Curtis
An SCA's SCA
If you have never taken a long distance train, it is rather difficult to describe. Some like to call is land cruising, but I like being only ten feel off the ground, not the sixty or so we were on the Carnival cruise. There is a rhythm, gentle rocking motion that I find very soothing other than when you are in an upper level sleeper in the last car going across Nevada at 80 miles an hour.
We had a debate about what sort of accommodations to get. Roomettes can get a little cramped, and She Who Must Be Obeyed was still recovering from her ankle surgery, so we opted for the Handicap room. I was also concerned that I have the need for running water to clean the trache with some frequency, so we chose the H room.
This is on the first floor of a Superliner, next to the bathrooms and showers. The charming bride reported that in the middle of the night the latch came off the door, and someone actually came in thinking it was a restroom. I was sound asleep and in the top bunk and missed it all. In Hindsight we had no trouble with the stairs or walking to the diner, and will forgo the unused amenity of the bathroom in future trip unless the situation changes.
The room has facing seats with the bunk pulling down, much like a roomette. There are windows on both sides as the room takes the width of the train. The toilet takes up a lot of room and since there was one right outside the door, it became the luggage holder.
Curtis was our SCA and he was great. This Seattle native had almost four years in and was only bumped from the sleeper to a coach when they drop one of the Seattle sleepers for the winter. He provided ice in a heartbeat and beverages when we asked. Made the car up when we asked. I traded some Amtrak lore with him. I asked him for the actual car number (32058) and showed him the actual name was "Pictured Rock."
Curtis had a dinner reservation ready for us, but they didn’t call the 8:30 until almost 9:30 bur we didn't care/ I had the steak, and it was perfectly prepared while the better half had the Tilapia which she raved about. Cheesecake for sure, but the chef recommended squeezing some lemon on it. I did not have strawberries, tried it, and loved it.
Breakfast was omelets squared which we both enjoyed. For lunch we both again chose the same and enjoyed the burger. Our free meal from the delay we repeated from the evening before and it was good excepting the tilapia was a little over cooked.
I had bought a scanner to listen to the train talk during our journey. I couldn’t get it to function so I fell back on old faithful, my android Scanner Radio app. As long as I had a Verizon connection I was good to go. I was actually was quite pleased with Verizon. I had 3G service all the way to Williston, and it was available at the stops past there. I had also brought the Garmin which had a signal however because there is no option to take the train route it constantly jumped back and forth. It did serve well as a reference to where we were at as long as you did not mind the constant rendering of the map because it was lost.
Arrival was schedule for 7:14, We arrived at 1:40. What is six hours among friends?
The EB is like playing Clue without the cards. Original plan was to hit East Glacier on the run and drive to Many Glacier. The folks, primarily on Trip Advisor, argued against this strategy. The road is not great and driving it at night. Then we decided to spend the evening at one of the “Grand’s”, the Glacier Park Lodge..
Curtis was great about helping get the luggage off. An unnamed young man in plus fours was great about getting it to the lodge, and from there the security guard got us to the room,
It was very large and comfortable with a south facing balcony (not noticed til the morning) but just what these old tired bones needed. The bathroom was larger than some of the motel rooms I have stayed in.
The Mighty Mississippi
From the Train Window
Minot
Nothing but slow from here
No comments:
Post a Comment