I'm finally home

It was a mess.

The only saving grace is it didn't happen on the way up (Then, I was only a half-hour late).

If I can remember it all....

1. Fuses blown in the (single; they used to run long distance trains with two) engine outside Carlinville. Shut down most of the power (again, saving grace: I had just gotten my dinner; the people with later reservations were told to go to the cafe car and get something cold as a snack). No AC for several hours (and no flush in the toilets). We were told a truck was on the way with fuses.

When it came, either the part was wrong or the electrical fault was worse, and the new fuses shorted out almost immediately. So we sat longer in the darkness and heat for a tow engine to arrive from a train coming in from the north. I didn't disrobe even though my car attendant had made up my bed because I was afraid we'd be told in St. Louis we were being bused, and I made a quick calculation of whether or not I could demand an overnight hotel room and get booking on the NEXT train (the following day) because I couldn't bear the thought of being on a bus for 18 hours just then.

Fortunately that did not come to pass; the tow engine was taken off that train at St. Louis (where the short train terminated) and put on our train. So I finally got to sleep at maybe 1:30 am.

2. Many freight delays. It gets worse the later you are because of the way things are scheduled.

3. Outside Walnut Ridge (just into Arkansas), the crew timed out and had to leave. (This is a Federal rule applying to engineers and maybe conductors?). So we sat while a new crew came in from Little Rock, where they were supposed to change, but we were nine hours late at that point.

A bit after that - when midday rolled around and we were maybe nine hours late - I decided that I'd be too tired to safely drive the 2 1/2 hours home (let alone stop for groceries, as I typically do), and I called the 1-800 number for Best Western. (There is one in Mineola; I've stayed there before. Fortunately I still had the "rewards card" in my purse. I really, really, really need to get a smartphone that I can use to get information from the Internet with, I see that now). I was able to get a room. It was $100 but as it turns out there would have been no other way to do it.

4. More freight delays.

5. We stopped dead in Texarkana. I don't remember what time it was by then but I had already eaten lunch - and normally, if things were on time, I'd have got off the train at 9:25. We were told that there was "freight traffic that needed cleaned up" ahead of us and I assumed they meant there were freights stacked up.

Nope. Turned  out there was a derailment (though I can't find anything in the news) and we were to sit while they cleaned it up.

And here was another bit of bad advice we got: the train attendant came through with bowls of the "emergency food" they carry (beef stew, which is full of carrots, which I cannot eat, and anyway, it looked super unappetizing). We were told "There will be no dinner service so take this or leave it"

At that time I didn't know about the derailment yet and held out a fading hope that we'd get underway soon and I'd be able to get a late dinner in Mineola.

Then I found out about the derailment.

So: no dinner, unless I wanted to risk serious GI distress, not a good thing on a train where maybe the toilets would flush and maybe not.

I decided to see if the snack bar still was selling anything. Fortunately they were still well-stocked because the coach passengers were given the same stew. And fortunately the guy had the little cheese plates they sell (a few pieces of Tillamook and Babybel wrapped cheese, some crackers. Not a lot for $5, but it was the most nutritious thing they had). I supplemented it with a cranberry juice so at least I had food I could digest.

THEN they announced a dinner service for the sleeper. Gee, thanks. The woman in the roomette next to me suggested I go get a dessert, but I didn't want one, and I was mad at that point.

6. Then word came down: we were detouring. The people who WERE to have gotten off at Longview (several of the stops beyond San Antonio) and been bused there, now had to get off at Mineola.

Uh-oh. As I told one of the other women in the car - that was gonna be a mess because Mineola is a very small station with a small lot. I realized my car would probably be blocked in.

I called back to Best Western and the guy said he'd convey to the Mineola motel that it would be a "late check in" for me so someone would hang around. I HATED that but there was no other choice at that point short of cancelling the room and sleeping in my car, or trying to drive home in the middle of the night.

7. Finally we got on the move. Extra-slow because it was unfamiliar track. And then, maddeningly, we had to stop for two long freights to pass us.

At that point I just lost it. It was after 9 pm, I was tired, I was dirty, I hadn't had the right kind of food, and I felt like the walls of the sleeper car were closing in on me. I wound up sitting on the floor in the vestibule because it was the largest area in the car and I felt slightly less panicky. Someone advised me to go to the observation car but I didn't want to risk missing getting off at Mineola, or having to run back to grab my stuff and jump off.

Finally we got back on the "real" track but then proceeded slowly....and apparently there was another crew exchange, this time with the northbound Texas Eagle (which would then have been about five hours late) on the other track.

8. Arrival. And yup, my car was blocked in. I took my stuff, threw it in my car, used the restroom, and then sat on a bench outside (at one point, crying with frustration and tiredness) while they slowly rounded up the people who had to get on the bus and got them on the right bus.

Finally, a bit before midnight, I checked in at the motel. I was apologetic to the desk clerk but I guess it's his job to be there? I don't know.

I got about six hours of sleep. Drove home, stopped and got groceries. I'm still exhausted. (I arrived home too late to go to church but whatever). In a bit I'm going to eat some lunch and try to unload my suitcases and wash my hair (there was free shampoo in the room but it was a tiny bottle and there was no conditioner, and I was too tired last night and just wanted to get on the road this morning).

I've used Amtrak for 20 years now and this was the worst trip I've ever taken with them. Almost enough to make me contemplate if I could get myself to DFW and fly (even though I hate flying and it makes me claustrophobic) for Thanksgiving because I canNOT be late for Thanksgiving break, my dad's memorial service is Monday of Thanksgiving week and I WILL NOT miss that even if I have to WALK there.

(Or, I take a personal day Friday of the week before, and travel Thursday into Friday, which then leaves me two whole days for the train to screw up - surely they can't require four days to get us from Texas to Illinois, even in the worst of possible cases)

The whole diner mess also tells me that I need to figure out some shelf-stable type nutritious food I can cram in my suitcase in case of a similar failure in the future. Because I can't count on the snack bar car, and if I travel Amtrak again and if this thing happens again....I cannot eat stew with carrots in it. (And what would a vegetarian do? I guess they travel with their own food....)