Thread by @Delafina777

Leaving Milwaukee on the Empire Builder to head home and see my kitties

Usually I get a full suite with a private bathroom so I can reduce contact with other people as much as possible but prices have gone up so this time I got a roomette.

As soon as I have it set up I’ll take a pic, but here’s my suite from last time.

Toward the left edge of the pic you can sorta see the edge of the sink and medicine cabinet. Next to that is a chair, and behind it is the shower and bathroom.

I cannot emphasize enough how much better it is than flying.

I always get a little thrill when they call “All aboard!” and the whistle blows and it’s so exciting and we should give cross-country passenger rail all the money because unlike airlines they’re not TRYING to make you uncomfortable to convince you to upgrade.

When I rode last year, a lot of employees had been furloughed and the future was grim, so it was bittersweet, a lot of long-time employees proudly but sadly telling me stories about their train while I ate otherwise alone in the dining car.

My dad had slipped me a $100 bill, for spending money, as he always does when I visit; even though I’ve told him I have a good job now, he remembers too many years when I was working at Paizo or unemployed and couldn’t afford fun money.

He always makes me promise to use it on something that will make me happy. I hadn’t thought to break it before I left, so I left it for the room attendant with a note thanking him and asking him to please split it with the dining car attendant. Those stories were wonderful.

But the bitter part felt a lot stronger than the sweet—the whole experience felt so elegiac, like an echo of a better, less brutally capitalist time when travel wasn’t about just squeezing every penny out of you.

And I’m really happy to say that even though it’s still apparently only at 70% of what it was before the plague, it feels really different now that passenger rail has gotten billions from the infrastructure bill.

The staff seems a lot more upbeat (and there are a lot more of them), and things just seem livelier.

(For all Biden’s many failings, I admit I have more of a soft spot for him than I should because of how much he seems to love trains.)

My family took the train out to the east coast to visit relatives when I was 5, and I was too excited to sleep so I climbed down from my mom’s upper bunk to my dad’s since she was sleeping and he was reading.

He turned off the reading light. The moon was bright, so we watched the landscape go by, all silvery and mysterious, and listened to the train whistle, and I thought it was the most magical experience in the world and I’ve loved trains ever since.

I really hope the money in the infrastructure bill is going to help us enter a new era of train travel.

Especially since climate change is supposed to make turbulence a lot worse for planes.

Here’s my little roomette.

Sleeper car hallway, in the roomette half. The full rooms take up most of the width of the train, so the corridor there is on the side rather than down the middle.

Things I recommend bringing: clip lights, since the overhead lights are a little dim. These have different colors of white light (this is on the warmest setting) and can be dimmed.

Extension cord.

Throw blankets to put over the seats since I dunno how you clean textiles on public transit like this.

Disinfectant wipes—I go over all the surfaces because it is plague times.

Collapsible tea kettle and travel mug because I drink a lot of tea and they only have small disposable tea and coffee cups and I would feel bad asking for more hot water like every half hour.

Books, obviously, because the cross-country trains don’t have wifi yet and cell signal tends to disappear in the mountains and in like all of North Dakota.

I also bring a speaker because I watch movies on my computer and its speakers are terrible.

I also bring some snacks and good chocolates because I am snobby like that but you can get a lot of different foods in the cafe car and if you are in a sleeper, three meals a day are included.

Now that the chef’s back, it’s not bad. I had an excellent steak and polenta my first night on the way here, and decent wine, and the omelet and French toast breakfasts are both very good.

Ok, we just passed the eastbound Empire Builder and someone had a tiny light up Christmas tree in the room so clearly I need to up my travel game