25 replies to this topic

[KevinKorell]

My NJT train was 8 minutes late at Cherry Hill, where I had to share the shelter with a fast asleep, snoring homeless guy and dozens of birds. The shelters there have become an aviary, as they provide a lot of convenient nesting places. Train was 1 minute late into PHL. Homeless guy is still there. I realized too late that I left home with a shirt full of pasta sauce stains from lunch, so I had to go downtown once in PHL to purchase another shirt. Those travelling today can't miss me in the bright neon green shirt I am now wearing. Back in Club Acela in Philly, I await #97(14), which was 6 minutes late at its origin. Not to be selfish, but with 13 hours layover in JAX, I won't mind if it's hours late once I'm on it and in travel. But I know some going further south have less dwell time before catching #92(15).

[steve4031]

Mike and I maximized the use of a metro fare. For $1.70 We rode from Judiciary place To Franconia. We rode from Franconia to Huntington And then to branch Avenue back to Union Station. We found a pizza place in Washington. It's called wise guys.

[BillMagee]

It was an uneventful drive over to PHL this morning. It was like old times crossing the Walt in morning rush. In a weird way, I kind of miss that. I got my usual parking spot on level 6 of garage E, all but walked through security (I don't know who these people are who have issues), and I'm now chilling in the A-West US Airways Club waiting for my 9:55am flight to Tampa. The weather is hot but otherwise perfect here, so things are looking good for a nice flight south.

[BillMagee]

Just into North Carolina, heading over Greensboro. Nice, smooth flight at 36,000 feet, 535mph. Broken clouds. Looking for arrival into TPA at about 12:25 - 10 minutes early. Lunch at TPA is next on the agenda.

[BillMagee]

My flight from Philadelphia arrived Tampa at 12:34pm – one minute late. With the Silver Star leaving TPA at 5:17, I grabbed lunch at the airport, and then headed for the US Airways Club for a couple of hours of peaceful downtime with snacks, drinks and internet access. I was checking the status of the northbound Star using Amtrak Status Maps (by far, the best source of Amtrak train status information), and noted that the train was running right on time. Given that, I packed things up at 4:00pm, took the tram landside (does that count as a train?), grabbed a cab, and headed for the station.

I got a sensational cab driver – a gentleman originally from Siberia. He mentioned that he liked the climate in Florida better than his home climate. I bet. He delivered me in one piece to the station in about 20 minutes in a most entertaining fashion.

It was now 4:30, and Status Maps showed that #92 had left Lakeland at 4:12. It sure looked like an on-time arrival at TPA. In fact, it was early. The Silver Star backed into the station just before 5pm.

[saxman]

Well somehow a simple fest turns into a several weeks long jaunt across the US when I was able to drop more work trips than expected. I ended up in Essex, MT to stay at the Izaak Walton Inn. I recommend it however there is no cell service there and the only wifi is in the basement of the hotel. But a great place to watch trains. My intended EB #27 arrived 11 hours late so I spent the night in the hotel lobby until about 7 am. At least we had a lobby to stay in and the chairs were somewhat comfortable. Once the EB came, it was a quick ride to SPK where we boarded buses. But I was able to convince AGR to book me for the following day out Seattle, and they even upgraded me to a bedroom for my SEA to DEN trip. Of course I had to pay for a hotel in SEA, which was better than a 10 hour bus ride to Klamath! So I just hopped a flight to SEA from SPK (GEG) to Horizon and was able to enjoy SEA for an afternoon. The CS went fine and the CA was fine until coming down the front range into Denver. All throughout the night we lost more time after Denver, to flash flooding, storms, slow orders, freights, etc. Luckily my SCA let me stay in my bedroom all the way to CHI. I was on a different AGR redemption which would take me to Columbia, SC this time to meet the group on 92. So we missed the connection to 30 in CHI. They didn't hold it for us. I thought about flying to CLE and catching up or even flying to WAS, but they had already rebooked me for the next day. Now I was 2 days behind I would totally miss the CLT and JAX events. So I cancelled the rest and took the hotel for the night in CHI. Except the hotel was out in the suburbs. The chartered bus to the hotel ran out of gas and we were stuck at a gas station for 3 1/2 hours!...5 miles from the hotel. Finally got there at 12 midnight! Next day, slept in, hotel took me to Midway where I took a Delta flight to JAX via ATL. Made it just in time to meet the group going back to the Amtrak station in JAX. I got on the phone then with customer relations and they issued me a $400 travel voucher for future use. Still need to call AGR and get some points back since I only went DEN-CHI and didn't use the rest of my redemption.