Wow, I haven’t heard such whiny, spoiled rant since my youngest child finished pre-school.

Seriously, what can you say about someone who complains that the landscape isn’t pretty enough? Really?

“Eric, it’s God on line two! He says He’s really sorry that the great plains didn’t meet your expectations, and He’s going to get on it right away. Would you prefer a vast inland sea with white sandy beaches, or a majestic alpine landscape?”

I am sorry that the geography of North America didn’t work out in a way that was more entertaining for you Eric. I guess the colossal forces of nature really dropped the ball; because creating a continent that ERIC FADDEN, INTERNET TRAVEL WRITER would find entertaining was EXACTLY what those billions of years of continental drift and geological uplift were all about.

As for the rest of it, I’ve ridden Amtrak several times, to New Orleans, El Paso, Dallas and San Antonio. We’ve always had fun. Now I may not have the refined tastes and delicate sensibilities of THE GREAT ERIC FADDEN, INTERNET TRAVEL WRITER AND MEMBER OF THE LITERATI, but the food in the dining car was always good. Admittedly it wasn’t the sort of refined fare that THE SEMI-DIVINE ERIC FADDEN, AWARD WINNING WRITER, WORLD TRAVELER, MEMBER OF THE LITERATI, gets at his home high atop Mount Olympus, but it better than a lot of restaurants I’ve eaten in. Considering that it came from a very small kitchen that was in a moving railroad car, (which makes it a tiny bit difficult to run out for freshly picked arugula) I was very impressed. Then again, I didn’t cry myself to sleep because I could only get Pepsi, and wasn’t emotionally traumatized over the fact they didn’t have a wide selection of little known northern Belgian craft beers.

As for the bathrooms, in my experience they were small and cramped and clean. However I do remember one thing about them that I am sure would displease Eric Fadden.

The mirrors were pretty small.