This is going to be a catch up. I’m planning a quick trip for 2007. I’ve sort of been thinking about it for two months and I should have started this back then but I didn’t, so, I’ll try to catch up in one session.
I tell all of my friends how much I’ve enjoyed my trips on Amtrak and tell them they should try it some time. Frances and I were visiting our friends, Pat and Penny when the subject came up again. Pat said he’d like to take a trip sometime. We talked a few minutes and Pat said he could take off four days for a trip and wondered where we could go in that time frame. I told him that I would have to look at some schedules / timetables to see what we could do. I guess we could drive to Cincinnati and take the train to Chicago. That’s not a very exciting trip since most of it is during the night. I was thinking about Cincinnati (trains 50/51) to Chicago and then to Whitefish Mt. (trains 7/8) or Salt Lake City (trains 5/6). After a quick scan of the timetables I found that they were out of the question. If we were not going to be able to go through the Rockies, then we would be missing the best parts of those trips. Also, I didn’t want to go somewhere, get off the train, wait 90 minutes in the middle of downtown nowhere, and then catch the train back towards home. What other options did we have. Maybe a trip on the City of New Orleans (trains 58/59) might work. Too much time lost between trains in Chicago and poor timing in New Orleans to make that work well. How about going east? I knew we could go to Washington, D.C. (trains 50/51.) New York was possible but the train arrives around midnight and departs for the return trip around 8:00AM. That wasn’t very desirable. Oh, one other thing. Train 50/51 only runs 3 days a week and we would have to spend two nights in New York. What if we went to Boston? How would those connections work? A quick trip to www.amtrak.com and “WOW,” I think we could do that. Lets see….
Leave CIN on Friday morning around 3:00AM (train 50)
Arrive WAS (DC) Friday evening, around 6:00 PM
Depart WAS at 10:00PM. (train 66)
Arrive BOS 8:00AM Saturday
Spend the day touring Boston
Depart BOS at 9:45PM Saturday evening (train 67)
Arrive WAS at 7:00AM Sunday morning, layover for a few hours
Depart WAS around 11:00AM (train 51)
Arrive CIN 1:00AM Monday morning.
Drive back to Louisville and still have time to rest.
And the cost??? $161.00 per person. Since I wanted to get the most miles for the bucks this looked like a good option. Over 2100 miles round trip, actually 2108 miles.
I sent this info home with Penny the next day and talked to Pat a day or two later. He liked the idea but wanted to wait until the fall. He was going to have some eye surgery and wanted to get through that before making a commitment. Besides, the colors might be nice in the fall and the weather should be a little cooler.
Stay tuned for updates.