After a short stay in New Orleans, we are on the road again. This time on the Sunset Limited. I'm posting this at 5:35 AM local time while we sit in San Antonio. Arrived over an hour late but expect to be leaving on time.
Boy did we sleep good last night. We stayed in an Astor Crown Plaza at the corner of Canal and Bourbon Streets. This was right on the edge of the flooded part of New Orleans. The clerk at the desk said they had had sandbags at the front door to keep to keep the water out. We noticed a window at the end of the hall looked like it had been replaces recently and the wallpaper on both sides had been removed about six feet each side of the window. You probably wouldn’t have noticed it if you didn’t know about the hurricane last year. There were a few other minor maintenance items that needed attention but overall, it was a pleasant stay. I thought I had made a bad choice when I first got there. There was a hallway that had drywall up and only painted, not finished and there was a slight musty smell. It turned out that they had some temporary walls up and they were doing some renovations.
We played it safe for breakfast this morning. We ate in the French Quarter. The McDonalds on Canal Street that technically is in the French Quarter since Canal Street is the boundary of that district. We had a little time before we had to head toward the station so we walked about a half mile along Bourbon Street. If you’ve never been there before, lets just say it’s not “G” rated.
Back to the hotel, finish packing everything up and we were off to the station. We arrived a little over an hour early. Didn’t have time to do anything else anyway. Found some seats and sort of got into position to get in line when they started boarding. There was a Subway (as in sub sandwich) in the station so I picked up one of their foot longs for the road. About 25 minutes before the departure time they started boarding passengers.
We were assigned to one of the older coaches. The older ones are just like the newer ones at first glance. The new ones have some electrical outlets at a few of the seats. I looked for them but didn’t find any. Right now I’m sitting in the lower level vestibule on a step stool with the lap top plugged into the only A.C. outlet available to passengers on this coach, charging my batteries and typing. It’s 11:20PM. This train doesn’t have an observation car on this trip. That’s sort of a bummer also. We meet with another train in San Antonio and that train might have one. They sure are nice for watching the scenery go by.
There were three kids in the terminal before we boarded that we hoped would not be riding too close to us. They didn’t know how to behave and the dad and grandparents were not able to control them. One of them didn’t board the train. He was the best behaved of the three. The two girls, probably 5 and 7 years old, ended up in the seat in front of us. Once we got moving they got moving. They were running up and down the aisle, hopping up and down the aisle, playing “elevator” with the sliding door at the end of the coach, pulling on each other. They were rough-housing once while the dad was away and they almost knocked my laptop off the tray table when I told them to behave. The dad must have had some kind of medical condition. He had a box with about a half dozen prescription bottles in it. Frances and I figured they were Valium or something like it to allow him to deal with the kids. He would put the girls in their seats and tell them to behave and a minute later they were back to doing what they had been doing before. They went to the diner for a meal and when they returned the oldest girl was complaining with a belly ache and her head was hurting. I hated to see her get sick but the conductor ended up calling EMS to meet the train in Houston. They took her to the hospital to see a doctor. I don’t think there was anything really wrong with her. She didn’t know how to behave and she was a spoiled brat. Amtrak will let them board the next train and continue their trip but this train only runs three days a week. Their destination is 1200 miles from Houston.
It’s going to be interesting when we reach San Antonio in about 4 hours. The conductor says the train will be full when it leaves that station. There are two “passengers of size” that are riding together but insist on having two seats each. The conductor told them they could either sit together or they would probably have someone else sitting with them at San Antonio.
Smokers seem to always be problems. There were several announcements about the no smoking rule but the smokers just can’t seem to understand. Two girls got caught smoking in the restroom. They got their warning. They were lucky. Some conductors would have put them off at the next stop, or even the next grade crossing. One of the attendants said they usually end up putting a smoker off just about every trip. They’re serious about the rule.
We just had a 30 minute stop while we waited for an east bound freight to meet and pass us. Most of the route is single track with passing tracks every so often. How the passes are handled depends on the host railroad’s dispatcher. Some of them really try to expedite Amtrak and others just don’t’ really care. They handle Amtrak and its passengers just like a freight train full of coal. Then there are the dispatchers that despise Amtrak and put the passenger trains on the bottom of their priority list. The train I’m on is almost always late into LA. We were a bit late for the first few stops we made but we made up some time and actually arrived in Houston early. The attendant in the snack bar area says that the Houston to San Antonio area is where the train usually starts to run into trouble. Since we don’t have any scheduled stops between those stations, it’s hard to measure our progress. That 30 minute stop didn’t help but in a 5 hour run, it should be something that can be made up. We’ll know when we get to San Antonio. I’ve had my scanner on most of the time so I sort of know what’s going on. Coming into Houston we ran into several “approach” signals (yellow lights) and “Stops” (red lights.) When we were within a mile of the station we encountered two “dark” signals, signals with no lights. That carries the most restrictive stop requirement. The engineer has to stop and then get permission from the dispatcher to pass.
Well, my batteries in the laptop are about charged. I think I’ll go back up to my seat and charge my own batteries.
Posted by john at July 11, 2006 06:37 AM