Our Southwest Misadventure

A guest post by my Bride on our trip on the Southwest Chief:

Hail to the (Southwest) Chief!  Not this Chief, though. This is a statue honoring “the Chief “, the long-time mascot of University of Illinois athletics. It stands in a front yard just a couple of blocks from home. Boarded a few minutes late; predicted arrival of Lincoln Service in Chicago 11:28 (12 minutes early)

Actual arrival time for the Lincoln Service was 11:35AM (still a few minutes early). We walked to the Metropolitan Lounge, but the hubby was exhausted by the time we got there. I fetched Chick-fil-A from the food court, and was exhausted myself when I returned. Fortunately, the hubby had fetched sodas for both of us from the pop machine in the Metropolitan Lounge. Just under an hour before we board the Southwest Chief now.

Boarded the Southwest Chief at about 1:05PM, and we were both very tired by the time we reached our car. Our roomettes are catty-corner from each other, so I am sitting in the hubby’s roomette temporarily. No dining car menu in the room, so I will look the supper menu up on my phone.

4:35PM, and we are finally moving- only 3 hours late! Finished reading the JAFF (Jane Austen fan fiction novel) I had downloaded to my Fire tablet; fortunately, I have a bunch of previously downloaded books on there too, and opened an old favorite (Tolkien). We plan to eat supper in our roomettes, but haven’t ordered yet. Working a Kakuro puzzle book in the meantime.

Supper in the room at about 5:30PM, after a 4:30 departure (3 hours late). No desserts, but we weren’t hungry enough to make a fuss. Worked a Kakuro puzzle and crocheted a bit. Probably will go to bed after we cross the Mississippi River.

(Responding to a question about ebooks on my Kindle:) Lord of the Rings was still loaded on the Fire tablet, and I skimmed through the “Concerning Hobbits” section at the beginning.

(Responding to a question about our westbound sleeping car attendant:)Toni. She has worked for Amtrak for 27 years, and is very friendly.

It was about 12:15AM when we were in Kansas City. I was awake then, because I needed to use the bathroom across the hall, and waited until we left KC to do so.

Breakfast shortly after 6:30AM,and all 3 of us (the hubby, a Marine vet from Texas and me) chose the French toast. Pulled into Dodge City, KS not long after returning to our roomettes, and watched the sunrise. Dodge City now looks nothing like the “Dodge City ” on Gunsmoke (filmed on a studio backlot in California).

Our SCA Toni is doing a great job of keeping the coffee pot going in our car. And when I fetched some coffee for the hubby after breakfast, I even saw some cartons of orange juice at the coffee station!
Some misty fog outside as the train heads into Colorado. Not “misty mountains ” like in Middle Earth yet, though. Not making up much time yet, but not losing additional time, either.

Fresh air break in La Junta, CO. Blacktop platform near the station sign. Lots of white boxcars on the other side, mostly graffiti covered. (F.ex., Batman and Courage the Cowardly Dog.) The orange juice I saw at the coffee station earlier is still there. We have lunch reservations for 12 Noon in the dining car. Current estimate for arrival in Albuquerque is about 4:25PM.

Just tried that orange juice- a nice change from coffee or water!

My phone was charging when our lunch reservations were called, so I don’t have a picture of the Loaded Baked Potatoes with Chili we both had, but I was able to take a picture of my Butter Cake dessert when we returned to our roomettes. Current estimate of arrival in Albuquerque is 4:42PM.

Leaving Las Vegas, NM (not the gamblers’ paradise). The Castaneda Hotel is just across the parking lot from the station, and would have been a great place to stay, had we known about it.

(Responding to a concern about open baggage car doors on some runs of the Southwest Chief:)Since we boarded Amtrak at our hometown station, which doesn’t have checked baggage service, all of our stuff was carry-on.

Arrival in Albuquerque was still about 3 hours late. We were able to get the hotel shuttle, although it was not clear where at the station it would pick us up. (Circle drive on N side of Amtrak station, as it happens. ) Homewood Suites is very nice, with a kitchenette with proper plates, glasses and silverware (and dishwasher liquid to wash them with). Ordered Pizza Hut delivery for supper, meeting the delivery driver in the lobby.
Ate the butter cakes from yesterday’s lunch with some coffee in the hotel room. Breakfast was in a room on the second floor (because a restaurant and bar are on the first floor). DIY Breakfast tacos were available; I chose bacon, home fries and oatmeal instead.

We thought a 3 hour delay on the westbound trip was bad. There was a text alert from Amtrak this morning that the eastbound Southwest Chief is delayed 5 hours! I emailed Son #1 this morning, asking him to pick us up at Naperville tomorrow, so we wouldn’t risk missing our connection to the Lincoln Service to get home. (And the hubby wouldn’t mind at all skipping all the walking inside Chicago Union Station!) We will wait until we have boarded the Southwest Chief today to clear that plan with Amtrak, though, as we think that will make things less confusing for Amtrak.

Sitting in the hotel lobby, waiting for the shuttle to the Amtrak station. Another guest has reserved the shuttle, too, but she is going to the airport. Hope to find something lunch-adjacent at the station, because lunch service on the train will surely be over by the time we board.

The front desk ladies saw that we had been waiting for the shuttle for a while, so Claudia the general manager drove us to the station in her own car. She was not as familiar as the shuttle driver with just where the Amtrak part of the Alvarado Transportation Center was, but the short hike from the Rail Runner terminal was nothing compared to some of our hikes at CUS! Lunch was burritos and Hot Pockets from the vending machines. The pop machine only took quarters, so after I got the hubby a Coke, I asked at the Amtrak ticket counter about breaking a $5 bill into quarters. Instead, they gave me 2 cans of pop for free! (The vending machines are owned by Greyhound, so the Amtrak staff felt free to complain about them. )

Train 3 (the westbound SWC) just arrived at 2:10PM, a little early. An Amtrak staffer gave instructions, and said that the train wouldn’t leave until its scheduled departure time in about an hour. Still over 2 hours until the predicted arrival time of Train 4!

At about 8PM, station staff announced that Train 4 was finally moving at its normal speed of 85MPH again. Everyone in the waiting room cheered! Hopefully we can finally board within the hour.  (Some excitement from a crazy woman making an unhinged rant at several Amish families in the waiting room, and a fellow who tethered his dog to a post in the room, leaving the critter unattended.  Both individuals got scolded by station security, and the crazy woman was escorted outside.)

The train finally arrived at about 10:25PM. Coach passengers were boarded first, then we sleeping car passengers were all allowed to proceed to the train without waiting for a SCA to escort us (an SCA escort is the usual practice at ABQ). Got settled in our roomettes by 11PM – a super late bedtime for the hubby and me. The picture is of the platform from the window of my roomette.

Phone recharging during breakfast, so no picture of my omelet- sorry! Wasn’t hungry enough to finish it anyway, despite the vending machine meals yesterday. The coffee, croissant and sausage were good, though. We had some nice conversations with the dining car attendant and a fellow passenger from Albuquerque.
The upstairs toilet in our car wasn’t working, so I checked the downstairs toilets, too, and none of them were working! The passenger in the adjacent Accessible Room told me that the toilets had failed about an hour before Albuquerque. It had been promised that they would be fixed at Albuquerque, but no such luck. So now everyone in Car 430 has to go to another car if they want to use the toilet! (Grrr!)

Just left La Junta CO after breakfast (about 7:30AM). Amtrak app claims approximately 12:15AM arrival in Naperville, and 1:10AM in Chicago. However, our SCA Jared announced a predicted 3AM arrival in Chicago. We will still have Son#1 pick us up in Naperville, though, as we don’t want to spend another night stuck in a train station.

Just leaving Dodge City, KS shortly before Noon. I spent 35 minutes on the phone (mostly on hold) with Amtrak customer service and AGR. Got our connection on the Lincoln Service (which had been changed to tomorrow morning’s Lincoln Service/Missouri River Runner) canceled, and got a total of 1100 AGR points compensation + a credit to our AGR credit card account of the price of the hubby’s Lincoln Service connection. Our current priority is just to get home safely- but should I press Amtrak customer service for any additional compensation?

The first seating for lunch has just been called. We requested lunch in our roomettes, but haven’t received menus yet. Will we end up with the same Amstew coach passengers are being served? (Coach passengers also got scrambled eggs for breakfast this morning. )

Our SCA came to take our lunch order at about 1PM. We would have been happy with Amstew, but the regular lunch menu was still available. The hubby chose a veggie burger, white I went with a patty melt. Loved the grilled onions on the patty melt, but would have preferred a fruit cup or side salad instead of chips. We were not asked about beverages or desserts, and each got a Coke and butter cake. Per the hubby’s suggestion, we are saving the butter cakes for later.
Just left Hutchinson KS at 2PM.

Forgot to show the picture I took of our lunch!

Leaving Newton KS just after 2:35PM. Sounds like this town has a bus link between the Southwest Chief and the Heartland Flyer in Oklahoma City- which could then link with the Texas Eagle in Fort Worth, if one wished to make a “circle tour ” without going to either coast. Not something I would want to do any time soon, though.

Arrived in Topeka KS just after 4:50PM; took off again very quickly. Next fresh air break will be at Kansas City- where they claim the toilets in our car will be fixed. We will be going to supper in half an hour, so we might be done by the time the train reaches Kansas City. The dining car attendant claims the dinner menu is way better than the Amstew we wanted to try; we shall see.

Started supper shortly after the train left Lawrence KS, and finished right after the refueling stop just before Kansas City. The dining car attendant jokingly called it “the Last Supper “. We had a nice chat with a couple who were getting off at Kansas City, and decided not to stick around for dessert after they left. I would have loved to get that blueberry cheesecake to go, though!

Our SCA just announced that the KC mechanical staff were unable to fix the toilets in our sleeping car. I will make a note of this when I contact Amtrak customer relations on Monday.

Just left Fort Madison IA at 10:45PM. Roughly 2 1/2-3 hours until we get to Naperville.

The toilets never did get fixed in our sleeping car, and I will contact Amtrak Customer Relations on Monday in regards to that and the massive delay.
Alerted a conductor and SCA Jared about an hour before Naperville that we wanted to disembark there instead of Chicago, and they gave us a 15-minute heads-up to get downstairs (we stood in the hallway next to the shower room, so we wouldn’t block the stairs). A sizable group of coach passengers also left the train at Naperville. Son #1 was waiting for us in the parking lot, and navigated for the hubby until we got to a junction with I-55 (we had thought he had come up IL Rte. 59 instead). Son #1 then drove us the rest of the way home. Left the train just before 2AM Sunday; got home after 3AM, and were finally in bed by 3:45AM (a time when we often wake up after a normal night). Woke up at 6:15AM (so 2 1/2 hours’ sleep), and had time for breakfast before attending church at 10AM. Fast food for Sunday dinner (enough energy to drive to McDonald’s, but not enough to cook), and frozen pizza for the hubby/TV dinner for me for supper. Might go to bed a bit early tonight to catch up on last night’s lack of sleep.
Loved Albuquerque, but don’t think we’ll repeat the Southwest Chief anytime soon, due to our bad luck with the delays and the broken toilets. At first, the hubby didn’t want to ever ride Amtrak again, but he later softened and was willing to consider shorter journeys on some of the Midwest regional trains (f.ex., the Hiawatha?). We’ll see to what extent Amtrak Customer Relations is willing to offer additional compensation beyond the 1100 AGR points + small credit card refund I got over the phone via 1-800-USA-RAIL yesterday.
The coach passengers got 3 or 4 Amstew meals (+ a couple of scrambled eggs breakfasts), due to the delay. We would have been happy to try Amstew, but were persuaded to stick to the traditional dining menu and save the Amstew for those who couldn’t afford to buy Traditional Dining meals in coach. The hubby asked to prepare an “Amstew”-type meal for supper sometime this week, and here are the ingredients:
I know the Rice-a-Roni is not the same as the brown rice Amstew is typically served over on Amtrak; however, since Amstew is supposed to be an emergency meal using ingredients kept onboard for such situations, I thought a rice mixture already in my kitchen cupboard was a reasonable substitute. The tube-dough crescent rolls are a close-enough dupe for the croissants often served with Traditional Dining breakfasts on Amtrak. I’ll report on how the “Amstew recreation” experiment goes in the “What’s cooking?” thread once it’s prepared.