Day 1 of our Amtrak Rail-Pass Trip

Friday January 15th

I picked Shawn up at my brother Tim's house in Milton FL at 7:00 am. We drove to New Orleans and parked in front of the terminal while we went inside to pick up our Rail-Pass and tickets. We knew we were going to ride the bus for part of the trip so we quizzed the agent as to which doors we would be here'd onto the bus through and if there was anything special that we needed to do or know about before we returned from lunch.

We left the terminal and drove along St Charles Street through the Garden District and along the tracks of the Street Cars till we got to the Mississippi River. After a couple miles along the river we turned back towards the terminal to get lunch at a local dive called Crabby Jacks, one of the 10,000 best places to eat in New Orleans. The locals love it and the grub is good so what's not to like.

We got back the terminal an hour before departure time and parked about 40 feet from the side door of the terminal in long term ($10 a day) parking.

We got a Subway sandwich for dinner on the train and got our bags situated for the bus ride. Eventually the bus arrived and we were near the head of the line to board. We wanted to get off  the bus before the crowd when we arrived in Jackson and get onto the train as quickly as possible to make sure we got the seats we wanted on the train (unassigned seating so first come first pick).

We followed the Amtrak route as we rode the bus and about 15 miles northwest of New Orleans and as we were traveling along the shores of Lake Ponchatrain we crossed the swift moving waters that had been diverted from the Mississippi River spillway 5 miles southwestern. They were definitely kicking up some waves and all kind of stuff was floating by.

Amtrak had decided to do some maintenance while they were closed for the flooding and in fact had decided they would remain closed for 2 weeks while doing it. that was why we were going all the way to Jackson MS instead of  just to Hammond.

After the 200 mile bus ride we got to the Jackson station and finally boarded the "The Train They Call The City Of New Orleans" and headed north to Chicago. After about 30 miles we decided to move up to the Observation car where we would eat dinner and hang out till we got ready to go to sleep. It was already dark by then. We had only been in the Observation car long enough to open our sandwich when the train slowed to a stop and the main lights went out leaving only the emergency lighting to provide Ambiance while we dined. As soon as we were finished eating the lights came back on and the rain began to move again.