Nearly a week ago my wife and I boarded the train for a trip to Illinois. We are in Collinsville, IL now.
The reason for the trip is to participate in the celebration of the retirement of our youngest son from the Air Force (after 27 years). There is a dinner and a ceremony scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday. It is also a chance to see this part of the family and maybe relax and catch up.
But the subject of this blog is to record our experiences riding the train.
Our itinerary was to catch Amtrak's Train 6, the California Zephyr, at 11:09am Tuesday in Sacramento, CA. We had a reserved roomette (#11 in car 631) where we would hang out until we arrived at the Union Station in Chicago, IL, at 2:20om Thursday. We transfered to Train 305, the Lincoln Service, in Business Class, departing at 5:15pm for Springfield, IL, expected to arrive at 8:39pm.
Daughter Deb dropped us off at the Sacramento station in the rain with plenty of time to spare. Once inside, we found there was even more time to spare because the Zephyr was still in Emeryville where they were working on a non-functioning toilet. So we sat for an extra two and a half hours on the hard oak benches they built in 1890 for the people with smaller butts than ours to wait for trains at a train station. A train station full of people waiting for the main train is a great place to engage in serious people-watching, and to meet quite a few of them if you choose. What a cross-section of our society.
The train arrived, and we were taken to the other side of the train in an electric cart. Good, because it was still raining. We stepped onto car 631 and were directed to our roomette.
We have three mid-sized suitcases. One fit nicely in the clothes hanging space against the wall and the other two fit under the seats. Not bad unless you need to get into them, then it helps to send the other person out of the roomette to make room for a suitcase on the opposite seat.
The dictionary definition for roomette is that it is a self-contained compartment (i.e., with toilet) on a rail-way car, most often for one person. Amtrak's implementation is that it is a compartment with seats for two and the toilet is down the rail car. The seats are wide enough for one and a half persons -- no side by side sitting. The knee space requires the opposing adults to interlace their legs, especially if one person adopts the lounge seat position (knees then reach the opposite seat cushion).
The space between the side of the seat and the sliding door is about ten inches, not wide enough to turn around in unless you put your butt out into the the walking aisle (door must be open for this maneuver). This is not much of a problem except at night when the top bunk is down and you have only undies on.
The fold-down upper bunk is wide enough for three/fourths of a person and seems to slope toward the aisle. There is about fourteen inches of headroom, so if you have any kind of problem with claustrophobia, you might not want to sleep upstairs. Ah yes, the stairs to the upper bunk. I assume the two levels of carpeted arm-rest are the "stairs." I suppose if I were 50 years younger it would be a snap, but at 73 it was a struggle to climb up top, especially given the turn-around room. And don't have a leg cramp while in the upper bunk, or have to go to the toilet in the middle of the night. Going up and down the stairs in the dark is a real chore.
So much for my rant.
The trip was a worthy experience. We road into the Sierra Nevada Mountains and the snow banks as the afternoon faded away. It was a beautiful and peaceful sight. That evening we had a delightful dinner (part of the roomette experience) and met the crew and some of our fellow travelers. It was night-time when we reached Reno and after a short stop, the train headed on east.
The attendant came by about 9:30 to prepare our roomette for sleeping. We got out of the way and then returned to figure out the sleeping arrangements. I tried out the upper bunk, but moved into a neighboring empty roomette in the middle of the night after a bout of claustrophobia and cramps (see rant above). I figure I got about 3 hours sleep.
We had gained about half an hour across Nevada and reached Salt Lake City about 5am. Then the train headed to Provo and then Price. The snow was really falling that morning and we watched a few venturesome cars and trucks going up and down I-70 on the unplowed roadway. It was nice and cozy in the roomette.
We had breakfast and lunch in the dining car. Great food and more good company. The scene remained snowy and we reached Grand Junction about noon, still a couple of hours behind schedule. The trip along the Colorado River was very interesting. Some of the river was frozen over and we saw wildlife along the way. A big golden eagle was tearing apart some kind of meal out on the ice flow at one point.The mountains grew higher and there was intermittant snow.
I went into the unoccupied roomette and used my cPAP machine to help my breathing on the final climb up to Frazier, CO. At over 9,000 feet it helped. We entered the long tunnel under the continental divide about 6pm and then headed down toward Denver. My breathing became noticeably easier as we moved into lower elevations.
After another delightful dinner, we went back to the roomette. When the attendant came around to prepare our beds, I said I would do it personally at a later time when we were ready. We got to bed about 11pm, and I did a better job of climbing into the upper bunk. With practice, I may become an expert.
Much of Nebraska went by in the night and we were into Omaha for breakfast. We crossed Iowa and reached Burlington around noon. The Mississippi was about half frozen over at that point. As we approached Chicago, I noticed the snow cover seemed to be receding, and then we pulled into Union Station.
Though we were 2 hours late, there was sufficient time to transfer, and we boarded early because we had Business Class tickets. We had a couple of very comfortable reclining seats. About 5:30pm the train left the station, and we were in Springfield, IL by 9pm. Krista, our daughter-in-law was there to pick us up for the ride down to Collinsville where the family lives.
I would rate the train experience a 4 out of 5. It is a good way to travel if you have the time. There are some inconveniences, but you get used to them. Just take along plenty to read.
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