Second Day Train Trip to San Antonio

 San Antonio

                We woke up disheveled and groggy.  My hair was sticking up in a funny way, and there really wasn’t much to do about it.  We were starving since we missed the pizza last night and only ate nuts and berries. 

                I thought the restrooms were gross on the last train, but the Texas Eagle got points for being even more unclean.  So we bit the bullet and went downstairs and used the facilities.  Carefully.  Without touching anything.  Or smelling anything.  I am sure people wonder why I exit the powder room gasping for breath…..

So we wobbled our way back to the dining car.  This train was really flying, making walking a contact sport.  No one was stirring this early, so we were able to walk right into the diner and get a booth.  After a long time of waiting, a very tall, insolent, middle aged black guy with no name tag came over to wait…..in the loosest sense of the word…… upon us.  I am quite certain that he wasn’t wearing a name tag on purpose.  Amtrak has probably already fielded many complaints about him.  I was thinking that if the staff was going to accommodate everyone on this over crowded train for breakfast, they were going to have to move faster than they were moving.

Looking a Bit Disheveled at Breakfast

  Disclaimer:  I don't care if you are white, black, yellow, green, blue, lesbian, bisexual, gay, fat or thin.  If you are nice to me, I will be nice to you.  The United States has a long way to go in the racism department.  I am going to go out on a limb and say what no other white person is brave enough to say.......I believe the largest ill treatment in the name of racism is black attitude towards white.  On this train, only black riders were given any kind of service or kindness.  I am still very disturbed by how the elderly white people were treated on this train.   Enough said.  On with the story...... 

Natalie, Mike and I were all going to have our usual selection of egg omelet, croissant, and fried potatoes.  However, Harrison doesn’t really like eggs, so he was going to try something different.  The menus are very ambiguous because what they carry on each train could vary from day to day such as the selection of fruit or cereal.  So I began by asking the man if he could tell us what fruit and cereal was available.  He told me to “Shut up that it wasn’t my turn”.  He said that Mike was A (good waiters with manners don’t start with the males in the party) Natalie was B, I was C, and Harrison was D.  Evidently, I wasn’t able to inquire about the menu until it was C’s turn!  Of course, besides his rudeness, I felt it was imperative to help the kids order because they aren’t experienced enough yet to make sure they are getting what they expect.  When it was MY turn to order, I asked him to clarify what would be included in Harrison's order.  Mr. Server replied that it was exactly what was printed on the menu.  He was extremely angry and didn’t want to tell us what kind of cereal or fruit he would be bringing.  Then I asked him to clarify what drinks were included with our menu choices….The top of the menu says:  Your choice of coffee or tea and either milk, orange juice or apple juice.  To me that says 2 beverages.  On the other train, the server said it was a misprint, that there was only supposed to be one beverage, but to be nice they brought us two anyway.   This server is saying that it is exactly as printed on the menu.   “So to clarify,” I said, the menu says that we get 2 beverages.”  Even though he was the one insisting on the menu being exactly as it was printed, he said, “ Whatever.  I am not going to argue with you.”  What???????  Who is arguing?  I am trying to find out what to order!!!!!!  When he walked away, Mike said under his breath, “If I would have known it was going to cause such a problem, I would have picked my own cotton!”  Some readers may find this objectionable, but when you are trapped on a train for 42 hours with a crew of people who think you personally owe them something because of skin color, you might start thinking this way too!

45 minutes later Mr. Server brought everyone in the diner their cold breakfasts that were supposed to be hot.  He made absolutely no effort to be nice or accommodating to anyone in the diner.  There was no way everyone on the train would get breakfast that morning.  Guess who didn't get a tip?  Never in my life have we for any poor grade of service, ever skipped the tip.  Sometimes it is higher and sometimes it is lower, but this is the absolute first time we have skipped tipping completely.  Ever.  Ever.

Back to our seats for sightseeing.  Unfortunately, this is not the train for sightseeing.  There are trees and bushes thickly planted along the tracks on both sides.  All you can see is green speeding by.   We totally missed Arkansas because we were sleeping.  Maybe we will catch it on the way home.  When you stop in Texarkansas, the front of the train is in Texas while the back is in Arkansas. 

Finally the train stopped in Dallas.  The kids and I got off and stood on the platform while I hummed the theme to Dallas.  It was hot and overcast.  Just as the sun came out, the whistle blew for us to reboard the train. 

Time to try for pizza again.  What the heck.  What is to lose?  We really didn’t want to eat in the diner again! We had the number and the train station address for Fort Worth.  We were about 20 min. from Fort Worth as we left Dallas.  Perfect.  Mike called.  Mike ordered.  Mr. Pizza Guy was super nice and reassured Mike that they deliver to the train station all the time and, it totally wouldn’t be a problem.  Mike said that later he could see that the St. Louis train station was not accessible to cars.  You would have to have a ticket to get to the platform.  We were hoping that we wouldn’t have a repeat performance of pizza problems. 

We watched Dallas speed by our windows.

 I noticed a big building that said “Dallas Morning Chronicle”.  We saw lots of malls.  Barb Meyer probably had a blast shopping here when they lived in Dallas.  Suddenly the train started braking….Until it came to a stop….Then the train shut down and got quiet….no motors.  No air conditioning.  Hot blazing Texas sun.  Intercom lady:  We are only stopping for an emergency…….

Oh?  An emergency?  Like what?  A pizza emergency?  The train is on fire?  Someone had a heart attack?  There are squirrels on the tracks?  People were trying to crane their necks to look out the windows.  Funny thing about trains, you can’t really see to the front or the back unless you are on a switch back.  It is sort of like trying to look out an airplane window.  We were in the last seats by the door to the next car.  The doors behind us crashed open and the lady conductor came running through our car and to the stairs where she disappeared……for a while.  Now we were getting hot quickly, the kids in front of us were fighting again, and doing their favorite activity, seat slamming.  I pulled out my new Better Homes and Gardens magazine to take my mind off it. 

Sometime later, Mrs. Conductor came back up the stairs and through our car looking very shaken.  Her white shirt was covered in black lines like she slid on her back through the dirt.  Hmmmm…She soon came on the intercom announcing that there had been a fatality.  The rumors were running rampant.  Some people said that someone jumped from the train.  Some people were saying that someone who was a member of the crew jumped. Oh, could it have been the rude waiter???  Maybe he was pushed.  Someone could see an ambulance at the side of the train.  Someone could see a body with a cloth over it.  At any rate, the train’s power finally came back on, and we got electricity and…….AIR CONDITIONING.   And then began the long, long wait.  For at least 2 hours we sat waiting.  I read my whole magazine while my stomach’s growling went from small grumbles to ravenous roars. 

We really felt trapped, like we couldn’t escape.  Mike was already over the top aggravated with Amtrak on this trip, so the long wait was really wearing.  Oh, and don’t forget…..we just ordered pizza!  Mike called the pizza place back and said that he was so sorry but our train was stopped.  He told them we still wanted the pizza, even if it were cold.  The wonderfully accommodating pizza guy said to just call when we got to Fort Worth.  It wouldn’t be a big deal. 

After a couple of hours, the conductor on the intercom said that we were just waiting for the Crime scene investigators to finish and the medical examiner to release the train.  While we were waiting I told Mike to call his mom to see if she could Google the breaking news at the Dallas Morning Chronicle to try to find out the scoop.  She called back reporting that either an old man fell onto the tracks or committed suicide on the tracks.  We found this to be very upsetting and disturbing.  So sad and unfortunate.  Somehow, this didn’t seem like vacation. 

While we were waiting, two college age boys, who were sitting about two seats ahead of us , came around with Airhead candy and asked if it was OK if they shared some with the kids.  We said that was fine and very thoughtful.  They gave some to the kids in front of us too.  I whispered to our kids to wait and watch the kids in front of us eat it to make sure it wasn’t poisoned.   Just kidding....kind of.....Mike spent the rest of the wait praying for the deceased and watching the helicopters circle over the train.  I finished my magazine.  The kids ate non poisoned candy.  Finally the wheels started rolling again and we were headed on west to Fort Worth. 

Fort Worth….what a lovely place!  We got some food!  The pizza was promptly delivered.  The pizza guy said they knocked off a few dollars because it was cold……seriously!  That wasn’t their fault!  Mike gave it back to the pizza guy with his tip.  Yay Dominoes!  They didn't bring us the pizza that we ordered, but who cares at this point?!!!  We got 2 pizzas thinking we would have a spare, but we were so hungry, we ate them both.  When we finished eating in the observation car, it was announced that the National Parks Service would be giving an audio tour as we watched out the viewing car windows all the way to San Antonio.  I thought this sounded great.  I wanted to do it on the Southwest Chief, but they had discontinued the program. 

This program was joke.  (On the way home, 2 different people from the parks service did an awesome job with this!)They didn’t turn on the microphones so we couldn’t hear the old man who was droning on.  Mike mentioned that no one could hear, and the man said that this is how it was supposed to be.  OK.......   We moved to seats that faced the windows in the hope of better hearing him, but alas, it was a waste of time.  However, Mr. Overalls from Chicago came through the car and saw us and sat down to chat.  He was actually from Attica, IN and got on the train in Crawfordsville.  He was taking the train to his home in Texas because he and his wife, who was already there, were going to move back to IN.  He would be driving his pick up truck home......Lucky him!  I really enjoyed talking to this guy, and we covered a variety of subjects including the fact that he worked at Schilli’s in Remington for a while in the 90’s.  Mike’s mom worked there in the 80’s.  Too funny. 

I swear that I didn't even mention our bad Amtrak service when Mr. Overalls told me that earlier he was going back to his seat in which he had to pass through the dining car to get to his seat. Mr. Server Man with an Attitude was evidently sitting in the dining car with his legs stretched completely across the aisle so no one could pass.  Mr. Overalls said, "Excuse me I would like to return to my car back there."  Mr. Server looked at him and wouldn't move his legs so Mr. Overalls could get through!  Mr. Overalls is over 70.  He isn't very young.  He said he had to lift his legs high and climb over this guy's legs.  He was just fuming thinking about it again.  He said, "He wasn't wearing a name tag.  Boy, if I had his name, I would have reported him."  I am sure that is why Mr. Server wasn't wearing a name tag.  Besides, these Amtrak workers were your typical government employees.  I don't really think anyone would have cared if someone would have complained about the crew.  

As we got closer to San Antonio we stopped at Houston, where another lady took up a conversation with me.  Mike feeling like he had reached his limit had gone back to the seats to try to sleep.  Unfortunately, the children sitting in front of him were going full tilt. However, I was having a great time chit chatting with this lady and her two children.  They got on at Fort Worth and wanted to talk about why the train was so late.  She and her two daughters had taken her college age son to Fort Worth to start an internship. He was nervous about driving to Forth Worth by himself, so this wonderful mother said, "No problem.  We will go with you." They left the car with him and planned to ride the train back to San Antonio.  They were sitting in the sun at the train station for hours before being able to finally board the train.  One of her daughters looked like Gabrielle on High School Musical.  The other was about 8 years old.  They said they never got real seats because the train was so crowded.  They just sat in the viewing car the whole way to San Antonio.  Later she and her oldest daughter were practicing singing church music quietly with their computer.  

I was really dreading the lateness of the hour we would arrive in San Antonio.  We were supposed to arrive at 10:00 PM, but with a 3 hour delay, it would probably be very, very late.  I was still debating whether we could walk to the hotel or need to take a taxi.  I asked Mrs. San Antonio, if she thought it would be walkable.  She said that it might be walkable, but we would probably want to take a taxi. 

When it got dark, it was hard to see if we were coming to a town,  or how far we were from San Antonio.  Mrs. San Antonio had asked the attendant what time we would arrive in San Antonio because of the delay.  She was told 10:00 PM.  We didn’t believe the attendant because 1.  None of the crew had been helpful in the past 42 hours.  2. Ummm….we lost 3 hours between Dallas and Fort Worth.  3.  I watched the time we spent at each station carefully.  We didn’t leave any station ahead of time scheduled.   At about 9:45 Mrs. San Antonio said that she was sure we were driving past the San Antonio airport!  We couldn’t believe it!  How could we have returned to schedule? It had to have been a miracle! We weren’t going that fast!  We said “Good bye” and left them in the viewing car to return to our seats and luggage and husband. 

As we were pulling into San Antonio, Mike called for a taxi.  We decided not to try to walk because it was late, dark, and the area we were pulling into San Antonio wasn’t the best.  In fact, we saw a jail or a homeless shelter that was lit up with people sleeping on the ground inside a fence. The taxi lady on the phone said if the train wasn’t stopped, don’t call her.  And she hung up.  Seriously.  I told Mike we would just wait and see if there were some taxis at the station when we got there.  We started gathering our stuff up.  Natalie put her hat on.  That is when Harrison realized he didn’t have his hat!  He hadn’t had his hat since we made the seat change in Chicago.  We realized he must have left it overhead.  So when everyone got off the train, we looked over all the seats.  No hat.  That must have been the “personal item” that was announced over the intercom back in St. Louis.  Bummer.  HOWEVER, by looking for his hat, he found that he had also lost his camera, and it was still there!  If he wouldn’t have lost his hat, he never would have found the camera.  The hat was better to lose than the camera by far.  Now the kids were even in the hat-loss-game as Natalie’s hat flew off her head on the People Mover at Disney a few years ago!

Down we jumped with our luggage off this terrible train that we were not sad to see leave!  Alas, there were no cabs lined up for the taking at the station.  We were debating whether to call the rude Yellow Cab lady again or just try to walk…….When an old model, rusty van pulled up to the curb.  Mrs. San Antonio jumped out and asked if we had found a taxi.  I told her, “No, we are just trying to decide what to do.”  She told me that her husband was here in the van, and it wouldn’t be comfortable, but she thought we could all squeeze in, and they could drop us at our hotel.  We already let our kids take candy from strangers today!  Why not get in a van with strangers too?!  What do you think we did? I knew what I wanted to do….I was so ready to jump in that van with strangers!  I looked at Mike, and he said, “Sounds good to me!”  So we all squeezed into the van and they helped us find our hotel.  It was our best experience in two days.  They were so nice.  I wanted to pay her, but my money was in the luggage in the cargo hold.  Mrs. San Antonio insisted that they wouldn’t take a penny anyway.  I wish so much now that I had her name and address to send them a gift card or something in the mail.  Alas, we didn’t even exchange names.  They waited until the front desk let us into the locked door, then they were gone into the night.  The Drury Hotel….At last!

Will our vacation improve?  Stay tuned!