End of day one

Diner Lite is not as bad as some have said. This is the limited menu, reduced staffing, plastic plate service in the "new" diner/lounge cars. Existing diners were reconfigured with a diner area and a lounge area with the idea of eliminating one car on a train. On the Eagle they still have the lounge car and the supposed lounge area of the diner is used to serve meals. I suppose this is a sign of flexibility. The menu is somewhat limited. For instance on the lunch menu there was no chicken dish offered unless you wanted to add grilled chicken to a spinach salad. Dinner had about four choices but my trout was very good. All the food is served on hard plastic plates that are then discarded. Lunch is eaten with plastic utensils but dinner rates stainless. There is no dishwasher on board so dinner utensils are carefully conserved by the service staff. "Save your fork for dessert" we were told, "we don't have extras." We are coming into Little Rock and I expect good 3G service to send this post. After that I'm going to bed and hope to get up early enough in the morning to eat breakfast then check out the new station in St. Louis.

On the Railroad Again

I can't imagine why anybody would be interested in this but it's fun and creates a sort of journal for me when dementia sets in. This Amtrak trip will not be nearly as long as my previous one but the technology has changed so much in two years it's amazing. Last time I was depending on the odd wifi site or dial in and generally only posted when not riding the train. This time I have an "Air card" from AT&T and have had good luck getting mail and web pages since leaving San Marcos, TX. Even in the depths of the East Texas Piney Woods I got pretty good service. I'm now in Southern Arkansas and service is more spotty but still getting out occasionally. We are just now coming into Malvern, AR. I have a strong five bar signal but my iPhone shows it to be AT&T's EDGE service rather than 3G. However it's good enough for some text.