BG Report: Amtrak Texas Eagle 2/2: San Antonio to Los Angeles

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(the article below accompanies this video)

In Part 1 of my huge adventure on the Amtrak Texas Eagle, I rode from Chicago nearly to San Antonio, TX overnight. My BGs onboard had all been less than 200, and I was feeling good. The next part of the ride was from San Antonio to Los Angeles, and things again were great… until the very end.

The Sunset Limited came and we joined it and set out from San Antonio at about 3 am. I was asleep during all of this, but when I woke up, we were in the wilderness of the southern Texas desert. My BG was 190.

By now we had a normal “Tradition Dining” car, rather than the Flexible Dining of the first part. So I sat in the dining car with two nice ladies, and we all chatted about trains and travel, as one does. At another table, a grouchy-looking guy about 65 opined noisily about politics to his patient seat mates. I was glad I wasn’t sat with him.

My breakfast seemed a lot smaller than everyone else’s, so I asked the attendant if I could get any more food. She checked with her manager, and brought me a plate with eggs, potatoes, and a croissant. It was excellent and really made the meal.

In the morning we stopped at Alpine, TX, where I was able to walk around town for about ten minutes. Nice to see that little community, and a great way to stretch my legs and move around some.

By lunchtime, as we sat on the platform in El Paso, my BG was 137. The perfection ended here though.

I was sat with two older guys and we were chatting about the terrain and canyons of New Mexico and Arizona. I planned on eating my grilled cheese sandwich and chips quickly, then going back to take my insulin shot in my roomette. Not always great to take the shot after the meal, but I knew it wouldn’t be a problem.

But, it was. For I stayed to talk with one of the guys for about an hour after we were done eating. Time had gotten away from me, and when I finally returned to my roomette, I suddenly realized I hadn’t shot up for the meal. Oops. You can’t be that late taking the insulin.

So I took it, but the damage had been done. At dinner later, as we neared Tucson, I was 219. My first high (over 200) reading of the entire ride. And such a stupid mistake. I should have swallowed my pride and taken a discreet shot at the lunch table through my jeans, or gone to the bathroom to do it.

So I shot up and ate my final meal on board, the Alaskan salmon. I even had a table all to myself in the diner. It came with fried shrimp, and I got a beer with it.

After a very brief walk around the platform in Tucson, I got back on and had something I’d been skipping the entire ride: dessert. I got a slice of lemon cake, and also bought another beer for it. I had these in my roomette – a celebration of the long exciting trip ending. I took another insulin shot for all of this.

At first, I seemed to have gotten over the lunchtime mistake. At 10:15 pm, I was 135. Pleased, I went to sleep for the final night.

Unfortunately, the beer and cake crept up on me. Maybe; I’m not sure exactly why, but at 4:45 am, after morning announcements that we were approaching L.A., I checked and was 309. The final check of the ride and by far the worst. I took some insulin.

We arrived about 45 minutes later in Los Angeles; I got some food and a coffee at Starbucks and ate blearily in the Amtrak waiting area.

Overall, my BGs had been excellent until I tempted fate in some stupid ways towards the end. Still, the trip itself had been fantastic, something I will always remember and will dream of doing again. And, diabetes-wise, I think that over the first couple of days at least, I showed that you can have good BG control even on a long-distance train.

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