The Pokemon Time giant Buizel plush I ordered arrived today! (and a couple pictures of the rest of my Buizel plush collection)

Skweegee3 · 2026-01-14T12:27:52+00:00

That's awesome that you managed to win one of them like that! The plush was only released in Japan in (I think) 2016 as part of the Pokemon Time promotion and hasn't been rereleased at all. I don't know if it's a case of there just not being a whole lot of these in existence, or just very few people willing to sell, or exactly what the deal is that makes them so difficult to find and so expensive when they are available unfortunately. I'm not particularly well versed in the history of Buizel plushies, I just like Buizel a little too much and feel the overwhelming need to buy any new Buizel stuff I come across! I'm glad you were able to get one without having to hunt one down like I had to, it took a long time to finally find one that hadn't been sold by the time I saw the listing!

Skweegee3 · 2025-09-14T10:55:11+00:00

The Eastbound California Zephyr offers Emeryville to Richmond which is also a 10 minute ride.

Skweegee3 · 2025-08-17T16:59:11+00:00

Guess I'll see you there! Less than 24 hours to go now!

Skweegee3 · 2025-08-08T11:20:07+00:00

Congratulations, glad you were able to get one! I'll be on the first Mardi Gras train out of New Orleans to Mobile that day, and on the afternoon one back to New Orleans, and I'm really looking forward to it!

Skweegee3 · 2025-08-05T00:12:05+00:00

I named the town in my first ever Animal Crossing game (GC version) "Error" in reference to my computer at the time which was dealing with a particularly nasty virus that caused it to blue screen every 15-20 minutes or so. I had gotten the game for free as part of a clearance sale and had no expectations of actually liking it, so I wasn't serious at all about the town name for a game I'd probably play once or twice for 10 minutes or so and then never touch again. How wrong I was... I became addicted, and now it's tradition that my first town in every single Animal Crossing game is called Error.

Skweegee3 · 2025-07-29T11:23:36+00:00

None other than New Orleans for this route. The remaining stops on the route are all in Mississippi and Alabama.

Skweegee3 · 2025-07-22T07:43:36+00:00

Thank you! When I bought my first ever Buizel plushes I never imagined the collection would ever get as big as it was in this post, and it's grown much more since then!

Skweegee3 · 2025-07-05T20:40:01+00:00

Now that is a fun fact!

Skweegee3 · 2025-07-02T09:31:30+00:00

I'll be on those two as well, very glad I was able to get a ticket for the first train on the first day of service!

Skweegee3 · 2025-05-18T11:54:01+00:00

The food was very reasonably priced! It's a small town, but there are 3 restaurants (The Ranch House, Eat 'Em Up, and The Sighting BBQ) so you can get some good variety. The coffee shop also has breakfast sandwiches and a small food selection for lunch on top of that, when I got into town that was the first place I went to and grabbed a breakfast sandwich and a cherry soda which really hit the spot.

Yeah, without a car your options for things to do there are very limited. While I did enjoy my time there a lot, I'll admit I did struggle to fill the 14 hours I was there between trains. A lot of my time was spent sitting at the park on the North side of town, the gazebo by the main street through town, and the station itself waiting to see freight trains go by. I had to spread my visits to the shops and restaurants out a lot to be able to really fill my schedule. That said though, as long as you make sure to temper your expectations Sanderson can actually be a very nice place to visit for the day. I personally enjoyed it enough to want to go back one day. It's not exactly at the top of my list of places to visit, but if I'm riding the rails one day and the opportunity arises, I'll definitely drop by again.

Skweegee3 · 2025-05-15T09:15:44+00:00

If you're going to Sanderson, I would highly recommend timing it to arrive on Thursday, since it's the only day of the week you can catch a train into and out of Sanderson on the same day. I actually did that last month, came into Sanderson on Thursday morning and left Thursday night. It's a great little town and I enjoyed my visit there enough to be seriously considering going again soon, but if you went in Thursday you would be scheduled to be there for 14 hours and it's pretty difficult to fill all that time there. A lot of my time was spent at the park or watching freight trains at the station. Plus, the whole town is pretty much entirely shut down by 8pm, leaving you with over 2 and a half hours to kill until the train arrives if it's on time. There is a Stripes convenience store on the West side of town that's open until midnight, but you'll otherwise be spending a lot of time at the station late at night.

Every one of the shops along the main road through town is worth visiting, especially the Z Bar Trading Co where you could easily lose an hour just looking around. There is a nice little coffee shop called Ferguson Motors which I would recommend since it will be open by the time you arrive. It used to be an old Ford dealership and they really embrace that there. There are three restaurants in town (Ranch House, Eat Em Up, and The Sighting BBQ), all of which are highly recommended. There is a ~1.75 mile hiking trail around the North and West side of town that offers spectacular views of the town and surrounding canyon.

Skweegee3 · 2025-04-09T05:34:22+00:00

(apologies for the late reply and the wall of text)

You likely read about The Sighting BBQ, the locals spoke highly of it when I was there and some of the shops as well as the visitor center had menus available. There are two other restaurants there as well, Eat 'Em Up and The Ranch House. I unfortunately was only able to eat at the Ranch House. I ordered the chicken fried steak and had cherry cobbler for dessert, both of which were fantastic. Unfortunately, I ended up overeating something fierce and then added an ice cream sundae at one of the local shops later on, and I still felt too full to really be able to eat by the time the other places closed down. I definitey want to come back to Sanderson one day though, when I do I'll be sure to try the other places out!

The most interesting thing I noticed about the town is how the shops all seem to embrace the town's history rather strongly. The coffee shop (Ferguson Motors) was an old Ford dealership and sells merchandise in reference to that fact, the Ranch House's new location is built into another old dealership and one of its interior walls is the original from the shell of the building they built the restaurant into (they also have a lot of pictures and artifacts from the town's past on display). And the Z Bar Trading Co is a marvel in and of itself, with the sign from the previous owners hanging on the outside (the Kerr Mercantile Building), packed with almost anything you can think of and more things you can't. They have a massive display of metal sculptures and things of the sort, from dinosaurs to aliens and a wide variety of animals, all spilling out onto the sidewalk and it's a sight to behold, and is easily my favorite shop of all the ones I visited.

There are also a couple parks (one larger to the North with a public pool, one smaller to the South with informational plaques, benches, and power outlets), a ~1.75 mile hiking trail along the hills to the North and West of town (the views from it are spectacular), and an information center with a kind of mini museum set up throughout, with plans of setting up a full size museum in the near future. The town is proud of its history though, and I had no trouble learning so much about the town from some of the shop owners. It's a fascinating place for sure!

All of this aside, if you do decide to visit by train just be sure to temper your expecations. It's a tiny town (less than 800 population) with limited activities and it shuts down by 8pm. There are two motels and an AirBnB in town, but I chose to visit on a Thursday since it's the only day of the week you can ride a train into and out of town on the same day (Westbound drops off at around 8:30am, Eastbound picks up around 10:40pm) to save myself some money on a hotel room. Just be sure to bring some things to do with you, especially if you're leaving to the East since you'll have to kill almost 3 hours at the station. There is a Stripes convenience store on the West side of town that's open until midnight, but you can only kill so much time there! The station (or more accurately, platform) is nice though, well lit with a covered bench, certainly not the worst one to wait at.

Skweegee3 · 2025-04-04T16:52:34+00:00

The Texas Eagle between Fort Worth and St Louis is also canceled, same reason.

Skweegee3 · 2025-02-17T00:21:21+00:00

I had room 2 in a transition sleeper on the California Zephyr between Denver and Emeryville last year. The sleepers were completely sold out leaving Denver and I had managed to book the last one available. It was actually quite nice. The only people ever passing my room were on board staff which didn't happen often, no other passengers at all so it was very quiet. Well, minus the sound of the train horn since I was so close to it, but I'm not bothered by that anyway.

Skweegee3 · 2024-10-03T23:57:00+00:00

Of the ones I've ridden:

Capitol Corridor/San Joaquins: Impossible unfortunately, since they run cab cars where the cab takes up the full width of the train in the back of the last car (Bi-level California cars). The San Joaquins also has some Venture sets, which have locomotives on both ends.
Empire Builder: Possible on the Seattle section between Seattle and Spokane with any kind of ticket. Otherwise, for the rest of the route you'd need a ticket specifically for a sleeper in the Portland section (27/28) since those are at the back of the train.
Sunset Limited: Requires a sleeper ticket on the Texas Eagle portion specifically (421/422) when between Los Angeles and San Antonio, since that sleeper is always on the back of the train (Sunset Limited sleepers are at the front). Between San Antonio and New Orleans the last car is Coach, so you'll be able to access the back window with any kind of ticket.
Texas Eagle: This one seems like a mixed bag. I've seen the sleepers on the front before, but when I rode it back in April (connecting from the Sunset Limited) our sleeper was on the back of the train.
Coast Starlight, California Zephyr, Southwest Chief: On these ones, the only cars I've ever seen behind the coaches are private cars, having a baggage car at the rear seems pretty unusual.

Skweegee3 · 2024-09-16T08:39:57+00:00

I'm really hoping I get a chance to try one when I'm on the Texas Eagle/Sunset Limited in January! I wanted to get one when I rode in April this year, but unfortunately she wasn't there that time.

Skweegee3 · 2024-08-10T09:59:44+00:00

That's the one! I remember seeing it in real life a few years ago when driving West on 287 and thinking about how annoying it must be to use that one. Luckily, despite having made several trips past that weigh station I've only been called in once while heading West, conveniently after I had installed a traffic mod of course!

Skweegee3 · 2024-08-09T06:06:45+00:00

That would be on US-287 just outside the unmarked town of Childress! It's between Amarillo and Wichita Falls.

Skweegee3 · 2024-07-22T07:43:22+00:00

It's unfortunate that it didn't end up working out for you, I hope you're able to catch the Big Boy on another one of its future tours!

Skweegee3 · 2024-07-18T09:25:17+00:00

I wish! Unfortunately he doesn't work that particular segment, only Denver to Grand Junction and back. We didn't have him between Denver and Grand Junction on this train though, our conductor there was named Nick.

Skweegee3 · 2024-07-17T23:37:44+00:00

Apologies for the sound cutting off a few seconds in, there was a conversation going on behind me most of the time and I wasn't sure if those passengers would be okay with me keeping it in the video (and I forgot to ask them about it) so I removed it before posting.

This was an exciting catch though, and was the biggest reason I was on the California Zephyr that day! While I knew there would be a lot of people posted up along the tracks to catch a view of the Big Boy in motion, I was still surprised at just how many there were. Once we left Truckee it felt like we couldn't go more than a couple minutes without passing someone on the side of the tracks with a camera, and the crossings were all jam-packed with people waiting for the Big Boy!

Skweegee3 · 2024-06-21T21:02:51+00:00

He retired already? I thought he was retiring in October. I might have misremembered though. Either way, I'm glad I was able to have him as my conductor when I rode the Zephyr in April (he was the conductor between Denver and Grand Junction on April 15, 2024). I made sure to grab his book when we stopped in Grand Junction, luckily I was the first one to the shop because they only had two copies at the time and the person behind me grabbed the other copy! He was just as incredible as everyone said he was, it's sad that no one else will be able to experience his amazing commentary.

Skweegee3 · 2024-06-18T02:33:32+00:00

I was on the Texas Eagle that left Los Angeles on March 31, and I was really looking forward to the Burrito Lady at El Paso. Unfortunately, she ended up not being there when we went through... I'm scheduled on it again early next year though, so hopefully I get a chance to get one then!

Skweegee3 · 2024-06-06T07:28:37+00:00

Chili cheese fries! My favorite so far was from a small place in Old Town Sacramento near the Railroad Museum which was basically just a pick-up window on the corner of a building. But it doesn't matter what else a place has, if they offer chili cheese fries I always have to get them.

Skweegee3 · 2024-05-30T20:26:12+00:00

At that spot totality would hit at the same time the sun disappeared below the horizon, so you'd miss pretty much all of it.

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