GCM's Micah Green took Amtrak's Mardi Gras Service between Mobile and New Orleans last week.

I embarked on the 6:30 a.m. train from the Mobile Amtrak station. Though my coach seat was comfortable, I got up and made my way through to the cafe car, equipped with booth-style tables and a food and beverage bar that opened almost as soon as we departed. I passed on the muffuletta but grabbed a snack of hummus and crackers and a water to start. We passed through marshland and Gulf Coast flatwoods with stops in Pascagoula, Biloxi, Gulfport and Bay St. Louis before arriving at Union Passenger Terminal in the Central Business District of New Orleans.

A quick Uber, or a slightly longer walk, and you're right in the heart of the French Quarter. I spent the day with lovely folks attending the ninth annual Conjure Fete, who were staying at Blakeley State Park and made the day trip over to learn from Mama Denise, a lifelong hoodoo practitioner from the Treme neighborhood not far from the Quarter. We stopped at Congo Square, where they honored ancestors and ate lunch. After that, we wandered around and danced a bit to music from the first day of the French Quarter Festival, a free annual event with several stages along the Mississippi River.

By 4:30 p.m., it was time to head back to the station, and at 5:30 p.m. our train departed. I can't say enough about the timing of both the departure and return. The sunrise and sunset from a train window over the Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama coastlines was an incredibly nice addition to an easy journey to and from home. I ended up working in the cafe car on the way back, had a glass of wine and thought about what I need to do to travel like this more often. Highly recommend.

If you book a week or so in advance, you can get a round trip ticket for about $60 and add on another $15-$20 for parking. 

The service, one of the most successful service launches in the passenger rail operator's history, kicked off last August, the 20th anniversary of when the original line was knocked out of commission by Hurricane Katrina. According to the Southern Rail Commission, as of Jan. 31, more than 100,000 passengers traveled on the Gulf Coast line since its inaugural run.