From New Orleans on the Amtrak Crescent

Wednesday    I’m in car 2010 roomette five and we are going from New Orleans tio New York .

Claude is my car attendant. He said he’s been doing this for 30 years.   I mentioned to Claude that the impression I have always gotten through my magazines was that Amtrak is the playground of the well to do since it is not cheap.    But what I saw yesterday and this morning is everybody rides Amtrak and Claude confirmed that.    i met a lady yesterday named Wanda who’s travelled about 35 times on Amtrak she lives in South Carolina. We shared an Uber to the train station and she’s well known at the hotel.    The Crescent departed right on time.    Claude was telling us they have problems with passengers who try to make up their own own berth and that’s how they get hurt.    The upper berth is stored about 2 feet higher than it’s nighttime configuration and if you don’t know what you’re doing you can drop this heavy upper bunk on your pumpkin head.  Since making up my berth Is one of Claude primary responsibilities, I will be happy to let him do that!

I saw a yard diesel with Amtrak colours parked close to the terminal     It moves the cars around but in an emergency like Katrina they run a power cable from the diesel into the terminal and they can run the terminal off the switch 

      The room has a pulldown sink and a fold up toilet right in the roomette!    Seems to be more legroom than the sunset limited when the berths are made up.  

Two engines, three coaches, an observation/lounge/snack car, dining car, sleeper and a sleeper/baggage     

I walked the three blocks from the depot to the hotel last night in New Orleans. Holiday Holiday Inn express is right around the corner from the World War II museum.   There are trolley tracks outside and the desk clerk said the trolley runs about every 15 minutes. The room is nothing fancy but the Bed was comfortable. Everything was clean and breakfast was quite good. I saw a new thing for a hotel breakfast: automatic pancake machine    Push the button, hold your plate under the end of it looks like a large toaster oven and you can watch the belt, carry the pancake batter and then flip it, and in a minute you’ve got a pancake.  Who knew?

The bad news is that sometime around 10 o’clock last night I found a bad piece of sidewalk or curb or something but the New Orleans pavement threw me down in the middle of the street! I skinned my knee for about the 5 millionth time in my life, both wrists hurt And I have a scrape just under the hairline on my forehead.   This morning, I am sore.      

The sunset limited from Los Angeles to New Orleans does not offer Wi-Fi     There is Wi-Fi on the Crescent but I’m under no illusions about how dependable it would be in the deep woods of Mississippi and Alabama

Picayune mississippi.    Nice name

My sleeper car has 13 roomettes, each with an upper and lower birth, a toilet and sink in the room, although I think I’ll go down the hall. Car also has three bedrooms that have considerably more room.     My porter said this train usually has 2 1/2 sleepers, but they pulled one of the cars for something else.     the end of the train is a baggage car/sleeper with 9 roomettes.    The engineer and the conductor are hour-limited by federal regulations so after eight hours or so we’ll have a crew change.   The attendant and the dining room staff travel from one end to the other and they have berths down here in the sleeper car area.

The dining car just got a new menu and while everything comes prepackaged, everyone is telling me the food is quite good     Passengers in the sleeper cars get their meals in the diner at no additional charge. Last night, as a coach passenger, I paid $45 to sit in the diner car.  The next car over has a snack bar and doubles has a lounge.    The car down observation/club/snack bar.    Passengers have to pay to eat in the dining car and I found last night that was very expensive     Upfront, the three coaches each have room for at least one Wheelchair and a bathroom that appears tobe rather accessible.   At the moment the lead coach is totally empty but my attendant tells me it will fill starting in Birmingham.  (Actually started filling in Hattiesburg).   The cars of this train are considerably newer than those are the sunset limited and the attendant pointed out to me that these cars were built for comfort.      The train is not full, so most people are sprawled out across several seats    Staff are very friendly and helpful     

On my way to New Orleans

 The German military strategist, Helmuth von Moltke, said in the mid 1800s, “no battle plan survives contact with the enemy. “.   This is certainly true of my vacation!

Yesterday I was sifting through the ton of papers in my office trying to find all of my confirmation and tickets for this trip when I noticed I was missing one. The bed and breakfast a few miles from the Chester A Arthur home in upstate Vermont. I was finally able to contact the front desk, and wanted to make sure they had me down for the 27th of September . She came back a minute later and said my reservation was for the 26th! No changes allowed because this was worked through a third-party and in any case we’re in the middle of “foliage “.  I looked at my schedule and decided that my side trip to Maine was going to have to wait. The lady at the bed and breakfast offered to help me as much as she could since I was now going to be at the Chester A Arthur home a day that they are not open. The very nice lady told me that her dog groomer was also the tour guide for the Arthur Home. This morning a very nice lady named jane called and we set up a personal one person tour on a Friday when they’re usually closed.   is that nice? Or what? 

I’ve also been getting messages for the last 24 hours from Amtrak telling me of problems. Yesterday afternoon the train was sitting on the tracks east of El Paso because of a freight train. This morning it was sitting on the tracks of San Antonio because of apparently a disabled vehicle.   Despite that we left only 12 minutes late. We’re still a little bit late and we’ve just crossed into Louisiana. 

My son dropped me off at the station early as he has somewhere else to go.    No problem, I checked my baggage slung my backpack over my shoulder and walked a short distance to a place called Post Houston.   At one time, this was the main post office, but now it’s being redeveloped to host many functions to include a very nice food court

For future reference, if you take Amtrak East from Houston, the food court at Post Houston opens at 11 am. I had lunch at a delightful place called Chopn Blok They offer east and west African food.  My bowl was very flavorful and had rice and curry and chicken and plantains and a drink that tasted like very thick grape juice which the lady told me was hibiscus lemonade, basil.   It was actually too much food!

There are many other places there to include several that will serve some of the fanciest looking ice cream I’ve ever ever seen.   Sweet seems to know 100 ways to serve Cotton candy!   The lady told me it’s very family friendly on the weekends.    Who knew?   

  

Amtrak has apparently added a second coach to the Sunset Limited. The seats are much wider than on airplanes and the legroom is incredible     Just as a trivial note, the Tiny restroom has a baby changing table folded up into the wall! I was impressed!

It is 3:24 pm on Tuesday, September 17 and we are going through , I believe, Orange.    What should truly impress you about this particular post as I am doing it on the train on my iPhone as it looks like my iPad is still in my house! Back to my opening quote     I may post again later today    

Planning the Next Trip

 I now have firm plans and commitments for my Boston trip, September 17-Ocober 1.  I tell you something I really miss from the old days - travel agents!  I am supposed to do all of my planning at the computer.   The planning takes far longer than the trip itself.

I will take Amtrak to Boston.   Amtrak's "Julie" says the way to get to Boston is to take a bus to Longview, take the Texas Eagle to Chicago, and then take another train to Boston.   Sounds like how Southwest wants to route me home!   I found a better way.    Amtrak's Sunset Limited (Coach, it's cheaper) to New Orleans, overnight in a hotel on St Charles, take the Crescent to New York, stay a few days in Newark and then take the Acela to Boston.   Trying to book this on line, with a credit from my last voyage, and a few other variables was very frustrating.    I finally jumped in my Kia and drove downtown to the Amtrak station, where a very pleasant human being helped me with my tickets in short order.   Very satisfying.

Here is where i need your feedback.   I am doing this set of blogs from my phone and iPad, as the laptop takes up weight and space in my baggage.  Please comment, below as to whether you can view the video and any images.   

The little AMTRAK n scale train is a faithful model of the Sunset Limited.  The second car behind the engines is the sleeper.  I had a lower berth there to Los Angeles last month.   The last car in the consist is the coach, with airline-like seating.  I will ride it to New Orleans on September 17.

My credit cards have paid for trains to Boston, My hotels are booked thru Friday, September 27.   My Southwest flight from Hartford to Houston is also booked.   My hope is to pay off the credit cards now and by the end of my trip.  Just about done.

I was channel surfing during the Olympics and came across an episode of NOVA, on PBS.    They were talking about the longest wooden covered bridge in America, located in New York, not far from Albany, and also not far from Cooperstown, so now I will add a couple of bridges and some baseball to my final weekend.   I also hope to look at the Eastern terminus of the Erie Canal.

I am dictating this paragraph. This is a whole lot easier than typing on the iPad! Maybe you can teach an old dog new tricks!

Here is a shot of my layout.   The two modules were built in the 80s     I recently brought them out.  They and the other trackwork occupy a 9 x 5 area of my living room

Please comment below.   I think this works

Dan