Train Travel

Judy's trip sounds like a lot of fun to me and quite an adventure. About seventeen years ago Dad & Dorothy took a train ride from California to my house in Pennsylvania. They had come out for Wade & Nancy's wedding. It was so nice to have them here to celebrate with us.

Yesterday Judy emailed me and told me about their up coming trip. I am sure she won't mind my sharing it with you. I had asked her about the different accommodations on the train.
As far as our train accommodations, Monique didn’t want to ride in coach. She wanted to have a roomette the whole way. Roomettes are very small. You know how wide a train is. There are two roomettes on each side of the train with a narrow passageway down the middle of them. You can’t stand up in a roomette. It is just two seats that can fold down into a bed. Above that area is a fold down bunk. That way two people can sleep in a roomette. It is not easy to get up into the upper bunk. Ginger slept up there last time, although I did take a nap up there. She helped me up and down. There wasn’t much room up there. Monique will probably have to sleep up there. The roomettes are a private place to be and you can close the door. The bathroom is down the hall. Cindy and Monique shouldn’t need to do any sleeping between Saint Paul and Chicago in their roomette. When we all arrive in Chicago, we will all be together for awhile because of the layover. Because we all have a roomette or a bedroom, we get to wait in a really nice waiting area in Chicago. Snacks and all are provided and the seating is very comfortable. It is a very nice area away from the craziness of the train station. You can also check in your luggage in that area for free, if you want to venture out into the city. That is what we did last time.
All meals are covered if you have a roomette or a bedroom. And the meals are wonderful, with a menu and all. It is like eating at a nice restaurant. You meet a lot of nice people, because four sit at one table. They have you make restaurant reservations, so it is all very well organized and not over crowded. Ginger and I always chose the earliest times to go eat. From Chicago to Pittsburgh it is late. So it isn’t really a good time to be eating. I think there is a late meal on it, but Ginger and I don’t like eating that late at night. They will probably be serving around eight o’clock. Ginger and I just want to take it easy and sleep on that part of the trip. The lights are turned off in the coach area at that time. There are personal lights if you want them. We are bringing snacks if we want to eat anytime on our trip.
Our trip from Texas to Chicago is a 24 hour trip. There will be a lot of meals served during that time. All of them are included in our price. We chose the bedroom this time, because the bedroom is at least twice as big as the roomette. The narrow passageway is on one side of the train and most of the rest of the train is the bedroom. We will be able to stand up and move around. There is a bathroom, shower and sink. There are enough beds for 3 adults. The stewards treat you like royalty in either the bedrooms or roomettes. There is a button you can push and they come right away. They make up your beds and bring you what ever you want. If you don’t want to go to the restaurant, they will serve you the meal in your room, but Ginger and I like going to the restaurant. We have freedom to go from car to car. Sometimes we sit in the observation car. That is the car that is all windows. There are tables in that room too, if you want to play games or anything. A fun part of our vacation is that 24 hour trip up to Chicago.

We have some fun things planned for while they are here and will try to share some of it with the rest of you. LaDonna