What a day.  I'm on a train again, and thankful for it.  I awoke in my New Jersey hotel room at 11am.  My first thought was “wow the clocks must be wrong because my alarm hasn’t gone off yet.”  It’s true the alarm did not go off, but that’s because it was set only for weekdays and this is Saturday.  Yikes.  With a train departing in Philadelphia in 2.5 hours, I was in a panic.

Fortunately I had packed most things last night and washed out something to wear to the Laundromat.  The plan was to get up at 730, have breakfast and goodbyes  with the cousins, then do laundry and gas the rental car.  This was not to be.  I ditched showering, checking out, and both laundry and gas, threw on my rinsed out clothes and dashed to return my rental car.   Fortunately they only charged me $55 to fill the tank.  It would have cost me at least $35 had I done it myself so I figured a $20 stupidity fee was tolerable.

They called my cab for me and I  got my regular guy, Al from Best Taxi, In about 15 minutes.  This put me from wakening to the cab ride in 45 minutes.  I consider that a miracle.  But I was still worried.  It was 11:45 and my train left from Philadelphia (remember, I was still in Cherry Hill, NJ!) in just under an hour.  Plus I couldn’t get my ticket from the automated kiosk because I had misplaced (likely deeply packed) the computer printout with the bar code.  And I was fully loaded with luggage.  Al came through like a champ.  He got me deposited just outside the Amtrak station at 12:05.  I’m pretty sure the cab sprouted wings and flew.  I tipped him $15 and he deserved it—he handled my baggage from the trunk of the rental car to the door of the station, got me through heavy Philly fourth of July traffic in 20 minutes, including crossing the Ben Franklin Bridge with a $5 toll and talked me down from a panic attack of major proportions.  I’m dead serious about that.

Inside the station I was ticketed by 12:15 and waiting for a RedCap—those nifty guys who will handle your baggage and preboard you if you tip them well.  There were none to be found.  None.  They called my train for boarding and I couldn’t access the elevators without  a staff person.  I scooted over to the boarding escalators, told the conductor my problem and he personally carried my bags down for me.  On top of that he refused a tip.

I made it on the train with a full three minutes to spare.  It was packed.  It as rows of two seats rather than the one I came down on from Toronto which was a 2  and 1 situation.  All the rows on both sides had at least one person in them, and more than half had two.  I found someone who looked relatively nonthreatening and she allowed me to sit.  By the time we left our next stop about 20 minutes later, Business Class was full and they were kicking out Coach people to make room for the ticketed folks who needed a seat.  It was like that through to Harrisburg, PA where it cleared out enough for me to move over the aisle to newly emptied seats.  I’m now on my own in a two seater and starting to relax.  Only 4.75 more hours and I’m in Pittsburgh, PA.

The last few days have been a jumble.  My middle daughter totalled her car in Toronto (she’s fine but the car is gone) and my youngest became ill at his baseball game and delayed the trip with his dad by half a day.  Last I heard they had made it as far as London, Ontario, so I’m hoping someone will be able to meet me in Pittsburgh as planned!

I haven’t yet eaten today and I should go get something but that would meat putting my shoes on and frankly I’m not hungry enough to do that.  Will nibble candy until I get desperate!

~later~

OK I got desperate.  The $6 hamburger was really good, actually.  Read some, watched a little more of a documentary on Mothman I’m trying to get through, and did some crossword puzzles.  Next think I knew we were in Pittsburgh, half an hour early.  Excellent service at the station in Pittsburgh and hubby arrived about 5 minutes after my bags and I got to the main meeting area so all was well.  We headed back toward Columbus, stopping only for gas and dinner.  Dinner was at the worst Ponderosa on the planet in Weirton, WV.  I kid you not, the guy on the grill walked by and grabbed a slice of pizza off the buffet and stuffed it in his mouth while heading back into the kitchen, and there was a cookie on the dessert table with a bite taken out of it.

We did make it to Mom’s at about 1230am.  Lots to plan for in the week ahead!