SO the last two portions of this sad tale were about anger and frustration. This last part, however, is where it all comes together.
Now that I had our rail passes, I called the Amtrak reservations number, and reached a representative who very helpfully went through our entire travel plan, made all the reservations, and emailed me a copy of the itinerary. She was pleasant, efficient, and friendly. There was only one snag:
Amtrak lies about its routes.
Specifically, the Sunset Limited, the train joining New Orleans to Jacksonville, Florida is on all of the maps, but it is not running. From what I’ve been able to glean (from Wikipedia, blogs, and newspapers), the track was damaged by hurricane Katrina, which caused Amtrak to stop service on that route. Six months later, when the track was all safely repaired, Amtrak failed to re-initiate travel on that route. Even Congress can’t seem to get them to reopen it (according to an expired article in the LA Daily News, copied on this anti-Amtrak-or-any-government-service site run by Randists).
So to get from New Orleans to Savannah, Georgia, what should have taken on the order of one day would take us three days — because we’d have to go by way of Washington DC. That’s like going from Los Angeles to San Francisco by way of Salt Lake City.
In the end, we made the decision that our Great Train Adventure would not lose its essential “traininess” if we did one stretch by car. So a quick visit to Avis’ web site, and the major transportation planning portion was complete.
At this point, planning came down to finding places to stay. Summon the mighty Internet! My approach was to find an area using Google Maps, and then going through endless linked reviews on TripAdvisor.com, keeping in mind that online reviews often tell you more about the reviewer than the place being reviewed. I tried to avoid chain hotels, opting instead for local institutions, B&Bs, and Mom ‘n’ Pop places.
Over the next few weeks, you’ll be able to read more about these places… stay tuned!
I love trains and riding the rails! There you have it. One true train fan. Some tips to enhance your journey- do not expect to get any where on time. Do expect good food. Do book first class if possible just like euro trains. Do expect the most awesome scenery you can imagine. The best conversations happen on trains. You will hear intimate stories and meet quirky interesting folks. Do expect to see the seedy underbelly of the oldest parts of towns including all of their unrecycled cast off fridges, cars, washers and other misc appliances dumped out of sight. Plus a surprising number of stadiums you’ll pass by. Do take lots of reading mats and music. Do read about the history of the places you rolling through including rail history too. Oh and do expect the toilets, a/c and or the engine to fail! A few best moments: trian robbery reinactment on the Empire Builder in Montana, wine tasting on the Coast Starlight, stunning blackfoot res at the foot of the rockies, Montana and pulling into Chicago, NY, Cleveland, New Orleans, LA, Seattle……….