Everydaymatters
Engineer
This will probably be a relatively short travelogue. I came back from this trip with a fever, both ears infected and bronchitis.
Boarding in Chicago was a real bummer. Within 5 minutes of boarding I encountered the Train Attendant from H---. She will be reported to Amtrak as she obviously is in dire need of R & R. There were three incidients that I know of involving this lady and other passengers.
The trip was inconsequential until somewhere after Albuquerque. We had been on time, but encountered 15 freight cars. I thought that was an excessive amount of freight traffic, but that was the number we were given. We arrived at Kingman, AZ, 3 hours late. There were 3 vans waiting for us, one of which had a trailer attached where our luggage was loaded. I believe it's about a 2 hour trip from Kingman to LasVegas, but the 3 van drivers decided to take a 45 minute break for breakfast at around the half way point. When we arrived at the airport in LasVegas, they gave us an instruction card on where to meet them for the return trip. Taxis were waiting and I got to the hotel around 6:15 a.m.
I had the Bob Evans scramble for my only breakfast on that train. It was very good, but could have been better if it was warmer. It was unevenly microwaved with some of it cold and some of it hot. For lunch I had the vegetable burger from the lounge car. It was pretty terrible.
The instruction card given to us by the van driver for our return trip had the wrong time on it. Their card read that the van would leave at 9:30p.m., but the ticket showed 10 p.m. departure. I got to the airport early in the event that they would actually leave at 9:30. They did not leave until 10. There were 9 of us in LasVegas and we picked up 4 more in Laughlin. We arrived in Kingman about an hour before the SWC was due. The Kingman train station is closed and I doubt that it will ever reopen. We were told to go to an old store, which is being used as a waiting room. It had a tin ceiling, which would probably date it to the early 1900's. The crew was next door in another old store. A crewman came in and took our tickets and told us to go to the train, which was a little less than 1/2 block away. The Chief was on time and we arrived in Chicago on time. I slept most of the way home as I was already feeling sick. Everything I ate was from the lounge car, so I can't really give a food report except to say the food was ok.
I have to tell ya'all that this will be my last trip. It's been a great ride from the first to the last, but I'm tired of traveling. 25 years ago I thought I'd never say that and I couldn't understand anyone who would say that. It gets harder as I get older and my health gets worse. Well, I'll still go to weddings and funerals, so you'll still hear about my experiences for those occasions. But as far as trips for the sake of taking a train ride, it won't happen again.
Boarding in Chicago was a real bummer. Within 5 minutes of boarding I encountered the Train Attendant from H---. She will be reported to Amtrak as she obviously is in dire need of R & R. There were three incidients that I know of involving this lady and other passengers.
The trip was inconsequential until somewhere after Albuquerque. We had been on time, but encountered 15 freight cars. I thought that was an excessive amount of freight traffic, but that was the number we were given. We arrived at Kingman, AZ, 3 hours late. There were 3 vans waiting for us, one of which had a trailer attached where our luggage was loaded. I believe it's about a 2 hour trip from Kingman to LasVegas, but the 3 van drivers decided to take a 45 minute break for breakfast at around the half way point. When we arrived at the airport in LasVegas, they gave us an instruction card on where to meet them for the return trip. Taxis were waiting and I got to the hotel around 6:15 a.m.
I had the Bob Evans scramble for my only breakfast on that train. It was very good, but could have been better if it was warmer. It was unevenly microwaved with some of it cold and some of it hot. For lunch I had the vegetable burger from the lounge car. It was pretty terrible.
The instruction card given to us by the van driver for our return trip had the wrong time on it. Their card read that the van would leave at 9:30p.m., but the ticket showed 10 p.m. departure. I got to the airport early in the event that they would actually leave at 9:30. They did not leave until 10. There were 9 of us in LasVegas and we picked up 4 more in Laughlin. We arrived in Kingman about an hour before the SWC was due. The Kingman train station is closed and I doubt that it will ever reopen. We were told to go to an old store, which is being used as a waiting room. It had a tin ceiling, which would probably date it to the early 1900's. The crew was next door in another old store. A crewman came in and took our tickets and told us to go to the train, which was a little less than 1/2 block away. The Chief was on time and we arrived in Chicago on time. I slept most of the way home as I was already feeling sick. Everything I ate was from the lounge car, so I can't really give a food report except to say the food was ok.
I have to tell ya'all that this will be my last trip. It's been a great ride from the first to the last, but I'm tired of traveling. 25 years ago I thought I'd never say that and I couldn't understand anyone who would say that. It gets harder as I get older and my health gets worse. Well, I'll still go to weddings and funerals, so you'll still hear about my experiences for those occasions. But as far as trips for the sake of taking a train ride, it won't happen again.
I have been involved with some things in life where I finally go "what am I doing this for". My girlfriend says its my "sense of duty" in me. But after awhile, I have to take a step back and go, "I don't enjoy this, it takes up my time and I resent it too" and then I move on. Battalion 51 kinda nailed it too: A sense of purpose when you are travelling. I went to Winter Park for the "heck of it" and left the girlfriend at home and just didn't quite have the "fun" I was thinking I was going to have. I'm younger than EDM, but my sense of adventure is just beginning and I know I will some day be feeling the way EDM feels. Thanks for riding the rails and sharing with us my friend! 
