Thanks for hanging out with me for the week! So here's the ride home story.....
We left Coronado at 4PM because DH and DBIL wanted to go to a camera store in Orlando. We got to the train station about 615 for a 724 departure. That got pushed to 8, then 810, and finally 815. Amtrak has always done a great job of seating us together, so much so that I didn't realize there was another option. But this time when we boarded, the split us up 6 and 3. Not only that, but we were in the last seats before the snack car, right next to the bathrooms, which meant we would have people walking by us and standing behind our seats much of the time. That morning I called Amtrak to make reservations for the dining car and was told that they didn't do that anymore. I was also told that the train was nowhere near full and not to worry about it, we would be fine. Well we got on the train and the folks in the dining car told me they were full and couldn't accommodate us for dinner. So now it's almost 9, we haven't eaten, and we are limited to $7 microwaved burgers. After spending $90 on snack car food we decided that our seats were just really really bad, and we were nowhere close to each other. I asked the conductor if we could be moved, and they very nicely opened another car for us, which meant we were the only ones in that car! That was great, but dragging luggage for 9 people through 3 full train cars was not fun, especially when it's past 10.
THEN, about 11, one of the conductors comes into our car and tells us that there are 2 routes going North. One goes through Savannah to Raleigh and one runs east up to Rocky Mount. There was a wreck on a bridge somewhere in SC and all riders going to Raleigh were being diverted in Savannah so they could take the other route. Diverted to a GREYHOUND BUS!!!!!! So we would have to get off at 2AM and transfer to a bus that would stop at all stops between Savannah and Raleigh, which would take about 8 hours. Uh.....no. When I heard that the first stop after Raleigh was Rocky Mount, I asked if we could just ride through to there. They said yes but we would be on our own finding transportation back to Cary. WHATEVER, renting 2 cars would be better than a Greyhound bus from Savannah. Then my DH remembered that we have a friend who just bought a 12 passenger van! He drove from Archdale to Rocky Mount just to drive us all to Cary. We finally got back to Greensboro about 3PM, and we are EXHAUSTED!!!!
Guess it's time to start planning for December!!! Should I do a "pick our restaurants" thread for that trip? We will probably do the video reviews again, but there is definitely time before I make reservations to do a restaurant choice thread as well.....
