Going to LA — The Really Long Way - IgoUgo United States Journal

Going to LA — The Really Long Way

Overview

Inside an Amtrak Superliner Roomette Photo - United States, North America

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I had a week off from work in early July, 2006. I wanted to do something besides sit at home, but didn't want a vacation that would be a lot of hassle either. I mainly wanted to just sit back, relax, and watch the world go by. So, I thought, "Why not take Amtrak?" I settled on buying a ticket on Amtrak's Sunset Limited from New Orleans to Los Angeles, a trip of nearly 2,000 miles and 48 hours on the train.Along the way I encountered a number of interesting passengers riding the train with me from all over the US, and got to see just how low we've let this once grand method of long-distance travel in the US slip in quality. But despite several days of average dining car meals, sharing a sin...Read More

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Hilton Garden Inn - LAX/El Segundo

Hotel

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The Hilton Garden Inn LAX/El Segundo is quite convenient to Los Angeles International Airport, and provides very comfortable accommodations with a moderate array of services and amenities. Like most Hilton Garden Inns, rooms feature one king or two queen beds, satellite TV with pay-per-view movies, large work areas with well-placed outlets, complimentary high-speed Internet, mini-refrigerators, and microwaves. Other amenities in the hotel include a complimentary business center with computers, printers, office supplies, and a copier, a fitness center, a pantry with snacks and sundries, a pool, and a restaurant providing full breakfasts and evening dinner service, with room service in the evenings only...Read More

The Hilton Garden Inn LAX/El Segundo is quite convenient to Los Angeles International Airport, and provides very comfortable accommodations with a moderate array of services and amenities. Like most Hilton Garden Inns, rooms feature one king or two queen beds, satellite TV with pay-per-view movies, large work areas with well-placed outlets, complimentary high-speed Internet, mini-refrigerators, and microwaves. Other amenities in the hotel include a complimentary business center with computers, printers, office supplies, and a copier, a fitness center, a pantry with snacks and sundries, a pool, and a restaurant providing full breakfasts and evening dinner service, with room service in the evenings only.

I've always enjoyed my stays at Hilton Garden Inns, and it is a brand I chose often for my work travel. Hilton has positioned the Garden Inn concept in between its full service Hilton, Embassy Suites, and Doubletree hotels and its limited service Hampton Inn hotels. As a result, the Garden Inns provide a variety of services not usually found at more limited service properties. For example, instead of just a continental breakfast, a full breakfast buffet with made-to-order omelets, eggs, and items like waffles and French toast is available. However, unlike limited service hotels, breakfast is not complimentary; the full buffet usually runs around $10, while a continental breakfast buffet only, consisting of pastries, fruit, yogurt, and other cold items, is available for around $5. However, unlike full service hotels, prices at Garden Inns are generally more affordable.

The LAX/El Segundo Hilton Garden Inn is really two hotels in one. The majority of the hotel resembles any other Hilton Garden Inn. However, one wing of the building is called the "university wing." Here the rooms are all different. Hilton uses this hotel as a testing ground for new furnishings and amenities, and as a training center for its staff. As a result, the university wing has rooms configured for all of the different Hilton family brands. In the university wing a room may look just like a Hampton Inn, Doubletree, Embassy Suites, or Homewood Suites room, even though it is technically still part of a Hilton Garden Inn. There are also some special technology rooms, with high-tech features such as lighting controlled by a central remote control, and advanced audio/video entertainment systems. The university wing has a more private feel to it, as it is accessed through a set of double doors that separate it from the rest of the hotel. The wing also features its own stairs and elevators, and a separate exterior entrance to the parking lot. This helps make the wing quieter than the rest of the hotel.

As a result of my Hilton HHonors Diamond status, I was upgraded to the university wing. My room was a test room for Homewood Suites, another Hilton family brand I've stayed in many times. Instead of a standard room, I had a two room suite with a full kitchen. The extra space was a nice treat, as I had just spent over 50 hours riding on Amtrak in a small Superliner Roomette. I also appreciated having the fully stocked kitchen, with dishes and utensils I could use to eat the dinner I had picked up at PF Chang's and taken back to the hotel.

While the location of this hotel is not the most convenient for much of the LA area, it's quite close to LAX and some of the beach areas. I also recommend it for its unique features in the university wing. Although these rooms cannot be reserved in advance, requests entered on the reservation for an upgrade to the university wing are often honored by the staff, especially for guests who have membership in the Hilton HHonors frequent stay program. Read Less

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on July 22, 2008

Hilton Garden Inn - LAX/El Segundo
2100 East Mariposa Avenue
Los Angeles, California 90245
(310) 726-0100

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Day 1: Houston to New Orleans, and Back!

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Inside the Dining Car Photo - United States, North America

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The first day of my trip started very early. I awoke around 5:00 AM to get ready and head for Houston's Intercontinental Airport, to catch my flight to New Orleans. Houston has very regular service to New Orleans, but I didn't want to chance getting to New Orleans late and missing the train's 11:55 AM departure. So I was scheduled on a flight that would get me to New Orleans about three hours before the train's departure. That way, if there was any delay at all in the flight, I'd still have a nice safety buffer that should allow me to get to the Amtrak station in New Orleans on time.It turned out to be a good thing that I had scheduled myself on an early flight. As I was driving to the air...Read More

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Day 2: San Antonio to El Paso

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Day two on the Sunset Limited began with a jolt. While I had slept, the train slowly made the 210 mile trip between the Houston and San Antonio stations. In San Antonio, the Sunset Limited meets up with the southbound Texas Eagle at the end of its Chicago to San Antonio run in the middle of the night. At that time, several cars from the Texas Eagle are coupled to the back of the Sunset Limited, providing passengers from Chicago and points south along the Eagle’s route to have through, same-car service all the way to Los Angeles. On our run, this meant two cars a first class sleeper and a coach passenger car were attached to the back of our train. The conductor had warned us the night before that we mi...Read More

Day two on the Sunset Limited began with a jolt. While I had slept, the train slowly made the 210 mile trip between the Houston and San Antonio stations. In San Antonio, the Sunset Limited meets up with the southbound Texas Eagle at the end of its Chicago to San Antonio run in the middle of the night. At that time, several cars from the Texas Eagle are coupled to the back of the Sunset Limited, providing passengers from Chicago and points south along the Eagle’s route to have through, same-car service all the way to Los Angeles. On our run, this meant two cars a first class sleeper and a coach passenger car were attached to the back of our train. The conductor had warned us the night before that we might feel some bumps when the cars were coupled together in the early morning hours. At some point I woke up and was aware that we were no longer moving, and then fell back asleep. Some time later, I awoke again as my car lurched forward several feet as the two cars from the Texas Eagle were added to our train. After that I was awake.

Shortly after daybreak, the Sunset Limited slowly pulled out of San Antonio. Today’s itinerary would take us across the state of Texas, with a scheduled stop in El Paso in the late afternoon, before continuing on into New Mexico. After about an hour of watching the city of San Antonio disappear, and be replaced with the rural South Texas desert, I gathered my things and headed downstairs to the shower room. Amtrak’s bi-level first class Superliner cars feature a private shower room on the lower level. This small room has a private changing area that’s just barely big enough to maneuver in, and a standard-sized shower stall. Showers on the train are an interesting experience. First, there is a limited amount of water on the train to run the shower, so the water pressure is not all that great. Second, the train is always in motion, and sometimes the tracks are not very smooth. The shower does have a grab handle to use to help steady yourself should the train hit a back section of track, or an uneven grade crossing over a road, but it still can be a bit of a challenge to avoid falling out of the shower, wet and naked, into the small changing area. Still, it was more than 24 hours since I had left home, and access to a shower was greatly appreciated. I quickly showered, doing my part to use as little water as possible, got dressed, and headed back up to my Roomette, where I found that the attendant had kindly put away the bedding and converted the space’s configuration back to daytime use.

Soon after I returned to my Roomette, an announcement was made that the dining car was now open for breakfast. I made my way back to the dining car for my third on-board meal. Several hot breakfast options were available, including an omelet, southwestern quiche, and cereal. I chose the quiche, which according to the menu, was filled with a combination of cheeses, peppers, and pinto beans. The quiche was served with hashbrown potatoes and a biscuit or croissant. I found the meal to be just fine, but nothing special, although the quiche had very few of the supposed Southwestern ingredients discernable in the filling. Still, the flavor was good, and I left quite satisfied.

That morning we made the 170 mile trip from San Antonio to Del Rio, nonstop. At Del Rio the train picked up several dozen additional passengers, as well as dropping a few. We then continued on toward El Paso, still 435 miles away. Despite having lived all of my life in Texas at the time, this part of the trip excited me, because we were heading through parts of the state I’d never visited. From Del Rio we headed west through the desert, across a portion of the Amistad Reservoir, and into the Trans-Pecos Region. The Trans-Pecos is characterized by mostly unremarkable scenery that seems to stretch on forever; there are very few hills, trees, or bodies of water. Mile after mile of scrubby bushes, cactus, and barbed wire fence went by outside my window, as I spent the morning reading and listening to the iPod. The main break from this monotony was the conductor announcing our approach to the Pecos High Bridge, a 1,390 foot long span that carries the railroad 322 feet above the Pecos River. The train slowed as we approached the bridge, so that passengers could get a good view of the structure, and the canyon that the Pecos runs through here.

Eventually the scenery began to become more interesting, as mountains appeared on the horizon to our west. We were approaching the mountains of West Texas, and our mid-day station stop in Alpine, TX. I had a particular interest in seeing what Alpine looked like, as I knew my work was scheduled to bring me to this remote corner of the state in a few months. Alpine derives its name from the surrounding mountains and high elevation; there are few towns in Texas that are higher than Alpine’s 4,475 feet. Alpine is the largest town for many miles around, and the closest town of any real size to the Big Bend National Park. We were scheduled for a longer stop in Alpine, to change crews. We reached Alpine shortly after I sat down in the dining car for lunch. I dined on a grilled chicken Caesar salad while we were stopped in Alpine. Many passengers took advantage of the longer stop here to get off the train and stretch their legs. Alpine’s Amtrak station is right in the middle of the town, convenient for tourists getting on or off here, as many of the town’s hotels, shops, and restaurants are a very short walk from the station.

After Alpine, we continued our journey toward El Paso. It was now early afternoon, and the good time with minimal delays due to freight traffic we had made throughout the morning hours reached an end. Several times our train was delayed due to freight train traffic, and we were held on a siding for nearly an hour without moving at one point. The train’s conductor made regular announcements to inform passengers bound for El Paso of our new estimated arrival time, which was now expected to happen sometime after the dinner hour. I killed time by watching a movie on the laptop’s DVD player, and chatting with Karen, another passenger who had boarded in San Antonio that I had met over breakfast that morning.

Finally the delays came to an end, and the dispatchers cleared us to head for El Paso. We sped up after merging onto a more heavily used track parallel to Interstate 10, west of Van Horn, Texas. This allowed the train to make up some of the time lost during the afternoon. Karen and I decided to meet for dinner, ensuring that we’d both have someone interesting to chat with at the table. The second night’s dinner menu was the same as the first night’s, although supplies of several entrées were starting to run low. As with the previous night, the "special" was the same country fried steak. I opted to order the trout, which sounded good on the menu. However, the waitress leaned over and whispered "I’d get something else instead." I took that as a good clue to order a different option, and instead chose the roasted chicken. "Good choice" replied our waitress. Apparently several diners had complained that earlier in the meal service the fish was very salty. The roasted chicken turned out to be an excellent choice. It was a well seasoned rotisserie-style half chicken (yes, half a chicken!), served with rice, vegetables, salad, and a dinner roll. The chicken was quite tasty, and perfectly roasted, without being the least bit dry. I could not begin to finish the large serving of chicken, and was stuffed after eating about half of it. When our waitress asked for our dessert orders, I was way too full to even consider ordering anything. So, a few minutes later she returned with a piece of cheesecake on a disposable plate covered in plastic wrap, and a plastic fork. "Take this back to your room for a midnight snack," she said.

Eventually we arrived in El Paso. At this point we had been traveling across Texas for well over 24 hours, and it was nearly 36 hours since we’d departed New Orleans. Our train had traveled 1,177 miles, but we still had 818 miles to go before our arrival in Los Angeles the next day. I walked around for a few minutes at the stop in El Paso, then retired to my bed with another movie, a Diet Coke, and my cheesecake as we rolled into New Mexico.
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Day 3: Arizona to Los Angeles

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After two days of travel, I was ready to get to Los Angeles when I awoke on Friday morning. When I had gone to bed the night before, the train was running a couple of hours behind schedule, but given the Sunset Limited’s dismal on-time performance, and the nearly 2,000 miles the train had to travel along its run, a two hour delay was hardly worth complaining about. After all, the conductor had told us the night before that the train’s crew anticipated we’d make up some of that time during the night on our run through New Mexico and Arizona.So when I woke up Friday morning, I assumed we were somewhere in Arizona, west of Maricopa, the train’s stop for the Phoenix area, and that we’d be arri...Read More

After two days of travel, I was ready to get to Los Angeles when I awoke on Friday morning. When I had gone to bed the night before, the train was running a couple of hours behind schedule, but given the Sunset Limited’s dismal on-time performance, and the nearly 2,000 miles the train had to travel along its run, a two hour delay was hardly worth complaining about. After all, the conductor had told us the night before that the train’s crew anticipated we’d make up some of that time during the night on our run through New Mexico and Arizona.

So when I woke up Friday morning, I assumed we were somewhere in Arizona, west of Maricopa, the train’s stop for the Phoenix area, and that we’d be arriving in Yuma in the next couple of hours. How wrong this assumption was. Instead, we were hours from arriving in Maricopa, and thanks to several additional hours of delays caused by Union Pacific’s freight dispatchers during the night, we were now scheduled to arrive at our final stop in downtown Los Angeles four to five hours behind schedule. Announcements were made that passengers with northbound connections out of LA would be accommodated on later trains or by bus and that announcements would be made later in the morning for those passengers with connections. This made me quite glad I was only going to Los Angeles, and that I had no real agenda once I got there, other than catching a bus to LAX, where I’d pick up a rental car for the evening to get me to my hotel and dinner. As long as I was at LAX for my return flight to Houston by 9:00 AM Saturday morning, I was a happy camper. But I was somewhat unique in this proposition, as many passengers had plans in California that would have to be changed due to the train’s tardiness.

I decided to head for the shower, only to find out that the sleeping car was out of fresh towels. The attendant did manage to find me a small hand towel that was unused. Lesson learned – I should have kept my towels from the previous morning in my Roomette, rather an assuming Amtrak’s sleeping car was like a hotel, where fresh towels were provided daily. But, given the option of no shower for hours, or a shower followed by doing my best to dry off with only a hand towel, I opted for the shower and hand towel. It was better than nothing.

A shower and change of clothes later, I headed for my last breakfast on the train. This morning I chose the ham and cheese omelet. It reminded me of the countless omelets I’ve had over the years served for breakfast in the first class cabin of the airlines I frequently fly for work; it was fine, but I could certainly do better at just about any 24 hour roadside diner. Still, I have had much worse meals in my life; I think at this point I was just growing weary of Amtrak’s diner car, which had provided all of my meals since lunch two days before. Along with the omelet I had the same hash browns and croissant with butter and jelly I had been served as sides the previous morning with quiche. At this point it was apparent the train was nearing the end of its run as several beverage options and one breakfast entrée were no longer available. As a result I could not have orange juice with my breakfast, but there was plenty of coffee and water, so I was happy.

I returned to my Roomette and was joined a few minutes later by Karen, who was bored and wanted to chat. We had a nice conversation for the next hour as the train sped along toward Maricopa. We made a very fast stop in Maricopa, where I admired the train station that was created by converting an old streamliner sightseer rail car. It was by far one of the nicest Amtrak stations we passed along our route, at least from the outside, and a reminder of the glory days of rail travel in the US. I was reminded of the stories I’d heard of my great-grandparents and grandparents traveling by train in the years before the airlines replaced trains as the preferred method of long distance domestic travel. In 1944 my grandmother had taken my then infant mother and two-year-old uncle from Houston to San Diego by herself to see my grandfather, who was in the Navy and stationed in San Diego during the War. I wondered how many miles of my route to Los Angeles had been shared by my grandmother, mother, and uncle on that trip 62 years earlier, when the world was an entirely different place.

After departing Maricopa our next stop was Yuma, on the Arizona/California state line. We continued to Yuma without further delay. Along the way more announcements were made related to our delays. Had we been on schedule, the last meal served in the dining car would have been breakfast. However, due to our anticipated arrival in Los Angeles well after lunch time, the dining car chef had prepared a big pot of beef stew using leftover ingredients from the previous two evening’s dinners. This would be made available as a lunch entrée, to be served with salad and a roll. I imagined the chef slaving away in the kitchen using the uneaten braised beef entrées and every vegetable he could get his hands on to make this stew. Still, it would be our only option for lunch. Other announcements were made that the passengers headed for the train to Bakersfield out of Los Angeles would be reaccommodated by a charter bus that would meet the train in Palm Springs. This bus would then take those passengers directly from Palm Springs to Bakersfield, getting them to their final destination only an hour late. These passengers, along with those bound for Palm Springs, were advised not to take advantage of the lunch in the dining car, as they would not be able to be served and have time to complete their meals before making the Palm Springs stop. After these announcements, I killed time by reading, and watching my last DVD as we sped along through the deserts of Arizona and California.

As we neared Palm Springs, I debated whether I wanted lunch on the train or not. After several calls for lunch had been made, I decided that I was getting a little too hungry to hold off until our arrival in LA for lunch, so I made my way to the dining car one final time. I was told that the only remaining beverages on board were water and iced tea, so I ordered a tea. My cheerful waitress, who I had enjoyed the service of for the previous few days returned with a tea and bowl of salad, which was mainly iceberg lettuce with one slice of tomato. "I’m sorry we’re out of rolls at this point," she said. I stated that was fine and began to pick at my salad. A few minutes later she returned with a bowl of beef stew served over rice. Yes, it looked very much like the braised beef I’d seen several diners eating the previous two nights, and the veggies were the same ones that had been available throughout the trip as side items. However, despite the stew being created that morning from the dining car’s leftovers, it turned out to be one of the tastiest meals we were served on board. The chef was to be commended from turning leftovers of braised beef, carrots, potatoes, and green beans into something quite delicious with very limited resources. I left most of my salad behind, but finished the stew completely.

After Palm Springs, we continued westward toward our last two en-route stops at Ontario and Pomona. I watched as the desert slowly became more urbanized as we approached Ontario. Finally, the end of our journey was almost in sight. Ultimately the conductor made the announcement that we were approximately 30 minutes from our terminal stop in downtown Los Angeles. We were hours late, but we were almost there. The end of the journey in my 3.5’ × 6.5’ Superliner Roomette was in sight. I began to gather my belongings and repack them.

Once we arrived at the downtown LA Amtrak station, I left the train, and went to find the express bus to LAX, where I had a rental car reserved. Due to our late arrival, the bus was heading to the airport in rush hour traffic. Eventually we made it, and after another wait for the rental car shuttle and a short ride, I was behind the wheel of my own transportation for the first time since dropping my own car off at the airport in Houston nearly 60 hours before, and headed for my hotel. Read Less

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Days 3-4: An Evening in LA, and Flying Home

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The last evening of my trip was quite relaxing and enjoyable. I picked up my rental car, pulled out my directions printed off the Internet a few days earlier while at home in Houston, and headed for my hotel, the Hilton Garden Inn LAX/El Segundo. I had chosen this hotel due to its close proximity to Los Angeles International Airport, where I would be flying home to Houston the next morning. At check-in I was informed I had been upgraded to the hotel’s "university" wing. This meant I would be staying in one of the rooms that the Hilton Corporation uses at this location for testing new room décor and amenities, and for training its employees. My room ended up being a test room for Hilton’s Homewood Suit...Read More

The last evening of my trip was quite relaxing and enjoyable. I picked up my rental car, pulled out my directions printed off the Internet a few days earlier while at home in Houston, and headed for my hotel, the Hilton Garden Inn LAX/El Segundo. I had chosen this hotel due to its close proximity to Los Angeles International Airport, where I would be flying home to Houston the next morning. At check-in I was informed I had been upgraded to the hotel’s "university" wing. This meant I would be staying in one of the rooms that the Hilton Corporation uses at this location for testing new room décor and amenities, and for training its employees. My room ended up being a test room for Hilton’s Homewood Suites concept. So, instead of having the standard Hilton Garden Inn room, the room was a classic two-room suite with full kitchen, just like what’s usually found in a Homewood Suites location.

I settled in, unpacked a few things, and decided I wanted a real shower; at this point two and a half days had elapsed since my last shower with really good water pressure in a roomy space that was stationary. I took advantage of the suite’s spacious bathroom for a nice, long, hot shower, followed by a change of clothes. As much as I had appreciated having a shower available on the train, it just could not compare to the real thing. I decided that I was too tired from all of my travel to really go out that evening, so I checked out the room’s pay-per-view movie listings. I settled on Transamerica, which several friends had seen and enjoyed. The entertainment portion of the evening was now decided, so I got online and looked for dinner options. The hotel’s room service menu was the standard Hilton Garden Inn dinner fare, which is fine, but I wanted something better, and something totally unlike the Sunset Limited dining car’s fare. A quick scan of the hotel’s guest services guide indicated there were several nearby restaurants that had takeout available. I opted for PF Chang’s, and pulled up their menu online to make my selections before calling in an order.

After returning from PF Chang’s with my takeout Americanized Chinese food, I ordered my movie, and fixed a nice plate for myself using the dishes and utensils found in my suite’s fully stocked kitchen. While the food on Amtrak had not been bad at all, it was so good to have something completely different from what I’d been served on the train.

The next morning it was time to head home. I got up, returned the rental car, and made it to LAX with plenty of time for my flight back to Houston. Shortly after 10:00 AM I settled back in my BusinessFirst sleeper seat on a Continental Airlines 757 for the 1,300 mile trip back to Houston. While the trip from Houston to Los Angeles had taken nearly 60 hours from start to finish, the flight attendant announced that our flight to Houston would be a very quick three hours that morning. That alone was a shining example of why air travel had replaced the passenger trains of decades long past in the US as the primary method for long-distance travel. And then there was the cost; my Amtrak Roomette had cost more than a full-fare one-way economy airline ticket that came with an instant upgrade to first class had.

In retrospect, I am quite glad I opted to take this trip. It fulfilled a longtime desire for taking a train across the US. I saw many parts of the US I had never been through before; despite previous trips to West Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, the train took me through areas of those states I had yet to visit. I also enjoyed my conversations with other passengers over meals in the dining car. Train travel brings together a very diverse crowd of people. There was Karen, from Austin, whom I’d shared several meals with, who was on her way to California to visit a friend. There was the elderly African American couple from California who was returning home from a visit to family on the East Coast; they did not like to fly, and were frequent Amtrak travelers. There was the couple from Southeast Texas I shared lunch with on the first day that had just taken the train for the thrill of it as part of their vacation, but had been less than impressed by Amtrak’s delays and the service cutbacks. They had said they were unlikely to take Amtrak again.

A few months later I would experience a different extreme of long-distance rail travel on my trip to France. I knew Europe had much better passenger rail infrastructure than the US. Unlike the Sunset Limited’s laboring 40 MPH average speed during my journey, the TGV I took in France whisked me from Paris to Narbonne, a track distance of about 530 miles, with speeds approaching 200 MPH in about four hours. While I enjoyed my trip on Amtrak, I had a hard time seeing myself taking it again for travel outside of the Northeast Corridor, where service was much faster and more reliable between Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington. Yet, the experience left me disappointed that our government had let passenger rail decline so much in the US.

Despite Amtrak’s aging equipment, late arrivals, and service cutbacks, the trip was quite an enjoyable one. I would consider taking a similar trip again at some point in the future on Amtrak; routes like the Empire Builder from Chicago to the Pacific Northwest I find tempting. It’s definitely not a method of travel anyone would consider efficient, but it’s quite comfortable, and a good way to sit back and watch the world go by outside your window as you cross the US over a period of a few days. Read Less

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Going to LA — The Really Long Way