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[KevinKorell]

With such a large event still in the planning stages, and with the constructive thoughts I have been receiving from many of you, many positive changes to our plans are inevitable. In the past couple of days, here are the changes to the NoCal Fest which should be of interest to everyone:

• The Sacramento hotel and restaurant listings have been updated with a few more places.
• With the decision to take Amtrak San Joaquin 703 into Sacramento on Thursday to avoid the lack of downtown hotels in Stockton comes its own problems. The scheduled 11:25 PM arrival is just three minutes before the light rail system's last run of the night leaves the Amtrak station. So when planning your hotel stay in Sacramento, special consideration should be given to either staying in a hotel downtown within walking distance of Amtrak, or taking a taxicab late Thursday night to hotels along the light rail line. That cab ride would only happen once since you would be able to take light rail on Friday morning, Friday evening, and Saturday morning. Hotels on the list within walking distance of Amtrak in downtown Sacramento include the Vagabond Inn, Embassy Suites, TraveLodge, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Best Western Sutter House, Quality Inn, and Hyatt.
• Bill Magee has created a page of information for you in case finances or work schedule prohibit a transcontinental round trip by rail. By using air travel alternatives between key points you can still ride the California Zephyr in one direction and partake of all scheduled California activities.
• Several people have suggested that the Powell-Hyde and Powell-Mason cable car lines, being essentially tourist operations, tend to have waiting lines at both the downtown and the Fisherman's Wharf endpoints. It is possible there could be waits of 30-45 minutes. Because of this the rides on these two lines have been rescheduled for the end of the day, so as not to affect our other activities. With the revamping of the itinerary, rides on 5 of the 6 Muni Metro streetcar lines were consolidated to the morning hours. The itinerary will show a totally redone schedule for Wednesday 7/18 only.
• Google Earth did not show me any fast food type eating establishments near the Richmond, CA BART/Amtrak station. So I changed "Lunch in Richmond or aboard Amtrak train" to "Lunch aboard Amtrak train". We have plenty of time once aboard the Capitol Corridor train to have lunch while in motion.
• For those on the east coast, there was also a slight change in plans for the connecting northbound Regional service from Washington, DC. Originally I had Regional 148 for points New York and south, and Regional 178 (an hour later out of Washington) for points north of New York up to Boston. That has been changed to Regional 178 for all Northeast Corridor points, because the system rejected 148 due to its departure within 2 hours of the Capitol Limited's scheduled arrival into Washington.

Fine tuning of the itinerary will probably continue, however it would be best to book your hotel and travel reservations as soon as you can to ensure availability. No major changes to travel plans are anticipated.

Edited by KevinKorell, 31 January 2007 - 12:10 AM.

[AmtrakFan]

Kevin, For everyone's FYI, the Vagabond is right across the street from the Station.