Round The World and other travels
A frequent flyer's collection of trip diaries
This is: Amtrak Adventure 2019
Hot Springs failure
As
our train (scheduled to depart at 0805) was going to be severely
delayed, there was no need to get up early. When we did surface, it
was to find that for the third time in a week, poor weather had
turned into pleasant sunshine on the morning of leaving a
destination. Today would also be memorable for the resignation
(effective 7 June) of UK Prime Minister Theresa May. We had
breakfast in a branch of Caribou Coffee, just a five-minute
walk away on 16th Street Mall.
There was then no real option but to return to the hotel and wait for the constantly revised departure time to settle down. We walked the short distance to Union Station at the hotel's check-out time and waited in the pleasant sunshine, buying some takeaway lunch when it seemed that boarding was fairly imminent. We had taken the decision to go for a Family Bedroom, something that we had sampled previously on another trip. These are situated on the lower deck - one per sleeper car - and bring the considerable benefit of providing uninterrupted views on either side of the compartment. (For more details of the journey, click on Trains above and look at Train 3.)
We arrived in Glenwood Springs approximately 6.5hrs late (allowing
for the change to Mountain Time) and took a taxi to the Courtyard by
Marriott on the edge of town. The original plan for today, assuming
an on-time arrival at 1355, was to have spent the remainder of the
afternoon 'taking the waters' at this well known spa resort. In the
event - and cheers, Amtrak
- our activities were restricted to catching up on some laundry and
having drinks with some light food.
