At the outset, our two week trip this time around was going to involve a trip to Canada, travelling from Toronto to Vancouver on the Rocky Mountain Railway, however, after researching the trip, two weeks was just not going to cut it, as to get the most out of the journey, it would have involved several stops along the way. So we put together a new plan… this one.
We’ve had an open invite to visit a cousin of mine all the way over in Seattle, so, we thought, why not take him up on the offer and pay him a visit. This is our amazing coast to coast USA trip, by rail………
We toyed with the idea of starting in the always amazing NY, but as we were visiting family on the West coast, we thought, why not start with family on the East coast. So it was a no-brainer, to start in one of the most Irish of US cities, Boston.
The flight out of Dublin left a tad late, but was a short 6 hour and 5 minute flight, arriving bang on time into Logan International. Despite the on time arrival, we were waiting almost an hour, just to get our one checked bag. However once outside we grabbed the free Silver Line shuttle bus service to South Station.
We’re two nights in Boston, just enough time to visit an aunt and uncle, along with meeting up with a friend I’ve not seen in years.
Given the price of accommodation at this time of the year, we picked the HI Boston Hostel, located about a 10 minute walk from South Station just inside the boundaries of Boston’s Chinatown.
The hostel was a good size, check-in took a few minutes, by the very unenthusiastic staff who clearly were not seasoned travellers, something that’s usually the norm with hostel staff, it was obvious they were there just to get paid.
Anyhow, despite that, our room was a decent size, good sized bathroom and clean, which is always a plus.
After a quick freshen up, we checked out some of the facilities in the hostel. It had a good sized kitchen, along with a game room and a large projector screen in the common area, which is also the reception area, with a small snack bar serving coffee, soft drinks and a few cakes.
We wasted no more time and hit the streets. The weather was fantastic, hovering around 28C. We had no plan other than to stroll around and head towards the historic area of Boston. Needless to say, it was very busy, a combination of tourists and locals having after work drinks and with the weather so good, there were dozens of places to grab a drink and a bite to eat, while sitting outside and watching the world go by.
After checking out the downtown area we grabbed a drink in a place called Joe’s, a beer for me and C opted for a tropical margarita, which was very tasty.
At around 8:00pm we headed back to the hostel, our plan for food was something we never do when we’re away, find an Irish bar. Variety is the spice of life and all that, but we never go to Irish bars (we’ve got plenty of them at home J), but on this occasion and given the city we’re visiting, we thought, why not.
About a 15 minute walk from the hostel, we went to a place called JJ Foleys. Despite having a selection of Irish drinks, it was not as Irish as we thought it would be, thankfully. It was busy, mostly locals having after work drinks and food.
To start, we ordered bacon and cheese tatertots, something we’d never tried before despite being to the US dozens of times and we won’t be ordering them again anytime soon. For my mains, I kept it simple, the cowboy burger, C opted for a pasta dish of sorts. The burger was big, very big, but tough and over cooked, although the accompanying fries, were actually ok. C’s pasta dish was big enough to feed a small family, but was nothing special.
Anyhow, after having food and a drink we made our way back, a good’s night sleep was well overdue, after all we were still on Irish time, which made it 4:00am in the morning for us.
The next morning, we grabbed breakfast in the hostel, which is included in the price, it was pretty much as expected, bread, bagels and cereals, along with some juice and coffee. The coffee was not half bad, the bagels, so so.
We had made arrangements to be at my aunt’s house for lunch time, so we only had time to visit a local market and Paul Revere’s house in the historic part of the city. It takes less than 20 minutes to walk through the house, which was somewhat interesting.
We then grabbed the train and headed to the town of Wellesley for lunch. It was fantastic to see my aunt and uncle, along with other friends that came over to meet us. We spent most of the evening in Wellesley, leaving late in the evening. When we got back to Boston, we had just enough time to get changed for dinner.
We dined with friends I’d not seen in the longest time, we had a fantastic catch-up with them and they brought us to an Italian restaurant, called Lucca, bang in the centre of Boston North end and as it was Saturday night, the place was hopping.
Sunday morning rolls around, we decided to not bother with the breakfast in the Hostel, so all that was left to do was check out.
For breakfast we treated ourselves to a place called Tatte, which was conveniently located across from South Station, where we’d be catching the train for the first leg of our trip. The place is roomy and airy, the staff were friendly and the menu read well but wasn’t as good as it could be.
C opted for the classic avo/eggs/sourdough thing, I went with scrambled eggs with parma ham and bread. The coffee was decent and as an extra treat, we shared a blueberry and hazelnut muffin, which was actually ok.
After breakfast, we headed towards the station, to catch our train, the first leg is from Boston, to Albany NY, with a few stops in between. For this stage of the journey, we had coach seats, which were a good size and comfortable, after all, we’d a 6 hour trip to go, before changing to a sleeper car in Albany.
For lunch, there really was not much on offer in the buffet car. A three day old turkey roll was probably the best of the bad lot, other options were a microwaved burger and some funny looking cheese sandwich. We struggled through lunch, washed down with a bad cup of coffee.
Our train arrived into Albany, over an hour late, but thankfully our sleeper train, was still waiting on the line directly across from where we disembarked.
So our sleeper car for the night, was, well, interesting to say the least, we can’t remember the last time we chuckled so much, I’ll let the photos do the talking…
The space is very very cramped…….
It get’s better though……
However, the highlight of our cabin…..
So there you have it, all in a space you could not swing anything, let alone a cat.
For the sleeper version, the two seats turn into a bottom bunk, with the top bunk above, with very little space. The most important part though when getting a nights sleep, don’t have your head near the toilet 🙂
As part of our rail package, meals are included. However on this leg of the trip, they have no chef onboard, so it’s pretty much anything you can shove in a microwave……….
Here’s a photo of what we left over. The food wasn’t great. Still though, we enjoyed a nice chat with some fellow railers during meals in the dining car.
The train was very rocky so the night’s sleep was fairly broken, I reckon I got 2 hours, C a little more. For breakfast, I went with a coffee and C opted for some fruit. Our next stop was the city of Chicago, we were due in at around 9:30 a.m. Due to delays on the track with freight trains ahead, we arrived in over 4 hours late and had just enough time to grab some lunch before heading back to the station to catch the train again.
For this leg of the trip, we’re on what’s known as a Superliner, a double-decker, with sleeping compartments on each level. There’s also coach seating, which we had on the very first leg out of Boston and an observation deck, which is pretty cool. The actual name of the train is the Empire Builder and it’s the busiest long distant train journey in the US.
Believe it or not, the couchette on this train is even smaller than the overnight from Albany, but on the plus side, there’s no in-room toilet J.
For food, they have sittings, so you request what time you’d like to eat. We went with the later 8:30 p.m. option. There is a menu – basic stuff, chicken with rice, salmon with rice and a few other bits. The food is as expected and if you’re hungry, you’ll eat it.
In the observation deck, there’s a bar serving some snacks and drinks and it’s nice to watch the world go by while enjoying a drink.
Unlike the Streamliner out of Boston, the Superliner was smoother, so we both got a better night’s sleep. Breakfast the following morning is based on a first-come first-served basis and again, it’s table service. It has a few of the usual American standards, omelette, bacon, pancakes etc. and was a tad better than dinner the previous night.
After breakfast there was just enough time to pack up and get ready for our next stop -Minot, North Dakota.
The train arrived in early, which is apparently rare, so we phoned the car rental agency who offer a pick-up service. As we were early, we had originally reserved our car for 10:30 a.m. but we arrived at the rental agency just before 9:00 a.m. They had only one car available unless we wanted to wait. Like a child in a sweet factory, I took one look at the car they offered us and said, yes, we’ll take it, plus we were anxious to hit the road as we’d a long drive ahead.
We decided to call it Thor …
As a first stop, we visited the local Walmart to stock up on water and a few bits as well as watch some of it’s famous people :-). Then we hit the road proper, our first planned stop was a place called Gladstone to grab some lunch and fill up on gas. Gladstone turned out to be a tiny sleepy place with what appeared to be just one option to grab a bite to eat, which was closed. We did, however, fill up on gas and hit the road for the town of Dickinson, just a few miles further.
We stopped off at the Dakota Diner for lunch. The very friendly waitress, who was interested in where we were from, recommended that we visit the town of Medora. We had no planned stops, other than to drive along what’s known as the Enchanted highway, so we decided to go a little out of our way and visit Medora.
Of course on the way, we spotted another stop, the Badlands National Park, so we pulled in and took a few snaps, before continuing to Medora.
Medora was a nice stop, parts of it look like it’s straight out of a western movie. There’s a few stores selling the usual tourist stuff, along with some sweet shops including one which makes taffy, places to grab a bite to eat and a cafe where we stopped up to grab a coffee and some ice cream.
After wandering around Medora for about an hour, we hit the road again, we still had an almost 5 hour drive ahead to our final destination of Rapid City, South Dakota.
As we had detoured to Medora, our satnav brought us on alternative roads for miles and miles with nothing but farm land and the occasional small town, some with a population of just few dozen people. Cornfields as far as the eye could see with acres of sunflowers on occasion.
One of the great things about driving in the US, is the random stuff you come across while on the road and this was no exception – welcome to Sturgis, South Dakota, home of the world’s biggest biker bar!
As it turned out, they were having a large festival of sorts, which was finishing up as we pulled in for a look. The bikes – 95% of them were Harleys – were all in amazing condition. This was a fantastic stop.
After checking out the biker bar, we hit the road again as we still had over an hour of driving before we would arrive into Rapid City.
We were staying in a Holiday Inn Express on the fringes of Rapid City. This is one of their newer hotels, so the place was spotless and the room was huge. At this stage it was almost 8:30 p.m. and after almost 7 hours driving, the only thing left to do was grab a bite to eat and get a decent night’s sleep.
The following morning we got breakfast in the hotel, some bagels and coffee, then hit the road to visit one of the most iconic man-made structures in the world – a different type of fab four.
Welcome to Mount Rushmore.
We had heard reports that the faces of the presidents – Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln – were apparently not as big as you would think. Based on what we saw, this is not true – they’re pretty big and it’s an impressive site.
So after wandering around one of the nature trails and taking photos from various angles, it was time to hit the road again as we’d yet another long drive ahead. We stopped briefly in the town of Keystone which is the nearest town to the park. We took a few photos and hit the road. Given how close we still were to Sturgis, there’s as many bikers on the road as cars, plus, the weather is fantastic, perfect for motorcycles.
Once on the road, our first planned stop was the famous Wall Drug store. Basically it’s famous for being a tourist trap and you visit because it’s a tourist trap, confused eh! The billboards start well before you get there, advertising 5c coffee and free iced water.
This was also our lunch stop and Wall Drug can cater to over 500 guests. The food is again, typical American, we both opted for the turkey club. Just for kicks, we ordered a slice of apple pie, topped with ice cream, which cost almost 10 dollars, which more than negates the 5c coffee J. Still though, the place was well worth the stop, it’s got gift stores, a barbers and cowboy boots and hats available to buy.
After our lunch, we visited a small Harley Davidson store, before hitting the road again, our next planned stop, was the Minuteman Missile National Park.
During the cold war, this was the infamous bunker that would launch the nukes in the event of a nuclear war. Today it’s a small museum which gives an insight to this turbulent time. As we got there a tad late, we missed the last tour of the day, which we believe involves a visit to one of the now defunct silos. Who knows what secretes lie deep underground in this part of South Dakota.
Continuing on, our next stop was the town of Mitchell where we would be spending the night. Again we were staying at a Holiday Inn Express – this one had a fancy pool. For dinner, we opted for Ruby Tuesdays, yes another American restaurant chain, however, they do have a pretty decent salad bar. For our mains, burgers……again! The following morning, we checked out the one attraction for which Mitchell is famous.
The Corn Palace, the only one in the world apparently. Basically it’s a large building covered in corn. There’s a different theme every year and it’s been running for over 100 years. At the time of our visit, it’s not yet complete for this year, but there are a few nice murals all made out of corn.
After a visit to the Palace it was time to hit the road for the return journey to Minot. We had a good 6 to 7 hour drive ahead of us and there was not much time for stopping. We grabbed a quick lunch in the city of Aberdeen and later that evening we found a random diner and grabbed a coffee.
After almost 8 hours on the road (there were several sets of road works), we arrived back into Minot. We were staying at the very quirky Dakotah Rose B&B which was close to the station, where we would be hopping back on the Empire Builder train to continue on to our last stop, Seattle.
For dinner, we ate in Souris River Brewing which was one of the better places we’ve found on this trip. I opted for a chicken sambo, C went with the Reuben and we also had Bison meatballs to start, which were very tasty. So after some food and a drink we called a cab and headed back to the B&B. We had dropped Thor back to the rental agency earlier.
The following morning, we had a light breakfast at the B&B, checked out and walked less than 10 minutes to the station. The train was running about 15 minutes late which was not too bad. Once on board all that was left to do was sit back, relax and watch the world go by. We spent some time in the observation deck enjoying a drink in between lunch and dinner, which were as expected, woeful. As late evening rolled around, we were going through the Rockies, which had some amazing scenery, including a quick stop at the East Glacier National Park.
We had an early start the following morning, we were eating breakfast at 5:45 a.m. Funny story, I asked for an omelette, I was told that an omelette was not available, but I could have scrambled eggs …
So our coast to coast rail journey is coming to an end, we’ll disembark in Seattle and meet my cousin. To finish, this has been a fantastic journey, well worth doing. However, would we do it again? For us, probably not as America is all about driving and road trips and it really is the best way to see the country, if time permits. However, if time is limited, then you definitely get to see a lot of the country by rail.
You can read all about Seattle by clicking “here”.
Until next time,
C&J
cjfoodandtravel 