Part three takes us between Chicago, Illinois and Portland, Oregon
A late morning arrival into Chicago, with more than a four-hour layover before needing to catch our out-bound train, means that lunch is a must. In a food mecha like the Windy City, not having one part of their trifecta of gastronomical wonders would be a crime! Since our Lake Shore Limited had arrived precisely on-time into CUS, we had ample opportunity to walk at a comfortable pace toward the Metropolitan Lounge and settle in for a while. The desk agent was not the most friendly person in the world, but not nasty either as she confirmed our Sleeper tickets for access, and the line was small for the day-check room so we quickly shed our carry-ons into the care of the Red Cap. Our original intent was to utilize a little internet time, but this was not to happen. One of the things Amtrak could do very easily to improve the first class lounge is to lock the WiFi. Change the code daily, and hand it to passengers when they check in at the desk. With the two main coach lounges, A and B, flanking the ML on both sides, and the food court directly above, the huge number of people War Walking off of the WiFi is so bad I could not even load the main startup page for FireFox. And I was not the only one, all you had to do is listen to people in the lounge and you would hear complaints about the internet access repeatedly.
With no luck on the internet front, we headed out on a mission to find deep dish pizza for lunch. The weather could not be nicer for Chicago in early March, cool and windy but perfectly clear with blue skies. We had plans to do a bit of photo-snapping on the way back from lunch, so we saved the Great Hall entrance for last. Heading across the river, we made a bee-line for Giordano's and grabbed one of their famous pies! Fantastic, delicious, and the perfect way to enjoy a few hours in the city! Our meandering route back to CUS afterward had us with two left-over slices in tow, to be enjoyed as an afternoon snack later. But our plans to re-enter the station through the Great Hall and down the staircase made famous by the movie “The Untouchables” were quickly put in jeopardy when uniformed Amtrak police officers were standing next to signs saying the entrances were closed and that passengers would need to walk across Canal Street to use the doors there. Since the officers did not look friendly, we went back in the way we came out and tried the route into the Hall through the underground access instead. The reason those doors outside were closed became quickly evident: Rock Concert. More police officers and an army of security cordoned off that access just beyond the glass sliding doors while workers were putting up lighting and building the stage for a concert that evening. So much for showing Mrs. Blackwolf the magnificent building for her first time through Chicago. On the bright side, it would prove an excuse for traveling through again (as if we needed one!)
With that, we headed back for the Metropolitan Lounge and found two seats beside each other, and I grabbed the day-checked bags then as to avoid the rush after the pre-boarding announcement for a train was made. We sat and people watched, the room steadily filling up for the Texas Eagle/Sunset Limited combined train leaving at 2 PM, our Empire Builder leaving at 2:15, and the California Zephyr leaving at 2:30. The TE boarding came and went, and soon after came the call for tickets to be collected at the front desk for EB passengers. I had barely returned to our seat when we were asked to line up at the ML gate for our train, the doors opened, and the short walk out to our train was made. We met Susan, our Sleeping Car Attendant, at the door to the 2730 sleeper and headed upstairs to Bedroom C to settle in.
Our car was an early-refurb Superliner II, still bearing its name of “Oklahoma” on the end doors. I really liked the named car tradition and really wish Amtrak would get back into the spirit of doing it on all the sleepers and diners. The “A” end of the car was facing backward, which gladly meant the view out the back window was only about five steps away from our room. Fantastic! The train was completely sold-out, and all rooms were full in both our Portland-bound car and in the Seattle-bound car at the front. Because Susan was still down on the platform, confusion about where people's rooms were quickly took foot at the top of the stairs. I stuck my head out to see what was going on, and was nearly pounced on by five passengers asking if I knew how to find their rooms. Crisis averted, I helped them all into their accommodations, helped some first-timers locate the important items in their rooms/roomettes, and generally strike up a few conversations before kindly dismissing myself and heading back to the room to find Mrs. Blackwolf smirking and teasing me. She's taken to calling me a train nut for the rest of the trip. It's my own fault.
Traffic on the platform turned into organized chaos as the coach passengers were released from the doors and flooded out toward the train. Later I noted just how stuffed the coach sections were, nary an empty seat to be found until about 60% of the passengers stepped off the train later that evening in Minneapolis. But the staff did a good job of herding everyone on-board in time to make our departure from CUS on-schedule. So long, Chicago!!
The PA speaker crackled to life about 10 minutes after leaving, and an announcement from Stewart in the diner asked for all sleeper passengers interested in dinner to remain in their rooms and await his arrival to take dinner reservations. When he arrived at our room, his neatly bearded face shone with a smile and he had on the crispest and most tidy Amtrak uniform I have ever seen. We took the last seating of 7:30 due to our heavy lunch, and he was on his way. It was here that the first squeaks and pops made themselves known in the room. Out came the duct tape! The sliding door between us and Room B next door was shored up with a wash cloth wedged between it and the bathroom wall. All was well, and a test of the thermostat proved that it was working perfectly as the room warmed comfortably.
It was not until after Glenview that Susan came by to introduce herself and provide two micro bottles of champagne. She admitted to not working the Empire Builder route very often, and that she as a rotational SCA normally assigned to the Southwest Chief, Lake Shore Limited and California Zephyr. I would end up giving her about a C+ grade for her work, a decent employee who had to deal with large numbers of people in the car asking for in-room dining service. But she was hard to find and most of the time the only way to get her attention was by having to use the room call button and then wait 10 minutes. Little anticipation of passenger needs, everything had to be asked for, including keeping the coffee urn going. Three times in a row, the coffee ran out and she had to be asked by a passenger to remake the pot. It did not help that a few of the coach passengers in the next car knew of the coffee urn and were found helping themselves to it before being chased out by their coach car attendant coming back into the sleeper. We made extra sure to duct-tape our room door shut when we were not in there, and to use the lock when we were for extra security.
Dinner on the first evening was fantastic. Mrs. Blackwolf had a griddle-fried catfish that was absolutely melt-in-your-mouth delicious, while I helped myself to a personal tradition of ordering the Butchers-Cut steak for my first Amtrak meal of a trip. It was cooked perfectly to a medium-rare and served with wild rice and (actually not over-cooked) mixed veggies. Desert was a French pastry puff, filled with custard and iced with chocolate fudge. I tell you, Amtrak food has come a long way in the recent years to become something quite enjoyable! The two of us retreated back to our room for a night cap and turned in for bed just as we were arriving into the Twin Cities.
Rugby, North Dakota greeted us in the morning and we both took to the shower in our room to get ready for the day. We ambled up to the dining car and were sat with a very friendly man who was traveling for his first time on a train with some buddies from St. Paul to Whitefish for a ski vacation. I had the two eggs, over-easy several cups of coffee while Mrs. Blackwolf enjoyed the morning special of biscuits and gravy with a chicken breast and sausage. The man was having the time of his life, and was asking all manner of questions about where Amtrak traveled and what the sleepers were like (he was in coach.) A new Amtrak convert, he was seen later that day in the lounge huddled around an iPad with his traveling partners talking about the desire to go trans-continental on the train one day and see Washington DC. All I can say is Amtrak had better get some additional rolling stock, and soon, because he's not alone as the numbers of people lining up to take the train skyrocket.
North Dakota rolled into Montana, and we took up wildlife spotting on the plains outside our window. White-tail deer, a coyote, a pair of golden eagles, antelope, snow geese and foxes all made their appearances as we headed West. Lunch consisted of red beans and rice with a spicy Cajun sausage for the both of us; very good! We attended the wine and cheese tasting in the afternoon, and ended up winning a bottle of Fourteen-Hands 2010 cabernet sauvignon from Washington State in the trivia. You can bet we took it to dinner with us, and over steak for the both of us (it was that good) we shared the bottle with our two table mates as a good gesture. We ended up staying awake late as we rolled into Glacier National Park just around sunset, and watched as a rather sizable number of people stepped off the train at Essex, Montana to stay at the Issak Walton Inn. One day, I'll be glad to add my name to the guest register there! Sleep found us as we departed West Glacier, and we rolled into the night.
Unfortunately our neighbors next door in Room B were not so kind when Spokane came, and they made a tremendous racket of noise as they grabbed their items to detrain there. The three small children they had added to the event as they angrily protested getting woken up at 2 AM. They disappeared, and soon after the electricity went out as the train lurched. The Seattle section took off down the tracks, the thundering 'GE Chug' of the locomotives echoing off the surrounding buildings as our Portland section was left behind. It would take about 20 minutes for a new locomotive to be backed into place on our newly shortened train, a heavy jolt marking the coupling. Give it another 10 minutes and one could hear the break pipe pressure building, followed by the return of electricity and white noise of the AC system, all punctuated by about 10 staggered flushing sounds of the toilet system as it dealt with the backlog of people's needs while the Head-End power was off. We would sleep another few hours before awakening just before Pasco and tidying up ourselves and the room for our friend who would be joining us there.
Susan was down on the platform with a number of smokers from our car who had missed the opportunity to soothe their habit at Spokane. Both of us joined them all there as our friend, who had never ridden a train in North America, walked out from the station with a grin on her face. I'd arranged for her to have an open ticket through Customer Service and link her reservation with ours. She stepped up into the car, and rode the rest of the way to Portland with us in our room. Our train arrived 23 minutes early into Portland Union Station. We would have another four-plus hour layover, and it would be spent with our friend and her husband (and doberman) walking through the Sunday Farmer's Market, visiting Oregon Leather for some material (both me and Mrs. Blackwolf do leatherworking crafts) and enjoy sushi for lunch before catching #11 Coast Starlight for the final leg into Sacramento.
A late morning arrival into Chicago, with more than a four-hour layover before needing to catch our out-bound train, means that lunch is a must. In a food mecha like the Windy City, not having one part of their trifecta of gastronomical wonders would be a crime! Since our Lake Shore Limited had arrived precisely on-time into CUS, we had ample opportunity to walk at a comfortable pace toward the Metropolitan Lounge and settle in for a while. The desk agent was not the most friendly person in the world, but not nasty either as she confirmed our Sleeper tickets for access, and the line was small for the day-check room so we quickly shed our carry-ons into the care of the Red Cap. Our original intent was to utilize a little internet time, but this was not to happen. One of the things Amtrak could do very easily to improve the first class lounge is to lock the WiFi. Change the code daily, and hand it to passengers when they check in at the desk. With the two main coach lounges, A and B, flanking the ML on both sides, and the food court directly above, the huge number of people War Walking off of the WiFi is so bad I could not even load the main startup page for FireFox. And I was not the only one, all you had to do is listen to people in the lounge and you would hear complaints about the internet access repeatedly.
With no luck on the internet front, we headed out on a mission to find deep dish pizza for lunch. The weather could not be nicer for Chicago in early March, cool and windy but perfectly clear with blue skies. We had plans to do a bit of photo-snapping on the way back from lunch, so we saved the Great Hall entrance for last. Heading across the river, we made a bee-line for Giordano's and grabbed one of their famous pies! Fantastic, delicious, and the perfect way to enjoy a few hours in the city! Our meandering route back to CUS afterward had us with two left-over slices in tow, to be enjoyed as an afternoon snack later. But our plans to re-enter the station through the Great Hall and down the staircase made famous by the movie “The Untouchables” were quickly put in jeopardy when uniformed Amtrak police officers were standing next to signs saying the entrances were closed and that passengers would need to walk across Canal Street to use the doors there. Since the officers did not look friendly, we went back in the way we came out and tried the route into the Hall through the underground access instead. The reason those doors outside were closed became quickly evident: Rock Concert. More police officers and an army of security cordoned off that access just beyond the glass sliding doors while workers were putting up lighting and building the stage for a concert that evening. So much for showing Mrs. Blackwolf the magnificent building for her first time through Chicago. On the bright side, it would prove an excuse for traveling through again (as if we needed one!)
With that, we headed back for the Metropolitan Lounge and found two seats beside each other, and I grabbed the day-checked bags then as to avoid the rush after the pre-boarding announcement for a train was made. We sat and people watched, the room steadily filling up for the Texas Eagle/Sunset Limited combined train leaving at 2 PM, our Empire Builder leaving at 2:15, and the California Zephyr leaving at 2:30. The TE boarding came and went, and soon after came the call for tickets to be collected at the front desk for EB passengers. I had barely returned to our seat when we were asked to line up at the ML gate for our train, the doors opened, and the short walk out to our train was made. We met Susan, our Sleeping Car Attendant, at the door to the 2730 sleeper and headed upstairs to Bedroom C to settle in.
Our car was an early-refurb Superliner II, still bearing its name of “Oklahoma” on the end doors. I really liked the named car tradition and really wish Amtrak would get back into the spirit of doing it on all the sleepers and diners. The “A” end of the car was facing backward, which gladly meant the view out the back window was only about five steps away from our room. Fantastic! The train was completely sold-out, and all rooms were full in both our Portland-bound car and in the Seattle-bound car at the front. Because Susan was still down on the platform, confusion about where people's rooms were quickly took foot at the top of the stairs. I stuck my head out to see what was going on, and was nearly pounced on by five passengers asking if I knew how to find their rooms. Crisis averted, I helped them all into their accommodations, helped some first-timers locate the important items in their rooms/roomettes, and generally strike up a few conversations before kindly dismissing myself and heading back to the room to find Mrs. Blackwolf smirking and teasing me. She's taken to calling me a train nut for the rest of the trip. It's my own fault.
Traffic on the platform turned into organized chaos as the coach passengers were released from the doors and flooded out toward the train. Later I noted just how stuffed the coach sections were, nary an empty seat to be found until about 60% of the passengers stepped off the train later that evening in Minneapolis. But the staff did a good job of herding everyone on-board in time to make our departure from CUS on-schedule. So long, Chicago!!
The PA speaker crackled to life about 10 minutes after leaving, and an announcement from Stewart in the diner asked for all sleeper passengers interested in dinner to remain in their rooms and await his arrival to take dinner reservations. When he arrived at our room, his neatly bearded face shone with a smile and he had on the crispest and most tidy Amtrak uniform I have ever seen. We took the last seating of 7:30 due to our heavy lunch, and he was on his way. It was here that the first squeaks and pops made themselves known in the room. Out came the duct tape! The sliding door between us and Room B next door was shored up with a wash cloth wedged between it and the bathroom wall. All was well, and a test of the thermostat proved that it was working perfectly as the room warmed comfortably.
It was not until after Glenview that Susan came by to introduce herself and provide two micro bottles of champagne. She admitted to not working the Empire Builder route very often, and that she as a rotational SCA normally assigned to the Southwest Chief, Lake Shore Limited and California Zephyr. I would end up giving her about a C+ grade for her work, a decent employee who had to deal with large numbers of people in the car asking for in-room dining service. But she was hard to find and most of the time the only way to get her attention was by having to use the room call button and then wait 10 minutes. Little anticipation of passenger needs, everything had to be asked for, including keeping the coffee urn going. Three times in a row, the coffee ran out and she had to be asked by a passenger to remake the pot. It did not help that a few of the coach passengers in the next car knew of the coffee urn and were found helping themselves to it before being chased out by their coach car attendant coming back into the sleeper. We made extra sure to duct-tape our room door shut when we were not in there, and to use the lock when we were for extra security.
Dinner on the first evening was fantastic. Mrs. Blackwolf had a griddle-fried catfish that was absolutely melt-in-your-mouth delicious, while I helped myself to a personal tradition of ordering the Butchers-Cut steak for my first Amtrak meal of a trip. It was cooked perfectly to a medium-rare and served with wild rice and (actually not over-cooked) mixed veggies. Desert was a French pastry puff, filled with custard and iced with chocolate fudge. I tell you, Amtrak food has come a long way in the recent years to become something quite enjoyable! The two of us retreated back to our room for a night cap and turned in for bed just as we were arriving into the Twin Cities.
Rugby, North Dakota greeted us in the morning and we both took to the shower in our room to get ready for the day. We ambled up to the dining car and were sat with a very friendly man who was traveling for his first time on a train with some buddies from St. Paul to Whitefish for a ski vacation. I had the two eggs, over-easy several cups of coffee while Mrs. Blackwolf enjoyed the morning special of biscuits and gravy with a chicken breast and sausage. The man was having the time of his life, and was asking all manner of questions about where Amtrak traveled and what the sleepers were like (he was in coach.) A new Amtrak convert, he was seen later that day in the lounge huddled around an iPad with his traveling partners talking about the desire to go trans-continental on the train one day and see Washington DC. All I can say is Amtrak had better get some additional rolling stock, and soon, because he's not alone as the numbers of people lining up to take the train skyrocket.
North Dakota rolled into Montana, and we took up wildlife spotting on the plains outside our window. White-tail deer, a coyote, a pair of golden eagles, antelope, snow geese and foxes all made their appearances as we headed West. Lunch consisted of red beans and rice with a spicy Cajun sausage for the both of us; very good! We attended the wine and cheese tasting in the afternoon, and ended up winning a bottle of Fourteen-Hands 2010 cabernet sauvignon from Washington State in the trivia. You can bet we took it to dinner with us, and over steak for the both of us (it was that good) we shared the bottle with our two table mates as a good gesture. We ended up staying awake late as we rolled into Glacier National Park just around sunset, and watched as a rather sizable number of people stepped off the train at Essex, Montana to stay at the Issak Walton Inn. One day, I'll be glad to add my name to the guest register there! Sleep found us as we departed West Glacier, and we rolled into the night.
Unfortunately our neighbors next door in Room B were not so kind when Spokane came, and they made a tremendous racket of noise as they grabbed their items to detrain there. The three small children they had added to the event as they angrily protested getting woken up at 2 AM. They disappeared, and soon after the electricity went out as the train lurched. The Seattle section took off down the tracks, the thundering 'GE Chug' of the locomotives echoing off the surrounding buildings as our Portland section was left behind. It would take about 20 minutes for a new locomotive to be backed into place on our newly shortened train, a heavy jolt marking the coupling. Give it another 10 minutes and one could hear the break pipe pressure building, followed by the return of electricity and white noise of the AC system, all punctuated by about 10 staggered flushing sounds of the toilet system as it dealt with the backlog of people's needs while the Head-End power was off. We would sleep another few hours before awakening just before Pasco and tidying up ourselves and the room for our friend who would be joining us there.
Susan was down on the platform with a number of smokers from our car who had missed the opportunity to soothe their habit at Spokane. Both of us joined them all there as our friend, who had never ridden a train in North America, walked out from the station with a grin on her face. I'd arranged for her to have an open ticket through Customer Service and link her reservation with ours. She stepped up into the car, and rode the rest of the way to Portland with us in our room. Our train arrived 23 minutes early into Portland Union Station. We would have another four-plus hour layover, and it would be spent with our friend and her husband (and doberman) walking through the Sunday Farmer's Market, visiting Oregon Leather for some material (both me and Mrs. Blackwolf do leatherworking crafts) and enjoy sushi for lunch before catching #11 Coast Starlight for the final leg into Sacramento.
