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Pack emergency food that keeps well, a small bottle of soda, and your electric razor with battery charged. And a change of clothing.
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Check the shaver outlet in the men’s room. If it works, shave at regular times, if not save the battery and shave only the morning before leaving the train.
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Give yourself a paper towel shower in the men’s room between 3 and 5am in the morning just before the day of your arrival. I undress upper half only first and use one towel as a wash cloth and one as a towel. Then, with my fresh shirt and sweater reaching to four or five inches above my knees, modesty is retained when the bottom half is underssed. If towels are lacking, the old t-shirt or undershirt can have half wetted with part used as wash cloth and part as towel.
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Check appearance in the men’s room mirror before leaving the train and make any adjustments necessary.
My suggestions:
Bring ear plugs. Also pack those Wet-Naps ™ or a generic version.
My suggestions: Be stoned and in the company of a couple of Hooters waitresses . . .
Old Timer
Hey, don’t even bring that up. If my wife happens to read this, my train riding days will end before Amtrak goes out of business.
Jay
Now that paints a pretty picture of rail travel for people. Someone should forward it to Amtrak for use in the marketing department. Imagine getting up between 3 and 5 am to wash yourself in tiny public restroom that probably hasn’t been cleaned since the train left its point of origin 30 hours before. Where do I sign-up?
Definitely a go on the wet wipes. Also take your own favorite small pillow. Take postcard stamps, too, because even people who don’t usually send mail find that filling up postcards to the folks “back home” is pleasant during a leisurely trip. Also your own munchies are a good idea, both for the variety and the savings over RR “Saratoga [potato] chips” and the like.
allen
I always planned on using the diner, but wanted to still enjoy life if there were any problems.
The tiny (Amfleet) restrooms are one thing. One can be totally stark naked and not fear loss of privacy. I was refering to the loungelike rest rooms in the El Cap cars which were the coaches I rode most frequently when unable to obtain or afford a sleeper reservation.
In 1979 a buddy and I planned to take the Southern Crescent before it switched from Southern to Amtrak. The last run was booked so we went on the second to last run from Philadelphia to New Orleans. First, we had to get to Philly from Valparaiso.
We left Valpo on the Broadway…only thing it was running 6 hours late out of Chicago, due to a massive snowstorm. No big deal as all flights were cancelled and roads closed. The great thing about being late was we scooted around Horseshoe Curve during daylight hours. The vestibule riding with dutch doors open in Pa was great.
Overnight in a bed in Philly as we stayed with buddy’s in-laws. Then we left in the evening on the Crescent at about 5pm. Sleep was pretty non-existent, only in bits and pieces. I remember getting up for good and riding the vestibule again thru South Carolina and into Atlanta. Arrival was in New Orleans at about 7 or 8pm. A hotel room felt great that night.
The City of New Orleans left the next day at 430pm, so we rode the trolly lines around NO and ate red beans and rice at a diner. I slept pretty much all night, waking up between Mattoon and Champaign. Arrival in Chicago was about 10am and then we taxied to the Trailways bus station, perhaps Greyhound and rode home.
That trip pretty much cured me for long distance passenger trains.
ed