F
frank
Guest
Hello all,
I just returned yesterday from another jaunt out to the left coast via the Empire Builder from Minneapolis to Everett, my third in the last year.
Great trip. Only a couple of things went wrong. Somewhere in Eastern Montana the air hose directly under my sleeper went "PING!" I heard it loud and clear, and felt the train start to slow. FYI, if an air hose is blown, it automatically sets the air brakes. We drifted to a halt in the middle of antelope country. After a 30 minute stop we started back up only to get another 30 miles down the beige Montana countryside before smacking headlong (utterlong?) into a cow, which seperated the same air hose again. I won't bother mentioning what it seperated from the cow....
I actually have digital pics of the front of the Amtrak engine taken from Havre showing a montage of red and green (blood and grass) that I've decided not to post, so as to save the squeemish from a case of the dry heaves.
Besides that, the only altercation was the *****/School Marm dining car commandant coming down to our sleeper convinced that my wife and I had had two wines. We had not, and finally convinced her that we had initially ordered two wines, but changed the order to a larger split bottle. But from her demeanor, I was convinced that she was going to call security and have us thrown off the train into the Glacier Park wilderness if we didn't prove our innocence.
Ps. Didn't sleep a wink, as I was over the wheels down under both coming and going. Read my trip report from last year to avoid this. It's entitled Empire Builder, or something like that, posted on this board.
Happy trails,
Frank
I just returned yesterday from another jaunt out to the left coast via the Empire Builder from Minneapolis to Everett, my third in the last year.
Great trip. Only a couple of things went wrong. Somewhere in Eastern Montana the air hose directly under my sleeper went "PING!" I heard it loud and clear, and felt the train start to slow. FYI, if an air hose is blown, it automatically sets the air brakes. We drifted to a halt in the middle of antelope country. After a 30 minute stop we started back up only to get another 30 miles down the beige Montana countryside before smacking headlong (utterlong?) into a cow, which seperated the same air hose again. I won't bother mentioning what it seperated from the cow....
I actually have digital pics of the front of the Amtrak engine taken from Havre showing a montage of red and green (blood and grass) that I've decided not to post, so as to save the squeemish from a case of the dry heaves.
Besides that, the only altercation was the *****/School Marm dining car commandant coming down to our sleeper convinced that my wife and I had had two wines. We had not, and finally convinced her that we had initially ordered two wines, but changed the order to a larger split bottle. But from her demeanor, I was convinced that she was going to call security and have us thrown off the train into the Glacier Park wilderness if we didn't prove our innocence.
Ps. Didn't sleep a wink, as I was over the wheels down under both coming and going. Read my trip report from last year to avoid this. It's entitled Empire Builder, or something like that, posted on this board.
Happy trails,
Frank