Catching the Lakeshore Limited
Everyone was in their bunks by 8:30 this evening. Once it gets dark outside, there isn't a whole lot to see out the windows of the train. I think everyone is a bit worn out too. Anyway, I am still awake attempting to edit some photos and type this blog entry as the train rocks and lurches down the rails at about 80 miles per hour (according to my GPS). Let me tell you, editing photos and typing is no easy task under these conditions so I wouldn't be surprised to find a few typos in this blog entry when I check it at our next destination. While I'm still up in my lower bunk, I'll get this next blog entry published and linked to Facebook.
Early this afternoon, we checked out of our hotel and walked the couple of blocks to the train station so we could catch The Lakeshore Limited. This train will take us on our second leg from Springfield, Massachusetts to Chicago.
Our walk to the newly renovated Union Station was nice in what could only be considered spring-like weather to these four snowbound Vermonters. Our months-long frozen bones were just beginning to thaw on this short walk. It was sunny and in the 40s so our walk was surprisingly pleasant.
We bought some lunch at Subway once we arrived at the station. We had about two hours to kill before our train would arrive. There really weren't any good places to eat in this section of town so we were settled for Subway at the station.
Our train, The Lakeshore Limited, actually arrived about 20 minutes early so that was a nice surprise. Our attendant was waiting for us at the door to our car. She had already put our names on the doors to our roomettes so it made finding our roomette easy. We quickly realized that the corridor in this car is a bit narrow. This train is a Viewliner which happens to be noticeably smaller than the sleeper cars on our last cross-country journey in a Superliner. Nevertheless, these roomettes are far more comfortable than Coach seats.
The view out our private window...
Will and Sue's roomette is right across the narrow hallway from our roomette....
We had a very short stop in Albany, NY where we connected our train to a train coming up from Penn Station in Manhattan. We became one train for the remainder of the journey to Chicago. Albany has a pretty nice and fairly new station...
Before long, we were again moving along at upwards of 80 mph and enjoying the sunny scenery through a snowy landscape...
By now, we were all quite hungry and looking forward to wandering to the dining car. We had to walk through car after car... seven cars forward... through doorway after doorway... and, as we passed through doorway after doorway, I could hear the theme song from "Get Smart" playing in my amusing head. Here, Sheila is checking the menu online before the dining car opened for dinner service....
I have to say that the dining experience on this train is a bit of a disappointment. The dining car itself is beautiful but the food is a standard frozen meal ridiculously served as a box meal. The table is quickly cluttered with wasted boxes and plastic wraps. It was edible but that was about all the good I can find in this meal. It reminded me of boxed meals in the Air Force... nothing to write home about. The most memorable thing about this meal is all the wrappings and boxes cluttering our table. Also, the menu choices were extremely limited...
The dining car is actually beautiful. Here is a shot into the kitchen which is staffed by only one Amtrak employee. A large, beautiful stainless steel kitchen and all we have is one guy using a microwave. Who is the knucklehead at Amtrak who made this boneheaded decision? He should lose his job.
At least our boxed frozen dinner came with a halfway decent brownie. This photo is actually for Kenzie... We were all thinking of her and talking about her as we ate our brownies...
So far, our trip has been enjoyable and relaxing. As for me, I always find it difficult to sleep on the train because I'm afraid I'm going to miss something. I really should get some sleep though...
Early this afternoon, we checked out of our hotel and walked the couple of blocks to the train station so we could catch The Lakeshore Limited. This train will take us on our second leg from Springfield, Massachusetts to Chicago.
Our walk to the newly renovated Union Station was nice in what could only be considered spring-like weather to these four snowbound Vermonters. Our months-long frozen bones were just beginning to thaw on this short walk. It was sunny and in the 40s so our walk was surprisingly pleasant.
We bought some lunch at Subway once we arrived at the station. We had about two hours to kill before our train would arrive. There really weren't any good places to eat in this section of town so we were settled for Subway at the station.
Our train, The Lakeshore Limited, actually arrived about 20 minutes early so that was a nice surprise. Our attendant was waiting for us at the door to our car. She had already put our names on the doors to our roomettes so it made finding our roomette easy. We quickly realized that the corridor in this car is a bit narrow. This train is a Viewliner which happens to be noticeably smaller than the sleeper cars on our last cross-country journey in a Superliner. Nevertheless, these roomettes are far more comfortable than Coach seats.
The view out our private window...
Will and Sue's roomette is right across the narrow hallway from our roomette....
We had a very short stop in Albany, NY where we connected our train to a train coming up from Penn Station in Manhattan. We became one train for the remainder of the journey to Chicago. Albany has a pretty nice and fairly new station...
Before long, we were again moving along at upwards of 80 mph and enjoying the sunny scenery through a snowy landscape...
By now, we were all quite hungry and looking forward to wandering to the dining car. We had to walk through car after car... seven cars forward... through doorway after doorway... and, as we passed through doorway after doorway, I could hear the theme song from "Get Smart" playing in my amusing head. Here, Sheila is checking the menu online before the dining car opened for dinner service....
I have to say that the dining experience on this train is a bit of a disappointment. The dining car itself is beautiful but the food is a standard frozen meal ridiculously served as a box meal. The table is quickly cluttered with wasted boxes and plastic wraps. It was edible but that was about all the good I can find in this meal. It reminded me of boxed meals in the Air Force... nothing to write home about. The most memorable thing about this meal is all the wrappings and boxes cluttering our table. Also, the menu choices were extremely limited...
The dining car is actually beautiful. Here is a shot into the kitchen which is staffed by only one Amtrak employee. A large, beautiful stainless steel kitchen and all we have is one guy using a microwave. Who is the knucklehead at Amtrak who made this boneheaded decision? He should lose his job.
At least our boxed frozen dinner came with a halfway decent brownie. This photo is actually for Kenzie... We were all thinking of her and talking about her as we ate our brownies...
So far, our trip has been enjoyable and relaxing. As for me, I always find it difficult to sleep on the train because I'm afraid I'm going to miss something. I really should get some sleep though...
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