EB-Cascades trip: Why not Minot???

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Joined
Sep 9, 2006
Messages
4,468
Location
Colfax, WA (CFX)
Last week I embarked on my first Amtrak adventure of the year: Spokane-Seattle, Seattle-Portland, Portland-Minot, and Minot-Spokane. The purpose of this trip was solely to ride the train. I had done a Spokane-Seattle-Portland-Spokane loop trio several years before, but wanted to expand it. After deciding I wanted to ride east of Spokane, I looked for places I could go to where I could get a good night's sleep overnight and return home. Looking at the EB's schedule I figured Minot fit the bill perfectly. So Minot it was.

My journey began as usual in the early morning hours last Tuesday, May 9th, in Spokane. I was first headed to Seattle. My uncle from Illinois joined me again, and as he had purchased a sleeper from Chicago, I bought an open sleeper ticket to be attached to his reservation. The westbound EB arrived in Spokane early. The SCA, when it was time to board, clearly had no clue what to do since I had an open sleeper ticket, and left me in the hands of the conductor, one of the rudest, obnoxious oafs I have ever encountered on Amtrak. :angry: More than once when people weren't moving fast enough to suit him, he bellowed at them to quit standing around and quit picking their noses and MOVE!!! Jackass!!!!! :angry: When it was time for me to board, it turns out my name wasn't on the manifest because the agent whom I had talked to on the phone hadn't attached my reservation to my uncle's. After trying to show him I did indeed have a ticket-and receipt-he repeated his nose-picking mantra and out of the goodness of his heart :rolleyes: "let" me ride the train and would figure everything out later. Big of him!!!!

So with that out of the way, I boarded, and after the SCA informed me I wasn't eligible to eat in the diner, I most assuredly told him I was, and that was that. A few mimutes after we had gotten underway, Jackass came by the room, said all had been straightened out, and apologized. That raised him from being a jackaas to a jerk. :p :lol:

I settled down to sleep a few hours, and with exquisite timing woke up at Wenatchee, just in time for breakfast and for the good scenery to start. I had my usual for breakfast, the omelet with potatoes and pork sausage, along with a square croissant,if there is such a thing. We had breakfast with an older couple from England, in their first time in the States, and on their way to Alaska on a cruise. They were thoroughly enjoying their Amtrak experience and their travel across the US. They had flown into New York and ridden to Chicago on the LSL and then boarded the EB there. We were early into Seattle, and were able to check in early at our hotel, the Moore. We spent our afternoon in Seattle doing the usual touristy things: checking out Pike Place Market, the waterfront, taking a harbor cruise, the monorail, and the Space Needle. That was enough for one day, so we retired to the hotel, ready for our early morning run to Portland on the Cascades the next day. I will be making separate posts concerning each leg of the trip in order to break up the endless droning I seem to do on these reports.. :p
 
Nice first leg Jeff except for the jerk Conductor!

I really like the Spokane to Seattle and Spokane to Portland legs of the Builder!

As much time as you spend in Seattle you might as well move there from your booming Metropolis when you retire!
 
Nice first leg Jeff except for the jerk Conductor!

I really like the Spokane to Seattle and Spokane to Portland legs of the Builder!

As much time as you spend in Seattle you might as well move there from your booming Metropolis when you retire!

Not a chance, Jim!!! Too many people for this country boy! :ph34r: :ph34r: I will continue to visit, though. It's nice to go there...and nice to be able to go home!!!

And moving right along....

After catching up on our sleep at the Moore, we headed to King Street Station for the Seattle-Portland leg. We were on the Cascades, in business class. Upon boarding, we ran into a minor snafu. A man boarding after us said we were in his seats. On the Cascades, business class seating is predetermined by the use of a sticker indicating train and seat number on our tickets. Turns out, when we checked in, the ticket agent gave us a sticker for train 509. We were on train 501. No wonder!! It turned out to be no problem, though, as the man didn't care where he sat as long as he had a seat, he said. So with that ironed out, we were on our way. It was another nice day, very rare for our neck of the woods, for travel. Despite the recent mudslides and efforts to clean the debris, we encountered no delays, other than a slight slowdown here and there for freight traffic. We were a bit early into Portland, in fact. I have usually encountered crews on the Cascades devoid of personality, but not this time. Everyone was friendly and engaging. The assistant conductor, in fact, was seated by the door of the lounge car, and as traffic passed through, he opened the door for us. Nice service!! I had chosen the early train to Portland, due to arrive at 11AM, as I wanted to go to Powell's World of Books and enjoy a leisurely lunch before boarding the 4:45 EB. We did go to the bookstore, where I managed to find a couple of books that interested me (there are four floors of books there; it was inevitable I'd find SOMETHING :p ). We found a good burger joint nearby for lunch, and headed back to the station to relax in the small but comfortable lounge there in Portland. I was surprised to see the EB already in the station, until I realized that it had not run all the way to Portland due to bridge work. Passengers were bussed between Pasco and Portland the prior two days. At any rate, we boarded the EB about 20 minutes till time to departure, which was on time.
 
Moving right along, as mentioned before, we left Portland on time. A few minutes into the trip, our SCA, who shall remain nameless, came by to get our order for the boxed meal that is provided for sleeper passengers in the Portland half of the EB for the first night's dinner and to ask when we'd like the beds down. He also informed us that we got one bottle of water per person per room for the entire trip. I knew the drill when it came to the boxed meal but my uncle wasn't at all thrilled as he thought they should give us something free of charge from the lounge car. I had the shrimp Cobb salad and liked it. My uncle still didn't care for the salad and still thought we should be entitled to something from the lounge. Sorry , uncle dear, that's not how it works. ;) And when we got our meals, my uncle was upset to find we only got water or juice for a beverage, nothing more. So he got into it with the SCA over that. I again knew the drill so shut up. But after a few go-rounds, the SCA brought a couple of small cans of Diet Pepsi to us. That wasn't necessary, as that's not how the boxed meal is supposed to work, but took a can anyway. I don't know if it's coincidental or not but that was also about the last time we saw him for the whole trip. Then again I don't think he hardly left his room for the duration. Maybe it wasn't us. ;) Or more specifically, my uncle. :lol:

Out of Vancouver, we'd speed up awhile, then slow down awhile. Speed up, slow down. Then, about 10 miles from Bingen-White Salmon, an announcement came that we were pulling onto a siding as there was some freight congestion and we'd be behind another train in the siding. And that dispatch didn't know how long we'd be there. The conductor was walking back and forth by our room and heard him say that due to the bridge work being done by Vancouver, no freight traffic had run over that route for two days. No wonder there was congestion!!!

We'd been in the siding maybe 15 minutes when a freight went past us. I hoped that would be the end of the delays. No such luck. Another announcement came saying there was no way to tell when we'd be moving again. At one point I wandered into the SSL and could see not 50 feet away from us an oil train sitting on the main line. I wondered what was up with that. After about 45 more minutes, I overheard a conversation between the conductor and dispatcher that indicated as soon as the oil train passed we'd back onto the main and be on our way. It was another 15 minutes before the oil train went by. Apparently the crew of the oil train had timed out and the delay was in waiting for a new crew to arrive. And when I'd gotten my hopes up that we'd finally get moving, it wasn't to be. At the last minute it was decided to run another train past us before we'd get our chance to move ourselves. It was probably another 15-20 minutes before that train appeared.....a garbage train. Of all the indignities!!!! Held up by garbage!!!! :p :lol: Finally we did get backed up and got on our way. We crept along well under speed, evidently following yet another freight, and the conductor made another announcement, apologizing profusely for the delay (as if he was responsible personally for it) and saying that there had been freights that had only moved 11 miles in 12 hours. Yikes!!! :eek: . At any rate, we finally got into Bingen-White Salmon 2 1/2 hours late. By this time it was bedtime, but as the SCA was nowhere to be found we made up the beds ourselves.

I awoke some time after Pasco to find we'd lost more time and now were almost 3 hours down. I tried to get back to sleep, couldn't, so went to the lounge, chasing out an overly amorous young couple, so I had the place to myself. ;) I could tell by the lights which towns were which so I knew we were making up a decent amount of time. Until, that is, just about 15-20 miles outside of Spokane, when we slowed to a crawl, then stopped. Then started up again, moving a bit faster this time but still not at full speed. Turns out we were following another freight. We had made up some time into Spokane despite the latest delay. I knew the service stop would be quick as possible but had time to dash into the station, raid a couple of vending machines, and dash out to the parking lot to make sure my car was still in one piece and see if I had any parking tickets. :ph34r: Fortunately the answers were yes and no.

I tried to sleep once we left Spokane, 1:45 late, but couldn't so went back to the lounge. I was treated to a beautiful sunrise and a chance to see North Idaho and Western Montana in daylight, a rare view. At breakfast our server looked familiar, and as it turns out, he had been an SCA-he recognized us too-and said he'd been furloughed for awhile and had just gotten back to work and was filling in where he was needed until an SCA position opened up. He did a great job too. And has a great name-Jeff. :p :lol:

After breakfast it was time to relax and take in the scenery. Our by now non-existent SCA did make his one and only appearance of the day near Glacier Park when he refused to give a passenger who was ill and dehydrated as a result a bottle of water. Gotta stick to that one bottle per customer, you know. :rolleyes: This poor fellow who was ill enough that he at one point considered calling for an ambulance had to go in search of his own water. This SCA also adhered to the no ice and no coffee past 10 AM rules as well. And apparently had a no towels in the shower rule either. Ever try to dry off with a bunch of wash rags??? :rolleyes: This SCA wasn't much, spending almost all his time in his room. Granted with us he got off on the wrong foot through no fault of his own (or mine!!! I disavow certain actions of my travel companions! ;) ) but he was one of the poorer SCA's I've had. Ah well, enough about him.

At lunch I tried the Southwest salad and it was great. I timidly asked for chicken to be added to it, timidly because the last time I'd had chicken on an Amsalad the chicken tasted like it had died of some debilitating disease. This time it was good.

We had been making good progress, gaining time, until after Shelby. We'd made up half an hour, but then lost most of that due to being put in the hole for a late #7 and having to go into an emergency stop because some yahoo thought it was a perfect day to pull out onto the tracks with his tractor just ahead of the train. Fortunately for him (and us) it was a near-miss and after a thorough inspection of the train we were underway again. And it was here we began to run into slow orders. We began to gradually lose time due to that, and, at Glasgow, we had a lengthy stop at the station, followed by another stop so the train personnel could "look over some paperwork". That sounded ominously like more slow orders. As it apparently was. Time after time we slowed down. I don't recall ever seeing so many slowdowns on any other trip.

At dinner, we were greeted with a cup of water for everyone whether we wanted it or not. Jeff said it was part of an experiment designed to see if being started off with water would make passengers less likely to get pop....and more likely to get wine. I'd never heard of such a thing. Ironic they were giving water away in the diner when we couldn't get any in the sleeper. At any rate I tried the shrimp and steak and it was great. Not $36 great, but great. And so was the lemon torte for dessert. And so were the bottles of water Jeff gave us from the diner. :lol:

After dinner it was slow order after slow order. I had been in contact with the hotel we were staying in to let them know we'd be late, so they were aware of it. We finally pulled into Minot 2 hours late, and our shuttle was waiting for us. We stayed at the Grand Hotel there, and as it turned out it is the hotel where Amtrak personnel stay too. It is a nice place, and I even got $20 off my room for whatever reason. I'll take it! So, late and all, we got to Minot safe and sound, ready for the return to Spokane.
 
Enjoying your trip report JayPea. Sorry you had such a pill for an SCA on 28. Cannot figure out why these people continue to work for Amtrak. They ruin the trip and lead to some First Timers to never ride a train again. :(

Looking forward to trying the steak and shrimp dinner on our SWC trip in two weeks.

Hope you had a good return trip to Spokane. :)
 
Enjoying your trip report JayPea. Sorry you had such a pill for an SCA on 28. Cannot figure out why these people continue to work for Amtrak. They ruin the trip and lead to some First Timers to never ride a train again. :(
Indeed. The vast majority of the SCA'S I've had have been very good, but this one was an exception. Fortunately the return trip was a whole 'nuther story. :)

And, speaking of that return trip....

We arrived at the Minot station via the Grand Hotel's shuttle to find the EB a few minutes ahead of schedule. We had a roomette in the Portland half again on the return trip. Upon boarding we went immediately to the diner for breakfast where we were seated with a man from the Quad Cities area who was on his way to Whitefish where he was going to rent a car and drive to Missoula, MT, where his son was graduating from the University of Montana, and a young woman from Chicago, and coincidentally also originally from the Quad Cities who was on her way to Seattle for the first time to visit friends there. Our dining car crew was very friendly and very efficient.

Upon returning to our rooms we were greeted with a mint on our pillows courtesy of SCA Manny. Manny turned out to be one of the best SCA's I've had. He had 24-7 coffee and 24-7 ice available as well as cranberry juice. He acknowledged the coffee was supposed to be turned off at 10 AM and that the ice left out was against health regulations but he didn't care. He told us he was about serving his customers, rules or no rules. Would it be that more would care about customer service like he does. And he also had ample supplies of water available. Upon learning this, my uncle, after complaining about the lack of water on the eastbound EB, decided that now with no limits on water in our room, he didn't want any. Sometimes traveling with him is much more fun than the trip itself! :lol:

The weather was nice and sunny as we made our way westbound. At Williston, we had a short fresh air break,and the announcement was made to stay by the train and not wander off. Despite that, someone was left behind anyway. And I'm sure they blamed Amtrak. :rolleyes: We didn't have any slow orders or freight interference to speak of so we kept right on time at first. At lunch, where I went with the old standby of the Angus burger, we were seated with a woman on her way to Eugene and a young man who said nothing.

Between Wolf Point and Havre we did begin to run into some slow traffic. Twice we were put onto a siding behind another train to wait for traffic to pass us in the opposite direction, whereupon we had to back out onto the main and proceed. One of those trains we had to wait for was #8. I swear that whenever I'm on a train that meets its sister train going the opposite way, 90% of the time it's our train that has to wait. I'll have to do a comprehensive statistical analysis of this. :p . Between one thing and two others we were nearly an hour late at Havre. Once again the announcement was made that the stop in Havre would be brief and no one was to wander from the train. And that someone had been left behind at Williston. Despite that, I STILL overheard a conversation between a family, all of whom were a few fries short of a Happy Meal, about whether they would have time to go to the local ice cream parlor. The evil me wanted to say "Go for it! You have plenty of time!!". I decided to be halfway nice and say nothing though.

There is plenty of padding between Havre and Shelby so I thought we'd make up a lot of time. No such luck. Around dinnertime, which we shared with a young woman on her way back to Pasco, then to her home near Yakima, a thunderstorm hit, complete with hail and lots of lightning. And high winds. High enough that BNSF put a speed restriction on all traffic on their line. The storm ended about 20 minutes later but the slow speeds didn't. Turns out we were now following freight traffic that had been slowed by the storm too. We eventually left Shelby 1:15 down.

After Shelby, things went smoothly. We gained time throughout our run, and left Whitefish just 45 minutes late. And at West Glacier, I passed a milestone in my Amtrak travels, the 80,000 mile mark. We ended up only 20 minutes late into Spokane.

A good trip overall. I hadn't ridden Amtrak since last August so I was overdue! :p Next up: In 3 1/2 weeks I go to Seattle on the EB for a few days, which will include a bus tour of Mt. Rainier and a Seattle-Vancouver BC roundtrip. Two more items to cross off my bucket list!!!!!
 
I noticed in one of the posts, that you said you've ridden both the Spokane-Seattle and Spokane-Portland branches of the EB. Scenery-wise, which of the 2 branches do you think has more interesting scenery? Never mind I know the eastern part of both branches closer to Spokane travel occurs during nighttime hours, sadly. Was looking at street view of the parts that go near both these Amtrak routes, to get a half-arsed idea of what the scenery will be like. My guess is Spokane-Seattle is a tad more interesting, but Spokane-Portland doesn't look too bad either paralleling the Columbia River.

Just asking, since I was thinking about one of these days doing a USA Rail Pass(15 day/8 segments), and leaning towards(from Chicago) Southwest Chief to LA, Coast Starlight north to Seattle, and then Empire Builder back to Chicago. I know I could do more than 3 trips with the pass, but hadn't decided if I'll do anymore than 3 trips. Since I'd prefer a full day(maybe 2?) in LA and Seattle, to explore those cities. And since for LA, it'd be nice to meet up with my cousin who lives out there.

Was(lol! but I like investigating my options WAAAAY ahead of time) looking at Amtrak's eastern routes too, for a possible round 2 of the USA Rail Pass. But I know for my first pass I want to go west, since I've explored less of that part of the U.S. vs. the eastern part of it.
 
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This is my opinion and my opinion only, but I think the Spokane-Seattle leg has the more interesting scenery, with the Cascades and with traveling along Puget Sound. The view along the Columbia River Gorge is pretty, too, on the Spokane-Portland run, but I like the Seattle run better. Just my personal opinion. :) One other thing to consider is the Seattle-Spokane section has the dining car and the Portland-Spokane section has the Sightseer Lounge, with both sections being joined of course in Spokane.
 
I prefer the Seattle to Spokane route too. Another consideration is that the on board crew on the Seattle to Spokane route are based in Seattle and the on board crew on the Portland section is based in Chicago. My experience is that the SCA's from Seattle and the Dining Crew which is also from Seattle are a more pleasant and customer service oriented crew. In fact on my last trip to Seattle from Chicago on #7 while providing all the coffee, water, etc, he also served orange juice and cookies each day in your room even providing a small table cloth for the pull out table. Sure made and impression on me.
 
In fact on my last trip to Seattle from Chicago on #7 while providing all the coffee, water, etc, he also served orange juice and cookies each day in your room even providing a small table cloth for the pull out table.
Was that Gul? He does that, and in between, he asks if he can do anything to for us.
 
In fact on my last trip to Seattle from Chicago on #7 while providing all the coffee, water, etc, he also served orange juice and cookies each day in your room even providing a small table cloth for the pull out table.
Was that Gul? He does that, and in between, he asks if he can do anything to for us.
I don't remember if it was Gul but here is his photo and also a photo of the "setting": SCA in Chicago and the "setting".
 
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