First morning on the train! We woke up early and caught the sunrise from the observation car as the train left Maricopa, Arizona. Since the Sunset Limited leaves Los Angeles at night, I was afraid we’d sleep through the most Southwest-y parts of Arizona/New Mexico and wake up in Texas, but fortunately the train doesn’t move that fast. Maricopa is in the Phoenix area, so we didn’t end up missing too much. We had mobile data most of the time and could check our phones to see where we were/when we were crossing state lines.
I didn’t believe Nene when she said it’d be entertaining to look out the window for two days, but it was very entertaining to look out the window for two days. At first it’s pink dirt and cactus, then brown dirt and trees, then crops and pasture, then forest, and finally reeds and lakes just before New Orleans. Plus some of the towns and train stations are restored and adorable. We ended up spending most of the time by our roomette window.
Life on the train is pretty good. You wake up and head straight for breakfast (which started at 6:30 am), then you relax in your room until someone comes by to ask what time you’d like to have lunch. When the lunch announcement sounds, you wander back up to the dining car, have your lunch, then hang out in your room until the process repeats itself for dinner (someone comes by to ask what time you’d like to have dinner, and then there’s a “come and get it!” announcement at dinner time). At some point between breakfast and lunch we’d shower and get ready for the day (there was never a wait for the shower or the bathrooms), but basically your day is sleeping, eating, and looking out the window. It’s a very low-stress life. (The only rule is that you have to wear shoes when wandering around the train.)

Meals were included for sleeper car passengers, but coach class passengers could purchase dining car meals if they wanted. The only surprise was that you sometimes shared your table with strangers. Breakfast was always on your own, but one of the lunches and two of the dinners were spent making small talk with other passengers. (It seemed to empty out a bit once we were through Texas–I suspect a lot of people were only going as far as Texas.)

Although the thought of hanging out with new people is terrifying, it turned out to be interesting. We met a man from the Czech Republic who was touring the United States by train. He itinerary was New York to Chicago to San Francisco to Los Angeles to New Orleans to Washington, D.C., to New York. He said the dining car menu is the same on every Amtrak train, so by that point he’d had a lot of caprese skewers as his dinner appetizer. We also met a woman who’d lived in New Orleans, San Diego, and Key West. She knew about books, what it’s like to work for the government, and where to eat in New Orleans.
It’s possible to be vegan on the train! It’s not the most cutting-edge vegan experience, but it was much better than what I imagined (living off bruised fruit and potato chips from the snack bar). The staff was fuzzy on the definition of veganism but good at memorizing passenger food preferences. By day two they were able to finish my sentences ( “… without cheese.”) There aren’t actually any vegan options on the Amtrak dining menu, but there are a few things that can be veganized. Your breakfast option is the continental breakfast without the croissant and yogurt. There’s two lunch options: the Sweet Earth burger without the cheese, or the chili without the cheddar cheese, sour cream, and bacon. (You can get a bowl of chili or chili with a baked potato.) For dinner there is no vegan entree, but you can repeat one of the lunch entrees. There is an appetizer, though, the mixed green salad without the brie. And none of the desserts at either lunch or dinner are vegan.

The food is good, too! That chili was excellent, and the burger was definitely up there. It sounded like the desserts were fantastic as well. By the second day people had learned to ask for a box for their desserts, because Amtrak does not skimp on quantity. It is a lot of food for one day. If you can fit it in (which we didn’t), there’s also a snack bar with some intriguing vegan options: an Asian noodle bowl, a vegan BBQ burger, fresh vegetable crudites, pistachios, hummus and pretzels, and (my favorite vegan snack at the moment) Hippeas.
As the landscape became more tree-filled it became harder to take pictures. We may have made a few Top Secret jokes. (We may have made several Top Secret jokes.)
Coming in to El Paso takes you along the fence between the United States and Mexico. The fence sort of disappears into the side of these mountains and then picks up again in town. At one point the train parked under an El Paso overpass and we got a great view of the colorful buildings in Juarez just over the border.
Here it is! The Sunset Limited, parked in El Paso.
Waiting in line for burritos. The other highlight in El Paso is the burrito woman. She waits on the platform with a variety of fresh, homemade, very reasonably priced burritos to sell to train passengers. I couldn’t find out too much information on her. Yelp thinks her name is Juanita, and Facebook claims she’s been delighting train passengers since at least 2013. (Facebook also called her world-famous, which, if you look up comments on Amtrak forums, seems to be true.) The burritos aren’t vegan, but they are supposed to be really good. It sounds like the flavors change, but there’s usually a refried bean and cheese (pictured).

The length of time the train stayed at any one station varied. Sometimes they’d invite us to wander the platform for a fresh air break, sometimes they’d tell us not to get off the train because the stop would be quick, and in Houston they told us to go wander the town because we’d be stopped for a couple hours. More on Houston in the next post …
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