Towards the end of August, I took a major vacation on Amtrak, to visit my twenty-something son in Houston.
My Amtrak adventure from Tucson to Houston began with a Greyhound ride from my current home city of Mesa, Arizona down to Tucson. I spent a night in a Super 8 motel off Interstate 10 south of downtown. I ordered some eegee’s food from DoorDash for dinner.
The breakfast there was OK but not perfect. After that, I took a taxi to the Amtrak station.
The train was 90 minutes late coming into Tucson and pretty much never made up the time the rest of the way.
I shot some cell phone video of the waiting room and outside area. I went to the on-site bistro, Maynard’s, for lemonade (https://joetea.com/product/lemonade/)
Once the train pulled in, I was seated in the lower level coach section. There were not very many other passengers and I had an entire seat to myself the entire time. I was able to have a window seat, on the left side, and had my MacBook next to me on the seat on the right. I was not impressed with the cleanliness of coach car; I wish Amtrak would spend more time and money and do a more thorough job of cleaning the Superliner cars. These cars have now been in service 30 years if not a little longer. Yes, they get renovated from time to time and have “good bones” but they do need the time and attention it takes to sparkle and shine.
I went to the dining car for my meals (lunch (Angus burger) and dinner (salmon) Monday; breakfast (eggs/croissant + fruit/cheese plate) Tuesday). The food was OK, a step up from what I would have had in the cafe lounge, but certainly not of the caliber of one of the major hotels or resorts in the Phoenix area. I had very pleasant and friendly conversations with the people I sat with. Dining car food is VERY expensive, relative to the lounge car.
I followed the entire trip by constantly looking at the state travel maps I downloaded from state websites. By noticing the bends and changes in the road relative to the tracks, and by noticing signs on I-10 and other city signs, I was, for the most part able to know exactly where I was during the trip. The scenery of the desert and rugged, mountain/hill areas of southeastern Arizona, southern New Mexico and west Texas is incredible, somewhat breathtaking, wide, vast, and beautiful. Others regard it as boring. To each his own, I always say.
I was actually able to sleep quite well in the lower level coach. It’s significantly quieter than the upper level. I enthusiastically recommend trying it the next time you are traveling via Amtrak Superliner.
The on-board services attendant, a young lady, was pleasant enough but we did not see a lot of her. She checked in with the lower level passengers two, maybe three times the entire trip. At El Paso and San Antonio, the train received new sets of conductors. About an hour before arriving in Houston, the attendant made a PA announcement admonishing passengers not to smoke in the restrooms, or else be removed from the train, and to keep the restrooms clean.
Because I was ticketed on the through Sunset Limited, I remained in my seat the entire time the train was in San Antonio.
The train was two hours late out of San Antonio, and I was frustrated as my Blackberry cell phone found no AT&T 4G service in San Antonio. Almost everywhere in Texas, even in some of the most remote areas in the Big Bend region, the phone automatically found the AT&T 4G network just fine.
The train arrived in Houston around 2pm, almost three hours late.
I rented a vehicle from Avis, and was given a white Nissan Versa which was OK.
I spent the week in Houston at the Extended Stay America hotel in the Westchase district. The accommodations were OK but the air conditioning didn’t “dry out” the horribly humid Houston air sufficiently, and the Wi-fi service was spotty, dropping in and out every few minutes.
For a couple of days I visited with my son Noah in Pearland, a southern suburb of Houston where he is currently living.
I lived in Houston from 2010 to 2012; it was nice driving the same streets, eating in the same restaurants and shopping in the same stores I did when I was a resident there.
About five days prior to my return, I upgraded my accommodations to a roomette, via the “modify my trip” function on the Amtrak website.
On the return date, I dropped off my larger duffel bag at the Amtrak Houston station for a charge of $10. I then returned my rental car and proceeded to hang out in downtown Houston. I had lunch at the Wendy’s location in the basement of the CenterPoint Energy Tower in the downtown tunnel. This was a place I would have lunch at least a couple of times a week when I worked at the Houston Chronicle. I then walked for a bit through the tunnel and spent a couple of hours at the main Houston Public Library next to City Hall. After that, I went to the Chick-Fil-A at the Shops at Houston Center for a frozen lemonade.
Then, I rode the Green Line of Metrorail to Magnolia Transit Center and back. (During my first month or so in Houston I stayed in a small room in a house in one of the neighborhoods off Harrisburg Road.)
By this time it was after 3pm and starting to rain. I went back to the Amtrak station, got my bag and waited the rest of the afternoon for the train to arrive.
When the train came, the conductor scanned my ticket and I boarded the sleeper car. The roomette was much smaller than I anticipated. The roomette has two wide seats at each end which fold together into a bed. I had dinner in the dining car and had a pleasant and interesting conversation with the two other gentlemen seated with me. I had the vegetarian pasta, which was OK, but I would have enjoyed it more if there was some sort of cheese to sprinkle on it.
By and by the sleeping car attendant converted my seats into a bed, and I settled in to sleep. When the roomette is converted for nighttime use, the bed portion takes up almost all the space, so you will be either seated or laying on the bed.
The train was rocking and bouncing quite heavily through the night, but somehow I did manage about five or so hours of sleep. I woke up to the train being stopped in San Antonio, at which point I thought it would be a great idea to take my shower. On the sleeper cars, there is a full shower downstairs in the lower level; this is only for passengers with sleeping accommodations. The actual shower room is small and difficult to move around in, but I managed. The water was quite cold but I was able to take a fairly decent and comprehensive shower. I had to work quickly. There were plenty of clean towels and washcloths available on the shelf inside for people to use, as well as small bars of soap. Afterwards, I went into one of the restrooms immediately next to the shower room to shave.
After this, I went back to bed for another couple of hours. I woke up about 5:30 am and began to prepare for breakfast. At 6:30 I had breakfast in the dining car. There was a retired couple from Arkansas seated with me and we had a pleasant conversation. I had the scrambled egg breakfast with fried potatoes and a croissant, with orange juice.
I took a lot of video from my window of the scenery of southwest Texas. This is a picture of the town square of Alpine, Texas:
Lunch was brought to my seat; I had the Angus burger with Sierra Mist and cheesecake for dessert.
The train slowly made up time as we proceeded into and past El Paso.
The sun slowly set as we made our way through New Mexico and into Arizona. By the time the train reached Tucson, it was dark.
I spent the next two nights in the Best Western Royal Sun hotel just north of downtown Tucson. The room was quite nice and relaxing. I then took Greyhound back to Mesa.
