Day 2 August 6th : All Aboard

Waiting is a virtue 

When Amtrak is involved

After a good nights rest in the Grandview, we headed back to Katherine’s house for coffee. Sitting on her porch, just talking the morning away, Wed left Ferryville before noon, and after checking that the arrival was EB was on time we headed to La Crosse (aka LSE) It had been a long time since I had been there, Old Style beer, my liquid version of Wonder Bread was gone. Along the way we hit every historical marker and had the memories refreshed about the end of the Blackhawk war. We also went to the top of Mount Hosmer in Lansing. The drive over the bridge freaked me out as it always has - steep grated roadway rises, maybe 100 feet high in the air dropping down again. Once a decade is enough for me thank you very much.

The View from Mt. Hosmer

The Lansing Iowa Hot Spot

Mt. Hosmer again

Not my favorite bridge crossing

Being a Trip Advisor devotee, I had selected Buzzard Billy's in downtown La Crosse. Featuring Cajun cuisine, it was a true delight. She who must be obeyed had blackened Tilapia and I went with an old favorite Andouille sausage. The slaw had some horseradish and a real kick. My side of red beans and rice had a nice kick to it, hot enough to get your attention but far from nuclear. I would eat there again in a heartbeat.


After Lunch we ventured across town to Grandad Bluff. Some may say you’ve seen one bluff you have seen them all, but this is a bluff you need to see. It has a stunning vista of the Mighty Miss and the city.

Granddad Bluff

But we are headed for higher peaks

We had more time to kill, so we headed over to Copeland Park, where the La Crosse Lumberjacks play. On the way there, we got rear ended at a stop light. The poor guy in the little Honda tried dancing with the back end of my Tahoe and learned a lesson. I had a piece of plastic trim to slightly push back him. He lost his hood, both front quarter panels, both headlights and his little plastic bummer. Officer Jelinkski of LPD was very gracious, even though the guy who hit me didn’t wait for him.

Copeland Park 

Not a Louisville Slugger 

Parking was aided and abetted by La Crosse local nursetraveller 87 who indicated that there were more than 20 long term spots at the depot and they were rarely used. Further the location was such as no one should bother my car while it was parked there for nine days.

I used my Amtrak app to check on the arrival time. I also started a thread on Amtrak Rail Discussion to let the brothers and sisters know about the progress of the old man. Then in April they changed the schedule, padding the schedule to allow for the North Dakota madness. The Bakken oil field, plus all the fixes BNSF was trying with double tracking has made the high line the less than fine line.

One of the most active boards on Amtrak Discussions has been “The EB Mess”. When the first one got too political, I started a second just to keep the discussion alive

The EB was an hour late into LSE. There is a neat tool called Amtrak Delays that shows the average delay time for any station. Westbound 7 was averaging ninety minutes behind arriving at LSE and 314 minutes of Glacier Park (GPK). The eastbound 8 was averaging only 38 minutes late at GPK but 792 minutes to LSE. Translate that to more than 13 hours late.


I basically didn’t care. The delays just meant more train time for me.






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