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Trip Reports by our Clients:
Amtraking Ft Worth/Chicago/Washington/Williamsburg
by Dave and Clinta Hoban
Dear Ted and Sylvia,
We intended to send you a card, but events sort of took over. We boarded
#22 as scheduled, and the trip began. Sometime during the wee smalls,
some idiot in coach decided he needed to go to the bathroom, so he stepped out
into the aisle and "went." Stopped the train somewhere in Arkansas, or
possibly Missouri and after four hours, the police removed him and we
went on our way. (I suspect that there was a jurisdictional issue to be
resolved, and they wanted to be sure the officials of the correct state
made the arrest, thus the lengthy delay. Otherwise, they might not have
been able to make any charges stick to him.)
Result: 1 and 1/2 hours after #30 left, we arrived in Chicago.
Amtrak was good to us, though, and gave us a ticket to a hotel, taxi fare
both ways, and money for meals missed. However, we couldn't get the
deluxe sleeper to D.C. so had to settle for standard. So, we got a partial
refund. Had a good time in Colonial Williamsburg, and aside from a couple of
dicey connections in Washington, the rest of the trip was uneventful. The
signature dessert on the train, by the way, is fantastic.
The rent car, a Kia Optima, was OK, but I'm not ready to trade the
Bonneville for one of them.
We were impressed by all the people we encountered in Chicago -- sales
people, taxi drivers, everyone -- all so friendly and helpful.
We haven't decided on our next venture. This one put a serious dent in
our travel budget, so we'll have to wait a while and recover. We will more
than likely travel via Amtrak again, but probably not in 2003. In case
anyone has any doubts, deluxe sleeper is the ONLY way to go.
Thanks for a good job,
Dave and Clinta Hoban
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