, New Mexico. He also wondered if we thought train travel was more civilized. By far, the highlight of our train travels was getting to eat every meal with someone new. For no other reason, I would travel on the train again.
2. The food was pretty good. Anyone with a bedroom or roomette gets all meals included with the price of the sleeping accommodations. The amount of food was just right for me and, if you wanted, you could take your dessert with you to eat later. I only had one “kind of” miss in our four meals on the train. With my second dinner the veggies were on the cool side, not nice and warm.
3. All the employees on the train were very nice. Many of them made an effort to talk to us and get to know us.
4. The public bathrooms remained clean throughout the trip.
5. Viewing the countryside from our room or the observation lounge was very enjoyable. At one point we saw several herds or individual elk and a couple of flocks of wild turkeys. Below is New Mexico, just before we entered Colorado.
6. We stopped in small towns I had never heard of. Many of our stops were what they called “fresh air” stops. The longest was in Albuquerque, where we stopped for half an hour to change crews. The shorted was 4 minutes. Usually, it was about 10 minutes. But they allowed us a chance to stretch our legs and get a glimpse of little towns with attractive downtowns filled with old brick buildings. Below is La Junta, Colorado.
The More Challenging Details
1. I reserved the biggest room they had, a Superliner bedroom with a bathroom. The bathroom was tiny. Think airline bathroom, but smaller. My hips touched each wall when I was seated. I found it very hard to get done what needed to be done in that small space. I began using the public restrooms the second day because they were a bit larger. Thus, the reason for having the private bathroom was kind of not there. The room itself may have been the largest but it was still small. However, that was really only a problem at night when the couch was pulled out into a bed that took up almost all of the room. The only space left was in front of the bathroom door and was only large enough for one person at a time to dress, change clothes, etc….
Hubby in our “room.” He is sitting on the chair. Couch is to the right. In the bottom left hand corner is a very small counter taken up almost entirely by the tissue box. Below the tissue box, out of the photo, is a small sink. Behind that wall is our bathroom.
2. The beds in the room were bunk beds, as they were in all the rooms. Getting into the top bunk was a challenge. Hubby took on that challenge and it was tough going both nights getting into and out of the bed. A petite gymnast might have found it an easy go. Getting a child in the top bunk would also have been no problem. But normal sized adults would find it very hard. We are very puzzled exactly what all those elderly couples who were on the train with us did. The lower bunk in the superliner bedroom is wider than a twin, but narrower than a double. Maybe they just shared that. I looked on the internet to find information about dealing with the upper bunk, but couldn’t find any. So, I don’t have any helpful hints on how to deal with that problem.
3. The train is traveling on rails that are not smooth and straight. They seemed to get less smooth as we moved across the country. This could be due to ice and snow in those parts of the world. You need to be careful as you move about the train as you can get tossed around a bit. People with balance problems might find it a challenge to move about the train while it is underway.
4. In spite of the noise and the movement, we actually slept reasonably well. But it was a little harder the second night as we really seemed to be moving fast on rougher rails.
5. Taking a shower in a moving train would be a challenge, and we didn’t want to try. However, our helpful hint would be to take your shower when the train is stopped for 10 minutes at one of the many stations along the way. Giving up one “fresh air stop” to be able to have a shower in a train that was not moving would be well worth it.
No form of transportation is perfect, as I was reminded when we flew back home at the end of our vacation. You have to decide for yourself what you want to deal with in your travels. But overall we did enjoy our adventure on the train and there is a very high likelihood we will travel on Amtrak again.
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