The thing about Amtrak is that you rarely make up time. In fact it's just the opposite. Once you are out of the pocket, schedule wise, everything gets more and more kerfuffled.

Since, in the west, the freight companies own the lines they are not to going to let Amtrak through first if there is a tie at a railroad choke point. No, they are gunna let the 100 car oil tanker train through first. This is America. We need our oil! So basically, once you are late you usually fall further and further behind.

Still, in the end what does it matter? I don't take Amtrak to arrive at my destination on time, I take Amtrak to see the country at 30 miles an hour. And that is exactly what I did for a good part of the time, or at least it seemed that way. And most of the time it was beautiful outside.

I don't know if I ever mentioned that Amtrak has "community seating" in their dining car? Community Seating means they stick you with people you don't know and you all just hope you can find something to talk about. It can be rather painful if you get bad seat mates, but most of the time you don't. This trip was no exception. Not a bum in the lot. I even sat with a few people twice.

One of the more interesting seat assignments was with a Japaneses family. The parents and little girl were from Japan but on a three year assignment in Chicago for a company the father worked for. It was their first time in The West.

We sat down to eat right after Grand Junction, Colorado, which is pretty much the start of the desert that lasts all the way to Reno. They were amazed at the vast empty landscape. This really is a big country.

Of the three the little girl spoke the best English, but I guess that is not surprising. I'm not sure why I mentioned that? But now you know whether you want to or not.

My second night on the train was much better than the first. I actually slept most of the night.

Heart

2

Comment

0

Link

Log in to comment or reply

Heart

2

Comment

0

Link

Log in to comment or reply