The Great Amtrak Escape, Day Two

Originally published on onlyonewaytofindout.travel

Ooof. Not sure if this is day one still. Does day two start when I fall asleep completely and wake up? I slept a bit over the night – sleeping on a train is definitely going to take some getting used to. I probably laid awake in bed just watching the stars for half the night. Every once in a while, with a big jolt I’d be shook awake – I’d be lying if I didn’t say I thought we probably derailed half a dozen times. Regardless, I feel relatively well rested!

I officially woke up at 5:30 to watch the sun rise and I’m really glad I did.

After watching the sunrise I got up out of bed and headed for the shower. I’ve showered in a lot of small bathrooms, but this one probably takes the top. Not to mention the whole train would rock back and forth making it quite clumsy to complete the process. Amtrak provides towels, and amnesties that you’d normally find in a hotel room. The bathroom itself was quite clean – a little dated with the linoleum flooring, but you can’t complain. The water was hot.

On the entire trip, all meals are included, so I headed over to the dining car to find some breakfast. On this train breakfast was a simple continental affair – reheated breakfast sandwiches were available, but I just opted for a plastic wrapped blueberry muffin and coffee. It wasn’t bad, you could say it hit the spot.

I had noticed we were about one and half hours behind schedule, the conductors on board informed us that unfortunately we got stuck behind freight traffic over the night. Luckily, I’m in no rush, but it is a little frustrating that this is the state of our rail travel. It seems as though those traveling with me were also not in much of a hurry to get anywhere. When traveling via Amtrak it’s just something you live with.

We slowly made our way around the Southern end of the lakes and eventually into the outskirts of Chicago. One of my favorite things so far is watching out the landscape changes when entering and leaving major cities. Each city is unique in its architecture from a far, but once the train gets in close – its rail yards, warehouses, and industry. Just goes to show how vital the trains were, and still are, to a city’s growth.

As the train pulled into Chicago we passed coal and steel plants, suburbs, housing projects, and eventually reached Union Station, the last stop for the Lake Shore train. I gathered my belongings and exited the train, thanking and tipping my conductor/attendant.

One thing that Amtrak unfortunately beats its passengers over the head with is that while sleeper car passenger’s meals are free, alcohol and gratuity is not included. After each announcement about meals they include such a statement. Based on my experience most diners would include a two to three-dollar tip with their meal, a handful of times a few of those I was having dinner with didn’t actually have any more cash… We were on a train after all – it’s not like there’s an ATM with us. I honestly was a little disappointed in this. Such a trip that costs nearly $1,000 dollars and includes meals, but now you need to tip the workers? Come on…

I met some friends living in the city for some lunch at market, we grabbed a couple of beers, a jerked chicken sandwich and caught up on life. But soon it was time for them to go back to work and for me to continue on west.

Heading back into Union Station, I went for the “lounge” sleeper car/business class waiting area. Looking up at the arrival and departure boards I became a little concerned as I saw the California Zephyr was delayed nearly three hours. Great. I was fairly certain we would be on a new West bound train, so how on earth could we be delayed already. Time to start looking into killing some more time in the city. I start looking online, to confirm my trains status, and the Amtrak phone app indicated it as on time. Now… these boards are not like the airport ones. Departures are not clearly labelled as such and neither are arrivals. The only indication as I eventually noticed was that the origin and destination were swapped. I had been looking at the Arrival board and not the departure board this whole time! Back on time for the 2PM departure!

After boarding the train, we were asked to remain seated and in our rooms so we could complete the check in process. I’m not entirely sure if this is going to come back to bite me later, but no one actually has scanned my ticket this entire time. My car attendant checked in with me and showed me around. Fortunately, and unfortunately, there was no toilet in my roomette this time. In fact, this roomette was slightly underwhelming. The seats weren’t as padded, the lights weren’t as bright. There was only one electrical outlet, no fan control, and a relatively small window. I was a little disappointed, this is a superliner after all… where’s the super!?

Putting the disappointment behind me, I broke out my Kindle and finished out one of the many books I’d planned on reading throughout the trip. We continued through Illinois and kept going. The scenery changed slowly into the rolling hills covered with corn and other crops. The woman in charge of the dining car made her way back and took my reservation for one at 7:30PM for dinner and I headed over to the observation car to take it all in. This is where the new adventure began for me. We’re entering territory I’ve never been to.

There were several announcements made over the PA about various regulations, rules, advisories, and introductions. The Public Address system is used extensively by Amtrak Conductors for both passenger announcements, and for communicating information to all the other conductors. A few announcements of note were the fact that the toilets were finicky and that if one gets clogged, all of the restrooms on the same train car get clogged. Todd, from the snack/lounge car (he talks a lot), introduced himself as well.

One announcement mentioned that this train is one of the very (or maybe the last?) without WiFi – the main places to hangout are the diner and cafe cars, and the observation car. It’s where people come to watch the landscape pass, trade stories about this bridge, the highway over there, and that river right here. I’m not much of a talker and not generally one to initiate conversation, but in this environment especially, you learn a ton just by listening. That silo we just passed? It looks like they’re making ethanol. This bridge was built back in the eighties. That town we just blew through? There’s a diner in there that’s been serving breakfast for years.

After a few hours we heard another announcement… Diner is delayed until further notice. Unfortunately, as I’ve come to learn with all things Amtrak, sometimes things go wrong. It’s become more of a running joke than anything to me. In this case, as I would later learn, it looked like we might have a leak in the water tank in the dining car. As the conductors and dining car staff scrambled to sort the problem out, we looked on, watching as they collected bottles of water, tallied them up and got to work trying to address the problem. Dinner ultimately ended up being delayed by an hour for the earlier meals, luckily mine was unaffected.

At 7:30 I made my way to the dining car, and joined a couple of guys for a steak dinner. I never really caught any of their names – I’ll have to work better at that, but we traded Amtrak stories and shared a bit about what lead up to us being on the same train. Most people I’ve talked to so far have taken a long haul train at least once before. They were either trying a new train route or coming back many years (in some cases 30, 40, 50 years) after their first trip to experience it again. I’d continually see these guys throughout the trip, never again having a meal with them, but also making a joke or quip about the state of Amtrak, the scenery, or the weather.

Finally, the food met my expectations. From the dinner reservation, to the menu, to the waitstaff taking your order and bringing your food. No more boxed meals! My steak was cooked to perfection, medium rare, and the mashed potatoes were definitely heavily buttered. The green beans, well… they were green beans.

After dinner I headed back to the observation car to see if there was anything to see, but it ended up being quite dark. So I read a bit more and hung out with the remaining people there. Not too long after I opted to head back to my room to get some sleep. My bed was already laid out for me and ready to go! I crawled in, read for a bit more and quickly fell asleep. This night was going to be a lot more restful than the last, or maybe I was just more tired.