Amtrak – Flagstaff to Chicago Union Station

Sunday – Aboard the Southwest Chief

Checked at 11 pm and again at 3 am – the train was running about 50 minutes late.  I showered, packed up, and checked out and then started off on the 10-minute walk, luggage in tow, to the Amtrak Station.  The train was indeed 50 minutes late.  I boarded car #431, and set up shop in roomette #2.  The train consists of two engines, a baggage car, three sleeper cars, a dining car, an observation car, and three cars of coach seats.

I had breakfast at 6:30, sitting with two scout leaders and a scout on their way from LA to Raton, NM for a two week hiking adventure.  One of the leaders was British although now living in LA.  We traded UK/Brexit stories over breakfast. I had a three-egg swiss cheese and veggie omelet, bacon, biscuit, orange juice, and milk.  Then I took a nice nap in my room.

The ride through New Mexico and Colorado is beautiful, through the mountains.  I brought my GPS for the window, but I brought the wrong cord to charge it.  Dumb!  Fortunately I have GPS in my phone and a mapping app, so I am able to follow the route as we go as well as monitor time, speed, and elevation.  90 mph is top speed.  Lunch was a burger, sharing a table with a couple from Ruidoso, NM on their way to a Lionel toy train convention in Kansas City and a gentlemen returning home to Rockford, IL after visiting family in LA.

At 5:00 pm Star, my sleeping couch attendant, brought me a bucket of ice and I enjoyed a nice gimlet (pre-mixed at home and in a thermos jug in my carry-on bag).  Dinner was at the 6:45 sitting with a man from Nevada headed for Chicago and a Rudy Giuliani look-a-like from somewhere or other.  Rudy was self absorbed with himself and rarely shut up.  Dinner was a surprisingly good steak with mashed potatoes and green beans preceded by a dinner salad.  Very nice vanilla ice cream for dessert.  I rarely get wines on Amtrak – the selection is minimal and the quality poor.  Food, by the way, is all included in the fare although alcohol is extra.

After dinner I tucked in.  We were in Lamar, CO when I hit the sack, and I pretty much slept through until we reached Topeka, KS.  There were four stops in between, but I only awoke for one of them.

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Monday – On Amtrak into Chicago

I got up at 5:00 am and was the first one into the shower room on my sleeper car.  Breakfast was, as always, at 6:30 am right when the dining car opens.  I ate with one gentleman with whom I sat previously and with a mother and daughter on their way home to Detroit from a vacation in Santa Fe.  I had the same breakfast as yesterday.  Amtrak doesn’t overwhelm you with choices.

The ride for the remainder of the trip was uneventful.  The highlight was crossing the Mississippi River at Fort Madison, Iowa.  Once cross the Mississippi, the landscape changes dramatically to farmland and small towns.  We arrived in Chicago precisely on time.

I will pick up the narrative again when I get a chance, probably when I check in at the Marriott in Saratoga Springs on Tuesday night (or more likely, Wednesday morning.  I have big news about the Chicago to Albany leg of the train trip.  You’ll have to come back to find out!

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