Candy's Birthday Getaway Surprise
Occasionally, Candy & I try to surprise each other with a birthday surprise. The theme of my surprise was a modified version of "The Amazing Race". Basically, I made up 11 clues, each dependent on the previous one and building to a conclusion. Clue #1 was the 1st surprise ~ a train trip via Amtrak from Flagstaff to Albuquerque (more on the "Amtrak Experience" later).
Once in Albuquerque we enjoyed our 1st night in Old Town at the Hotel Albuquerque, and a fantastic meal at the Melting Pot. The next morning we took an Avis rental car to Santa Fe, then Taos, then Eagle's Nest, and on to Red River. The last two towns are located close to the New Mexico / Colorado border. Red River is one of the most picturesque towns I have ever seen.
The next day we headed back to Albuquerque, and caught the Amtrak train back to Flagstaff.....
The "Amtrak Experience" is full of eye opening surprises.
1st ~ Forget security. It is virtually non-existent. Anyone can buy a ticket, hand it to someone else, and that person can board without showing one piece of identification. Luggage and carry-on bags are not screened ~ basically, no-questions-asked.
2nd ~ Boarding Chaos - your ticket might say Reserved Coach, but that just means you have a seat (if one is available), and no guarantee that it will be next to your traveling partner. Fortunately, we got two seats together, but only because we were a quick study on the seat assignment process which can only be described as the "Southwest Airlines" Open seating policy coupled with the floor of the Wall Street stock exchange. Basically, everyone lines up next to the train track and once the arriving passengers are off the train, the boarding passengers rush the train and starts yelling that they need 2 seats for Flagstaff, or 4 seats to LA ~ at which point the conductor points to you and says "take seats # 19 & 20 in car #11". Seriously ~ that's the way it works and you need to bird-dog the conductor to get a decent seat. I attached myself to his side and repeatedly told him I need 2 Flagstaff seats at least 5 times within a 30 second period of time.
3rd ~ The Breakdown - about 20 minutes outside Albuquerque, the train stops, then shuts down power. We are told that there is a computer problem and they must shutdown the engines to reboot. It should only take a couple of minutes.........make that 150 minutes (over 2.5 hours) while we sit in the northern plains with an occassional engine start to run the A/C for a few minutes. We are told that they have never experienced this type of problem before (but coincidentally almost everyone on the train say this is common).
4th ~ Gallup NM - we travel for 2 hours and arrive in Gallup without further incident.....then the conductor announces that they will be shutting down the engines to switch power from one engine to another. 4 hours later, we pul out of Gallup. Fortunately, this time we are allowed to disembark the train and stand along the tracks for fresh air. Security risk again, seeing that at any time, anyone could just walk up and board the train....... no questions asked.
Our entire travel time was supposed to take 5.5 hours from Albuquerque to Flagstaff. With the combined delay ~ the trip took 11+ hours.
Overall, I would give Amtrak a D- and would probably give them an F except that they did manage to get us back to Flagstaff ~ which does account for something.
Other than the Amtrak Experience, we had a wonderful time and will definitely revisit "The Melting Pot" for another meal of fondue.
Once in Albuquerque we enjoyed our 1st night in Old Town at the Hotel Albuquerque, and a fantastic meal at the Melting Pot. The next morning we took an Avis rental car to Santa Fe, then Taos, then Eagle's Nest, and on to Red River. The last two towns are located close to the New Mexico / Colorado border. Red River is one of the most picturesque towns I have ever seen.
The next day we headed back to Albuquerque, and caught the Amtrak train back to Flagstaff.....
The "Amtrak Experience" is full of eye opening surprises.
1st ~ Forget security. It is virtually non-existent. Anyone can buy a ticket, hand it to someone else, and that person can board without showing one piece of identification. Luggage and carry-on bags are not screened ~ basically, no-questions-asked.
2nd ~ Boarding Chaos - your ticket might say Reserved Coach, but that just means you have a seat (if one is available), and no guarantee that it will be next to your traveling partner. Fortunately, we got two seats together, but only because we were a quick study on the seat assignment process which can only be described as the "Southwest Airlines" Open seating policy coupled with the floor of the Wall Street stock exchange. Basically, everyone lines up next to the train track and once the arriving passengers are off the train, the boarding passengers rush the train and starts yelling that they need 2 seats for Flagstaff, or 4 seats to LA ~ at which point the conductor points to you and says "take seats # 19 & 20 in car #11". Seriously ~ that's the way it works and you need to bird-dog the conductor to get a decent seat. I attached myself to his side and repeatedly told him I need 2 Flagstaff seats at least 5 times within a 30 second period of time.
3rd ~ The Breakdown - about 20 minutes outside Albuquerque, the train stops, then shuts down power. We are told that there is a computer problem and they must shutdown the engines to reboot. It should only take a couple of minutes.........make that 150 minutes (over 2.5 hours) while we sit in the northern plains with an occassional engine start to run the A/C for a few minutes. We are told that they have never experienced this type of problem before (but coincidentally almost everyone on the train say this is common).
4th ~ Gallup NM - we travel for 2 hours and arrive in Gallup without further incident.....then the conductor announces that they will be shutting down the engines to switch power from one engine to another. 4 hours later, we pul out of Gallup. Fortunately, this time we are allowed to disembark the train and stand along the tracks for fresh air. Security risk again, seeing that at any time, anyone could just walk up and board the train....... no questions asked.
Our entire travel time was supposed to take 5.5 hours from Albuquerque to Flagstaff. With the combined delay ~ the trip took 11+ hours.
Overall, I would give Amtrak a D- and would probably give them an F except that they did manage to get us back to Flagstaff ~ which does account for something.
Other than the Amtrak Experience, we had a wonderful time and will definitely revisit "The Melting Pot" for another meal of fondue.
posted by Project Man | 5:12 PM
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