I got up a little early Saturday in order to get to the Tucson Amtrak station to catch my 8:15 a.m. train. It turns out I didn’t need to, since it arrived an hour late. But before arriving at that conclusion, I had taken advantage of my $15 credit at the Doubletree for their breakfast buffet and taken an Uber to the train station, arriving about 7:30 a.m.
When the train did reach the station, quite a few people got on, but I was the only one headed to my sleeping car. The car attendant, Efren, met me before the train and carried my suitcase onboard. My roomette was on the upper level again, so I took the stairs up and then got comfortable in the room. The train left about 9:15 a.m.
There were delays along the way due to freight train traffic. The dining car attendant at dinner said we were two hours behind schedule. A while after dinner, Efren set up the bed in my roomette. We had changed time to Mountain Daylight Time in New Mexico and then again to Central Daylight Time a little east of El Paso, TX. It was about 10:30 p.m. CDT by the time I went to bed.
I woke up at 6:00 Sunday morning and went to breakfast when the dining car opened. The train was approaching San Antonio as I ate. For some reason, we sat in San Antonio for over 90 minutes. I think we had to take on more fuel, water and passengers, but I don’t know why it took so long. Anyway we were late, finally arriving in Houston about 1 p.m., two hours later than scheduled. It was windy and warm in Houston, around 80 degrees.
My Uber driver was a young lady driving an electric BMW i3 on her first day of driving for Uber. She was pleasant to talk to, but I was a little nervous seeing how fast everyone drove while they tailgated too. We made it to the Houston airport alright and I found my way to the shuttle bus to the rental car office. My Enterprise compact car was waiting for me, a blue Mitsubishi Mirage. Then I navigated via my phone through the fast freeway traffic to my hotel, the Hilton at Post Oak, which Amtrak Vacations had reserved for me when they booked my train tickets.
But there was an unpleasant surprise when I tried to check in: the Hilton reception staff said my reservation had been canceled. Another glitch with my Amtrak Vacations arrangements! I got on the phone to Amtrak Vacations while sitting in the Hilton lobby and they apologized and told me to book and pay for the hotel on my own, then write an email to the customer assistance office for Amtrak Vacations on Monday, explaining the situation, and they would reimburse me for the hotel. (I sure hope that works.) Anyway, I finally got a room on the 3rd floor of the Hilton.
Since I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, I quickly went downstairs to the bar and ate an early dinner accompanied by a beer, again taking advantage of my $15 meal credit gained from my Hilton Honors Diamond status. (Thanks again, Gary!) I decided to not go out sightseeing afterwards since I was tired from the day’s ordeals and didn’t want to battle the traffic or the wind. So I called it a day.
Lori's Travels 