Background
You remember us, right?
After 14 months since our last train trip (The Indian Pacific across Australia, detailed here:
Into the Wasteland: The Indian Pacific Train Across Australia and QR J to Get There) and one year and ten months since our last Amtrak trip, the two Charles Kunzs were obviously more than ready for another train trip. Thanks to my new position as a solo practitioner I am able to arrange my schedule more or less as I please and as my birthday month is October, when better to ride the rails? If you haven’t done a sleeper car trip yet then maybe you don’t know where the fun comes from. You get to watch parts of the country roll by the windows that you’d never see otherwise. And if you’re with someone whose company you enjoy it’s even better. Plenty of time to chat, to play cards, relax, read and eat and drink to your heart’s content (did I mention it’s…BYOB?).
My dad and I have taken every long distance Amtrak train save the Auto Train (something I have no idea how I’ll ride but that’s another story) but we were missing part of the Empire Builder. In 2010 we rode it from Seattle to Chicago but it also has a stub from Portland to Spokane. As I love visiting Portland and hadn’t been since 2012, that’s where we decided to go. Thankfully, my dad has a generous balance of AA miles so we could suffer the indignity of a Standard Award Redemption without too much fuss.
Trip Details
Thursday October 12: AA (F) RDU-CLT-PDX
Friday October 13: Amtrak (Sleeper) PDX-CHI (+2)
Monday October 16: UA (Y) ORD-RDU
“There isn’t a train I wouldn’t take, no matter where it’s going”
- Edna St. Vincent Millay
AA 1121 RDU-CLT 1609-1715 737-800
After a long day of playing lawyer I arrived at RDU’s Terminal 2, a terminal I am lucky to frequent
My dad was already waiting for me at the RDU Admirals Club (for five points, find him in this picture!) which as you can see was very crowded due to the evening LHR flight. That said, the bartender was excellent and made sure everyone was taken care of. When I ordered my usual Endless River Pale Ale he asked “would you like a complimentary shot of bourbon with that? Would I!
The 737-800 we were on to CLT was slightly delayed due to a late inbound but as we had a long connection we didn’t care. Especially as it’s much more pleasant to sit at RDU than CLT.
Despite the delay there were even PDBs which are incredibly rare on legacy AA flights. We’ll drink to that!
RDU even had a bit of a commotion that day after a C17 declared an emergency due to smoke in the cockpit. It’s pictured here with the 777 to LHR for scale.
RDU is Deltaland now which has been great for me as we now have TWO nonstop flights to Europe.
Thank you!
The flight was fairly nondescript though longer than usual for this 130 mile run (42 minutes aloft). For some reason there was no snack basket or glassware. I don’t care what anyone says, cocktails taste better out of real glasses.
One of these days I need to find an excuse to fly our resident EAS carrier. Thankfully our gate was open and we arrived close enough to on time that the delay didn’t matter.
AA 1787 CLT-PDX 2015-2046 A-321
The best thing you can say about CLT is that…well it’s…uh. Actually I don’t know how to finish that sentence. It’s an awful place to change planes. The gates are too small, the corridors are narrow and always teeming with people and the lounges are solidly below average. But hey living in Raleigh I at least have a nearby airport with a lot of connecting options.
This lounge for instance had people waiting to go to Europe. Someone we survived a couple of hours and eventually mustered the strength to make our way to our gate.
Which due to construction looked even worse than usual! Thankfully we’d been able to spend more of the time at the too small Admirals Club.
I would really have preferred this flight not be operated by an aging Legacy US Airways A-321 with no power ports or IFE but, well, the Stones taught me from an early age about getting what you want.
The important thing is that we had a good crew and we departed on time.
As I mentioned earlier the crew was good. How good? Unprompted doubles good. We both agreed it was more fun to take this trip with one long flight instead of two middle length ones. The transcon experience is a good time.
#Facts
Despite the evening departure a full dinner was served. As we only had a single flight attendant even with the single tray setup it took 90 minutes to get the food. Still, there was no hurry. I had a bunch of trade magazines to catch up on, my dad had his book and most importantly we had our conversation.
And it was apparently cooking that entire time we waited for it! Made me wish I’d gone with the other option of pasta instead of this so called beef filet.
As always this was the best part of the meal. Meanwhile, my dad’s gone quiet. What’s he up to over there?
You can have my wine when you pry it from my cold dead hands!
I stayed up for another hour or so and then decided my dad had the right idea and I went to sleep.
