Trip Report: October 8 - 28, 2000
by Ted & Sylvia Blishak
ONBOARD AMTRAK
WITH TED AND SYLVIA BLISHAK
October 19, 2000: Chicago, Illinois.
The fall colors seem even brighter than they did on our eastbound Capitol Limited trip a few days ago as the sun rises over the Great Plains. Farmhouses, red barns, and fields of dry cornstalks seem to fly past our windows as we speed along at what seems to be Amtrak's maximum speed limit, 79 miles per hour. The Capitol Limited is, even though this is the alleged off season, sold out in the first class section.
We notice that sleeping car Kentucky is on our consist, the same car that was on the California Zephyr on our eastbound trip a few days ago. Since we understand that the Capitol Limited consist, after pausing for a few hours of cleaning and servicing in Chicago, goes on to Los Angeles as the Southwest Chief, this particular sleeper is really getting around the Amtrak system.
The Metropolitan Lounge in Chicago's Union Station is overcrowded. According to reports from our clients, this is not unusual. There are some shelves behind the check-in counter in the lounge, but since many people have access to them, we don't feel comfortable about leaving our belongings there.
You'll want a secure place to store your luggage if you have a lengthy layover in the Windy City. We investigate lockers, which are near the Metropolitan Lounge, but they are not user-friendly. Rather than providing you with a key, the locker directions claim that they will provide you with a retrieval code once you deposit your dollar for the first half hour. Then, when you return a few hours later, you punch your code onto a keypad one keypad serves four different lockers. You will then be advised how many more quarters you must deposit for the door to open. This will be six dollars if you leave your luggage there all day. If this leaves you with an uneasy feeling that you may, even after depositing 28 quarters, never be reunited with your luggage, there is an alternative.
We leave our luggage in Room 341, under the capable jurisdiction of one Mr. F. Muhammed, who assures us that the room will be either manned by him, or locked during his breaks. After our tour of Chicago, Mr. Muhammed delivers them back to the Lounge. I give him a $5 tip, which is graciously received, and end up paying less for personalized service than I would have paid to use a locker.
Travel Tip: Leave your luggage in Room 341, which is an extra baggage storage room for first class passengers adjacent to the Metropolitan Lounge. The Red Cap will give you a baggage receipt and your bags will be secured. Then place your name at the front desk of the Metropolitan Lounge and you will be called when the Red Cap is ready to help you board your train with your baggage.
Now we are free to explore Chicago until the Texas Eagle's scheduled 5:05 PM departure. The weather is mild, with hazy sunshine, as we cross a bridge over the river and head for Sears Tower a couple of blocks away. We do the touristy thing and take the elevator to the top observation deck. Then we walk a few blocks to the Hilton Palmer House, with its extravagant lobby and ornately-decorated high ceiling, and enjoy a gourmet lunch there.
We inspect a couple of other hotels close to Union Station that we have sent clients to but haven't seen before. The Midland is elegant but its restaurant is now closed and it has only a café. The hotel is undergoing a redecoration project in preparation for being re-branded as a W Hotel, a transformation which will be complete in June 2001. Rates will then be in the low $200 range. We also visit the Holiday Inn and Suites, just three blocks from the station. We are sorry to observe that although it is a modern, attractive building, it is in an undesirable neighborhood between the vast post office complex and an expressway, with weeds growing on the sidewalk. Its lobby is tiny and Spartan, and its café advertises a $7.95 buffet on a marquee outside. We will have to find other downtown hotels to recommend, at least until the Midland completes its renovation and reopens as the W Hotel. Meanwhile, the Hilton Palmer House is a safe alternative.
Returning to the Metropolitan Lounge, we settle into the work station but, once hooked up, our laptop won't connect with our email provider, Juno, even though I had connected this same laptop at this same work station just a few days ago. Keeping in touch with our clients by cell phone and email is turning out to be quite a challenge! Across the street from the station is a Kinko's, and there we are able to retrieve email, and print out itineraries of Amtrak trips we've booked for clients while on the road. Kinko's doesn't stock single envelopes (we get one from the Metropolitan Lounge) or stamps (we ask the man at the adjacent work station if he has one he can sell us, and he does).
Ted walks over to the Great Hall of Union Station, which was a quiet respite from the bustling newer part of the station a few days ago on our eastbound trip. He returns to report that all the benches have been removed from this classic, older portion of the station, now a beautiful but empty shell.
When the Texas Eagle boarding is announced, we have only a short hike to our sleeper, the 2130 car. The train is backed into the station, so we walk past the few material handling cars on the rear and find that car 2230 is the adjacent sleeper, on the rear of the train. The car attendant assures us that this car is really 2130, it's just that no one has changed the number yet.
Usually, we have found that sleeping cars ending in zero are adjacent to the dining car. However, we learn that this train is different when our train chief comes through to take dinner reservations. The good news: we get first choice at selecting our preferred time to eat, which is the first seating at 6:30. The bad news: we will have to walk forward through four coaches and the lounge café car to reach the dining car. The other sleeper, car 2120, is adjacent to the dining car.
Our Superliner I bedroom is a little worn, but functional. It is, after all, nineteen years old, and still sporting 1980's orange upholstery and carpeting. The towel rack is gone from the wall by the sink -- as was the one in our Capitol Limited Superliner II bedroom last night. .
Our train chief announces that the lower level of one coach is the only place on the train where smoking is allowed. However, no drinks, no food, and nobody under 18 is allowed in the room, which is lined with hard plastic chairs. You can smoke if you must, but Amtrak doesn't want you to enjoy yourself while doing so.
While we wait to depart, a lengthy Empire Builder arrives on an adjacent track and disgorges a huge crowd of passengers. Some of them are directed to our sleeper, which they board without having to go into the station first.
We depart promptly at 5:05 PM and soon are outside of the city and rolling through a forest of bright fall-colored trees gilded with the golden light of the setting sun. Dinner is called promptly at 6:30 PM. Our dining car crew is fast, friendly, and efficient. We have the prime rib, which is excellent, and find a new dessert on Amtrak, warm pecan pie ala mode, delicious! While dining we enjoy the all-too-rare sight of our train passing all of the traffic on the adjacent interstate highway for mile after mile. The view is hypnotic and we retire early this evening.
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