The Travels with Kev Weekly Newsletter

Hello Reader,

Recently, Amtrak quietly rolled out some surprisingly fun café car upgrades on the Northeast Regional — including sticky buns, buffalo wraps, and the famous butter cake that sleeper passengers on long-distance trains already know and love. I also had a travel adventure of my own this week, involving trains, planes, a five-hour delay, and forgetting my earbuds at home.

So grab a coffee (bonus points if it’s paired with a sticky bun), and let’s get into it.

Sticky Buns, Buffalo Wraps, and Butter Cake: A Fresh Northeast Regional Menu

If you're rolling between Boston, New York, Washington, or Virginia, the cafe car has some new and improved offerings.

Amtrak rolled out a refreshed Northeast Regional menu on May 13, and there's actually more here than the usual "we added a wrap" announcement.

Breakfast: A warm sticky bun joins the morning lineup, and coffee gets flavored syrup options so you can dress it up the way you would at a coffee shop on the platform. I like my coffee black, but I am a sucker for sticky buns!

Lunch and dinner: The Turkey Havarti, which has quietly been the cafe car's best seller for years, now has friends. New sandwich options include Chicken Salad on Pretzel Sliders, a Buffalo Chicken Wrap, and a Curried Chickpea Wrap. That last one is worth noting if you've been a vegetarian traveling the Northeast Corridor — the NEC cafe has not historically been kind to plant-based eaters, and a curry-spiced chickpea wrap sounds tasty to me.

Snacks and drinks: Poppi Prebiotic Soda (Strawberry Lemon) appears, along with Nerds Gummy Clusters, a Barebells Protein Bar, and a La Colombe Vanilla Draft Latte for anyone who needs more caffeine than the cafe's drip coffee offers.

And then there's the headliner: Frank and Louie's Vanilla Butter Cake. They made the leap from long-distance service. If you've ever ridden the Coast Starlight, California Zephyr, Empire Builder, or other trains and had a sleeper, you may have had one of these tasty delights. If you haven't — order one. You can thank me later.

As of now, Amtrak has not published a new online menu on its website.

A Kev Trip Change

In August, my niece and I were going to take a train adventure, and we are still taking the adventure, but we needed to move it up to June. We were able to make the change. Some of the original trip costs helped offset the fare difference, though I still ended up with a few leftover credits I could not apply. Our trains include the Mardi Gras Service, the City of New Orleans, and the Borealis.

One big noticeable change from this move is that the City of New Orleans schedule has changed; if I remember right, there is some CN track maintenance going on, prompting changes to the northbound and southbound schedules.

What Is Kev Up To?

This week, I spent time with friends for both happy and sad reasons.

Spending time with friends is usually a happy thing — often over a few beers at the brewery. But this week, a few of my theatre organ friends and I gathered for the funeral of one of our friends' dads. While I wasn't close to his dad, I know it meant a lot to my friend John that I was there.

On Monday, I flew out to my sister's. As you might guess, flying isn't my favorite way to travel, but I worked a train ride in on both ends, to and from the airport. I'll take a rail leg wherever I can. At $3.75 one-way, the train was the cheapest way to reach the airport — even with the 20-mile drive to the station on my end.

This was my first trip with my new AER bag, and so far it's a champ. I'll admit I goofed, though — I left with no earbuds at all. My backup Bluetooth pair was out charging, and I'd tucked my wired pair into a jacket so I wouldn't forget it. Then the morning turned warm, I figured I wouldn't need a jacket in Florida, and I was right — but that meant the earbuds stayed home too.

The good news was that I'd packed my over-ear headphones and the dongle, so I could use them in my phone and iPad. The flight had seatback entertainment, so it was nice to have a comfortable, high-quality pair to use with it — and I could still get my own music and podcasts too. When I travel, I like having something in my ears.

Part of the reason is that I get a little travel anxiety — though honestly, I'm not sure whether it's anxiety or just excitement. The two feel awfully similar. My nerves are at their worst right before boarding, which makes me think it's more excitement than fear. Once I'm actually on the train (or plane or bus), I settle right in.

This trip also handed me the worst travel delay I've ever had — about 5 hours, more than double the flight's duration, most of it spent sitting on the ground. It was partly United's fault because we had to wait for a document, but most of the blame falls on a storm that hit and affected our route. We also had a crew change, one of those little things that can snowball. While waiting on the plane, I was watching The Office and Pluribus; my buddy Sean — he comes from an aviation family — texted me one of his dad's lines: 'Time to spare, go by air!' Tell that to the afternoon I just lost on the tarmac. I like reminding my aviation friends that delays happen to them, too — no part of transportation is perfect.

Depending on when you read this, I may be flying home. I hope it goes better.

Thank You!

Thanks for reading, and a special thanks to Steve K, who has a California Zephyr trip coming up. Thanks for the PayPal gift — a postcard is on its way to you!

If you'd like to help keep Travels with Kev rolling, you can click the green button below, visit my support page, or join Patreon.

Anyone who supports via PayPal gets a postcard. If you use the button below and reply to the email, I’ll send one your way, too. Patreon members receive a postcard every month as part of their membership. I’m about to create a fresh batch of postcards that I’m excited to start sending out!

Until Next Week!

Safe travels & Happy Planning,
Kev Monteith

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