By "Without Incident", I Mean "With Incident"
Memory is a fickle thing, and after I posted the previous, I realized I'd gotten things wrong. Unfortunately, I had a train to catch.
Actually, the first part of my trip had been marred by a significant incident, which is that Amtrak had changed my trip without prompting, and when I got to the station they gave me tickets for a direct trip to Cleveland on the 22nd. Their records said that I had been called and that I had given permission for the change (my theory: several such calls were made and someone checked the wrong row on a list). Furthermore, they told me the Albany to Cleveland leg on the 24th was sold out. They told me to take it up in Albany since they didn't have time to fix things before my train departed (even though the departure was slightly delayed when a burned-out heater filled one of the cars with smoke). However, when I arrived in Albany, expecting a spectacular show of buck-passing, I found that the Boston agents had indeed resolved the situation themselves after my departure, the correct tickets were printed, and all was well.
The second leg of my trip was similarly uneventful: Overall, things went all right, although I arrived two hours late (5AM). Markos had agreed to give me a ride back home from the station, when I realized how late we would be (at about 2AM), I went to call him only to find that my phone was out of funds and the mechanism for adding more from the phone was not working. Fortunately, I had exactly enough to send one last text message, averting disaster. I grabbed a cab when I arrived (unlike previous times, I didn't have to call for one, there were several looking for passengers out front).
Today was good: Had lunch with my mom, shoveled snow, talked to my brother, hung out with Markos and Co. (which involved an enjoyable but somewhat less than healthy collection of food and drink). However, I still have yet to so much as see the other half of my immediate family.
Actually, the first part of my trip had been marred by a significant incident, which is that Amtrak had changed my trip without prompting, and when I got to the station they gave me tickets for a direct trip to Cleveland on the 22nd. Their records said that I had been called and that I had given permission for the change (my theory: several such calls were made and someone checked the wrong row on a list). Furthermore, they told me the Albany to Cleveland leg on the 24th was sold out. They told me to take it up in Albany since they didn't have time to fix things before my train departed (even though the departure was slightly delayed when a burned-out heater filled one of the cars with smoke). However, when I arrived in Albany, expecting a spectacular show of buck-passing, I found that the Boston agents had indeed resolved the situation themselves after my departure, the correct tickets were printed, and all was well.
The second leg of my trip was similarly uneventful: Overall, things went all right, although I arrived two hours late (5AM). Markos had agreed to give me a ride back home from the station, when I realized how late we would be (at about 2AM), I went to call him only to find that my phone was out of funds and the mechanism for adding more from the phone was not working. Fortunately, I had exactly enough to send one last text message, averting disaster. I grabbed a cab when I arrived (unlike previous times, I didn't have to call for one, there were several looking for passengers out front).
Today was good: Had lunch with my mom, shoveled snow, talked to my brother, hung out with Markos and Co. (which involved an enjoyable but somewhat less than healthy collection of food and drink). However, I still have yet to so much as see the other half of my immediate family.