Seven Cities, Six Ballgames, Three Weeks.
And so I have returned from brief visits to Seattle, Minneapolis, Boston, Baltimore, New Orleans and Los Angeles . . . from which I bring the following reports and impressions.
Seattle is a wonderful city. I can’t point to anything specific, but there’s a good feeling about the place. Of course, there’s the rain . . .
I saw two baseball games in Minneapolis (Red Sox losers in both) and when I left the hotel and asked the bellman to call a taxi to take me to the train station, he said, “There are no taxis anymore”. It seems Uber has put the taxi cabs out of business in Minneapolis.
I saw two games in Boston and the Red Sox won both. I had a seat on the Green Monster for the first game and Connor Wong, infielder/catcher for the Red Sox, hit a monster home run high over the wall where I was sitting and completely out of the ballpark.
I went from Boston to New York and took Amtrak’s Silver Star to Florida and a nice almost-three-day visit with my sister in Mount Dora. Then back to Baltimore for two games (both Red Sox wins).
A day later I boarded Amtrak’s New York-to-New-Orleans train, the Crescent, which is notoriously late, but on this occasion was miraculously on time.
Four words are an adequate description of the food served on the eastern overnight trains: frozen, microwaved, served, awful.
It was in New Orleans that word came of the pending strike against the freight railroads. Within minutes, Amtrak cancelled my return to the West Coast on the Sunset Limited. That meant one extra day in New Orleans and another in L.A. and, thanks to a prompt refund from Amtrak, a flight from New Orleans to L.A and after a day on the West Coast, another flight non-stop to Maui.
Curious incidents: there was no telephone in my hotel room in New Orleans, so for a wake-up call, they had to send someone up from the front desk to knock on my door. The phone in my hotel room at the L.A. airport didn’t work, so for a wake-up call, they had to send someone from the front desk to knock on my door.
Jim,
I don’t recall seeing anything regarding that midnight roomette change in Spokane. How did that work out?
I sat up until we got to Spokane. A conductor came and got me and together we walked almost the entire length of the train to the Portland sleeper—something like seven cars. Fortunately, the conductor carried my bag. I did say that it would have been a lot easier if the people boarding there in Spokane were put into the roomette that I was now headed for . . . to which the conductor said, “You’re preaching to the choir, pal.”
Thanks for reminding me of that. One more quirky little incident for the amusement of all those who didn’t have to make that seven-car hike at 12:30 in the morning.
God, what a mess – Amtrak food, cancellations, and no room phone. Sorry to read about this. Currently in Italy, and I took the high speed train Frecciarossa from Milan to Naples. I spurged on executive class and it was great, good lunch, space to stretch out, train (only) 10 mins late. Top speed was 299 km/hr, very smooth ride. Easy use the restroom (Amtrak you hafta be careful when you pee). The windows were clean, too, so I could take in the countryside. Reminded me on a trip from CHI to FUL on the SWC, I had a clean window until ABQ when some doofus washed my window with brown water. Why can’t we do things right here?
You just had to mention that Italian train, didn’t you! Sadist!
Re; Brown water in Albuquerque: Been there, done that.
I had trouble booking a taxi from my cell phone on a recent holiday and went down to reception and asked her to ring for me. While happy to do so, she told me I could have used the phone in my room. I had not even noticed there was a phone in the room, let alone that it had a button for calling the local taxi.
I rarely use taxis. That occasion was that the train was departing (2 km away) at 6.40am so not sure the public bus was running. I would have no idea how to use Uber. I carry a portable alarm clock although I have only on this last trip learnt how to set my cell phone as an alarm. Most places I stay, you are expected to set the alarm on the bedside radio but I have found that can be complicated. Many have no reception from 7pm to 7am
Why can’t they create a cell phone that only does what you want it to do?