Empire Builder Train Trip Thanksgiving

[WmZiggy]

Just before Thanksgiving I mentioned that the wife and I were taking the Empire Builder east to Grand Rapids, MI to join our son and daughter-in-law. Several people wanted to hear about that, so here goes.

We took the train on Thanksgiving day, since our daughter-in-law had to work on Thursday. It was a good day to travel and tickets were cheaper. We usually get a first class sleeper, which includes your meals making it a good deal in our opinion. The meals are in a dining car - white tablecloth, flowers, and real china and silverware. The meals are cooked to order and are good, but expensive if you are traveling in coach class. Coming home after boarding in Chicago I had their steak which lists for about $29; it was excellent. Dinner is served by reservation, which staff take when you board. One part of the dining experience that we enjoy is being seated, usually, with another couple at tables that seat four; this an old railroad tradition. We have had great experiences visiting with our table guests over the years.

For the first time since 2009 when we started taking the Empire Builder it was late getting into Fargo and coming home - 5 hours late both ways. You can call "Julie" on your cell phone and learn where the train is at, so leaving Fargo we didn't have to "cool our heals" at the station. Likewise coming home after boarding in Chicago and during the nite, it lost 5 hours. This didn't bother us as we didn't have to be on time anywhere, but it bothers some folks as you can imagine. At breakfast coming home one women seated at our table was really irritated. She swore she would never take the train again. I told her she was lucky taking the train as the cold snap going on had the airlines in many locations back-up for days. And the snow on the road was creating all sorts of accidents in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota. This did not ease her mood and I recognized it as a part of our cultural disease - "I want it now and I want it to be perfect!"

When I was working and flying all the time I remember a young man sitting next to me who was told to shut his phone off after the pilot told us we'd be late landing. He muttered something about it all being "bullshit". I wanted to say something about the miracle of flight, sitting in a chair 5 miles high going 500 mph, and phones that beam up to a satellite and back to a loved one in a blink of an eye...it's miraculous! But no one is happy. I digress.

I learned from our car attendant that the Empire Builder had been running late since Congress cut funds to pay BNSF so Amtrak would have priority over it's freight trains. Given the freight traffic in oil, gas, and ethanol along the route (it's up), Amtrak is now running consistently late. I don't know if this will get fixed or not. My hunch, since our federal government is broke, is that it won't be improving any time soon.

Chicago is the hub for all that trains that cross the US and in Chicago we transferred to the Wolverine, which runs to and from Detroit. We got on and off at Kalamazoo, MI where our kids picked us up. I was really impressed with the Kalamazoo train station, a nicely renovated turn-of-century building. On our way home after we got into Chicago Union Station at about 11:00 AM we checked our bags in the first class lounge (which has a warm fireplace, comfortable chairs and tables, flat screens, and free drinks and snacks as well as staff to help you with your trip) and caught a taxi to Macy's, the old Marshall Fields downtown. We have a tradition of eating lunch there during the holidays, and it was as good as ever. A little Christmas shopping and then a cab back to Union Station where we caught the 2:15 Empire Builder home. Somewhere between Chicago and Fargo we lost 5 hours, but I was asleep in my bed and never heard a thing (I don't think it was the lost time UFO abductees talk about!).

All-in-all, we had a great 10 days, to include a visit to Woodcraft of Grand Rapids where I purchased (with my wife's blessing) A WoodRiver #92 Medium Shoulder Plane (which is on sale for $119.99, marked down $30.00.
http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/202117 ... Plane.aspx) as well as WoodRiver Side Rabbet Plane.

[dusty]

Just before Thanksgiving I mentioned that the wife and I were taking the Empire Builder east to Grand Rapids, MI to join our son and daughter-in-law. Several people wanted to hear about that, so here goes.

We took the train on Thanksgiving day, since our daughter-in-law had to work on Thursday. It was a good day to travel and tickets were cheaper. We usually get a first class sleeper, which includes your meals making it a good deal in our opinion. The meals are in a dining car - white tablecloth, flowers, and real china and silverware. The meals are cooked to order and are good, but expensive if you are traveling in coach class. Coming home after boarding in Chicago I had their steak which lists for about $29]http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/202117 ... Plane.aspx[/URL]) as well as WoodRiver Side Rabbet Plane.

This train trip that you took and your discussion do bring back memories. My father used to work for the Northern Pacific Railroad out of Billings, MT. He was the Station Master when I graduated from high school.

I road the Empire Builder may times including the day my wife and I got married. We road the train out of Billings, headed for Mississippi via Chicago and then ultimately to Biloxi, Mississippi. That was our honey moon. The high light was being treated like VIPs by the dinner staff and the conductors throughout that trip. My dad had made those arrangements without us knowing. First evening, the conductor came through the train calling out our name. When he located us, we were escorted to the dining car and treated like royalty.

[charlese]

Nice memories indeed. Although I never took the Great Northern route, I fondly remember the several trips from Missoula, MT to Chicago (and return) on the Milkaukee Road. Same joyful trips! Very nice meals! The most memorable was one from Missoula to Chicago in Mid December. Normal time was 36 hours. This one took 40 or 42.

The problem was snow drifts and required us to stop while plows could clear the tracks. As I remember the longest stop was in North Dakota - probably Minot. Anyway, the train had to stock up on more food, and the locals must have had a hard time to deliver it.

We sat and watched the snow fall and blow for over 4 hours. No one cared as we were all warm and cozy and safe inside the coaches. In those days, 1951 there was little need fret about missing an appointed time.

This was also a beautiful trip as snow cover was solid over the 1500 mile trip. A regular winter wonderland.

[Ed in Tampa]

What was the fare for the trip? It sounds wonderful.

I have the urge for travel by train from Florida to New Orleans then north to Chicago, then west to San Fran then south to LA and east to New Orleans going north again to Chicago and then east to NY and then south to Florida.

I'm old the trip up or down the Mississippi has terrific scenery as does both the north and south routes west.

[fredsheldon]

Fargo is my favorite movie. I've seen it at least 5 times, the last being just a few weeks ago. Do they really talk like that up there I remember my only train trip from Harlingen, Texas to Chicago and back in the 50's when I was a kid. Fond memories.

[WmZiggy]

You betcha, ya sure!

In 1996 when I and my family were in London Fargo was the city's hit. Everywhere one traveled on the "Tube" at station stops the advertisements painted on the walls read: FARGO - SMALL CITY, BIG CRIME, DEAD COLD - A HUMOROUS MURDER MYSTERY. Well, we relished the celebrity, but it didn't really hit us until we finished a walking tour of Jack the Ripper sites. The tour concluded in the Ten Bells Pub in Whitechapel, a Pub that dated from the 1780s and was thought to be one place Jack scouted out his victims. When I went to the bar to place our order the bartender asked me where I was from. When I said "Fargo" I thought he was going to loose it. He said he would bring our drinks to our table. When he got there and sat down he asked the same question: "Does everyone talk like that?" My wife repeated my opening line, "You betcha, ya sure!" He was amazed, then had a good laugh. He wanted to know about snow and open spaces. His dream - and I mean the dream he lived for - was to come to the Dakotas and be a cowboy on the open plains. Like so many other city dwellers, he craved freedom.

Yes, some people talk like people in the movie. Yes too, people are open, trusting (till you prove otherwise), friendly, and don't often lock their doors. Some people took umbridge at the movie. Most laughed and enjoyed the humor.

[Ed in Tampa]

still no mention of price???

[WmZiggy]

http://www.amtrak.com - you can use their page to work up prices. The wife pays our bills and she didn't have it at her fingertips. We also had two legs - Fargo to Chicago on the Empire Builder, then Chicago to Kalamazoo and return.

[WmZiggy]

Wife said about $400 per person sleeper Fgo to Chi. You can get a Sr. citizen discount, military or AAA.

[Ed in Tampa]

Wife said about $400 per person sleeper Fgo to Chi. You can get a Sr. citizen discount, military or AAA.

sounds like a deal compared to airline. And you probably didn't have to experience a body cavity search.