Well, we made it home.  Finally.  Two hours late, but better than not at all.  Today we finished our ride on the Capitol Limited, arriving into Washington, DC, only about half-an-hour late.  As we had a longer layover than anticipated, due to having had to change trains the other day due to our train having been cancelled due to the hurricane in Florida (why WOULDN’T an event in Florida impinge on our trip to the Southwest???), we had plenty of time to make the connection.

Too much time, as it turned out.  While we were waiting, there was suddenly something weird going on, and then the staff in the Acela Lounge came in and told us we all had to evacuate the station onto the platform.  Rumors among the passengers that there had been a shooting in the station turned out to be true, despite the fact that there was nothing (yet) in the news media.  And just so you don’t accuse me of making this up as the final bizarre event on our rather bizarre vacation, here is the link to news media about the event.   And yes, the incident did affect our trip, as the train was delayed nearly an hour.  Trains to Richmond have to change engines at Washington, DC, from electric to diesel.  Normally, they pull the train in, drive the engine away, back on the new one, and pull straight out.  This time, however, because of the crime scene, they weren’t allowed to drive straight through, so they had to move the new engine all the way around to what was the back of the train (lord only knows how many switches of tracks that entailed), which would now become the front of the train. 

This unexpected strategy also meant that the quiet car, which is always way at the back of the train was suddenly way at the front of the train, so when the Red Cap who was helping us with our luggage (and early boarding!) took us to what he thought was the quiet car, it wasn’t.  I told him never mind—I wasn’t up to moving all the way back to the other end of the train.  As that turned out, our car was nearly empty, and so was very quiet.  Not a crying baby anywhere in earshot.   Pardon the bad pun.

Our long-suffering house sitter showed up right on time to collect us from the Staples Mill station, and we finally arrived home shortly after 8:00 p.m., more than ready to be here!

Our vacation by the numbers:

24 days spent traveling

5759 miles traveled by train (should have been 6425) Northeast Region 97 miles x 2; Capitol Limited: 764 x 2; California Zephyr: 2438; Southwest Chief: 2265 – 666.

2538 miles traveled by car

95 miles walked

1 Route 66 hotel stayed in that we had to miss on our trip in 2016

16 states traveled through (many of them more than once)

5 states National-Park-Sited-in

10 National Park sites visited (including the extra one—Navaho National Monument)

17 stamps in the passport

15 geocaches logged

4 old friends and 2 family members visited

28 blog entries with 32,718 words written (not counting captions and notes for photos) and 1105 photos posted

4088 pictures taken (Not too excessive for me; I took more than 3000 on the Route 66 trip and on the Alaska trip, and those were both two weeks long!)

Plan A replaced by plan B on day 11 replaced by Plan A for exactly 4 hours on day 22, and finally Plan C implemented on day 22 until we got home

24 bumps in the road (some larger than others):

1.       Train from Richmond to DC was cancelled and we were put on another train, but Amtrak didn’t notify us.  Found out by accident.  Could have been worse; we could have failed to find out and thus missed our very first train, messing up the entire trip right out the gate.

2.      Capitol Limited held up for about 1.5 hours outside LaPorte, IN, due to fatality on tracks (we didn’t hit the car; a freight train did).  Could have been worse:  could have been our train which hit the car.

3.      No observation car on the California Zephyr.  Couldn’t have been a lot worse than that—I guess they could have painted all the windows black….!

4.      California Zephyr held up 45 minutes or so due to railroad tie fire at storage yard.  Could have been worse; we could have arrived right when the fires started and been delayed 3 hours, as the eastbound train had been the night before.

5.      Tim lost his shaving kit (never found).  Could have been worse: Amtrak could have lost our luggage.

6.      Waited an hour for our ride to Enterprise; never came.   We had to call again, and they sent someone who is not one of their drivers to get us.  Could have been worse; it could have taken two hours.

7.      BART was messed up on return from Giants’ game: one track closed; no annunciator signs.  We had to take the first train back to the east bay then change trains.  Would have had to wait another half-hour; took Lyft instead. Could have been worse; they could have closed both tracks.

8.      LaQuinta Inn: bathroom door locked itself and couldn’t be reopened without a huge screwdriver.  Could have been worse: one of us could have needed the bathroom urgently while we were waiting for the maintenance guy with the screwdriver in the middle of the night after we got back from the Giants’ game.

9.      Discovered on news media (NOT by message from Amtrak) that our train from LA to Albuquerque might be cancelled due to pending strike of freight company workers. Could have been worse; we could have not found out at all until we showed up to catch the train.

10.  Walgreens promised prescriptions by 10:00; told us when we got there at 11:30 that they wouldn’t be available until 3.  Had to find new Walgreens to order prescription (in New Mexico).  I suppose it could have been worse; Tim could have paid in advance and we would have had to wait until 3 which would have meant we couldn’t turn the car in when we wanted to and then we couldn’t have gone to Milpitas to meet my HS friend Karla for dinner.

11.  While on Coast Starlight, discovered on our own (NOT by message from Amtrak) that our train to Albuquerque the next day was, indeed, cancelled due to pending freight strike.  Complete change of plan to rental car and hotel stay in Gallup.  Could have been worse; there could have been no rental cars available and we could have been stuck in LA indefinitely.

12.  Picked up rental car at LAX; we found out later clerk put wrong option for gas and we may be stiffed for $90 in gas that we didn’t use.  Full disclosure:  I called when we got home and Avis refunded the money immediately without giving me any problems. So really, no need to worry about how it could have been worse.

13.  Dinner in Holbrook; Carrie wanted fried chicken, but owner told us she hadn’t been able to get fryers for a year.  (Turned out okay, as we had to eat friend chicken twicer later.) Could have been worse; the restaurant could have been closed.

14.  Then we got to Los Alamos:  insanity there caused by hitting homecoming weekend.  Restaurants all swarming; main road through town closed; massive traffic jam after parade; laundromat closed due to repaving of parking lot.  Did laundry at hotel; possibly more expensive than laundromat would have been.  Could have been worse; we were counting on the laundromat, so there could have been no laundry facilities at all at the hotel.

15.  Stayed in Cuba Saturday night after leaving Valles Caldera, only to discover that there are no restaurants open on Saturday night.  Had to settle for fast food; went to chicken joint and bought the one choice of what they had left.  (Chicken joint actually closed an hour early, after the next customer, because they were out of food. )  Could have been worse; the chicken place could have been completely out of food when we got there.

16.  Aztec Ruins:  Tim’s friend from Richmond Battlefied, whom he was hoping to see, was out sick.  Could have been worse; we could have found out she was dead or dying.  But that is really too morbid to consider.

17.  Mesa Verde lodge: phone in room did not work; no cell service.  Eventually took three tries to get someone to replace the phone.  Restaurant full for dinner; check-in clerk knew we wanted reservations for the next day, but she didn’t tell us that we had to make them with her.  Much bad information about when and where food is available from various staff and the information book in the room.  Could have been worse:  the full restaurant really could have been the only place open in the park for dinner, as we were told by one of those bad-information people.

18.  At Chinle, we had to get more fast-food chicken, because there were no restaurants where we could eat in.  The ice machine at the chicken place was broken.   Later at dinner in the hotel restaurant, their ice machine was also broken, which is very weird.  Could have been worse; we could have had to eat at Burger King.

19.  When we started down the south rim drive at Canyon de Chelly, we were first on the scene of a car fire.  That delayed us an hour.  Could have been worse; the car could actually have exploded!  Or worse still:  could have been our car on fire!

20.  Breakfast the next morning at the hotel restaurant was a disaster: we waited the 45 minutes for food, which was lukewarm when it came, and then we could get neither butter for the toast nor the check. Determined not to eat here for dinner or for breakfast tomorrow.  Could have been worse; we could be sitting three still.

21.  Turns out that, as in Cuba, NM, they roll up the sidewalks in Chinle, AZ on the weekends, so nothing was available for dinner but fast food.  We settled for carryout-only pizza.  To be fair, this turned out to be pretty good, actually! AND we got the bonus of watching two bad disaster movies in our room, and so my movie review fans got a bonus movie review.  

22.  Returned to Albuquerque on Sunday, tried to fill the car with gas, only to discover that the gas station has no gas.  Found another station.  Returned rental car, discovered problem with overcharge for gas.  Got on shuttle from rental car center at airport to go to terminal to catch bus into town; discovered bus into town not running today.  Called another Lyft.  Could have been worse: we could have failed to find out the bus was not running until we got to the terminal.  (Really, that wouldn’t have been much worse; the Lyft driver would have just picked us up there.)

23.  Discovered train to Richmond cancelled due to hurricane.  Could have been worse: we could have been the people on our train who are headed to South Carolina and who must, therefore, take one of those Florida through trains.  Who knows how long they will be stuck and where.  (We’d rent a car and drive, of course!)

24.  Shooting in Amtrak Station delays train by an hour and 15 minutes.  Could have been worse:  could have been us who was shot.   Wouldn’t have been a surprising ending to this trip.

24 hassles in 24 days is really NOT the kind of logistical record one looks for in a lengthy vacation.

Someone asked me right away: how was the trip?  The answer is that all the places we visited were awesome.  The National Park Service once again gave us more than we were expecting, and every single site was worth seeing.  Our visits with family and friends were rewarding, and our day in San Francisco was a delight.  It was only the logistics which were a nightmare, and that was made worse by the fact that there were so many logistics because the trip was so long.  This was the longest trip we’ve ever taken (by quite a bit—I think our two weeks in Alaska and our two weeks on Route 66 were the previous longest trips), and possibly we won’t tackle another one this long—certainly not any time soon! 

But I’ll be on a train to NYC in November to go catch a few Broadway shows and Tim and I will be off on a (much shorter) trip in February for our 34^th anniversary (which was last August).  So we may be tired, but we are not defeated, and we will travel on!