Lisa On Her Way

[kevin_standlee]

Lisa called me this morning from her hotel using her calling card (remember, she has no mobile phone) to let me know she was checking out and hauling her luggage the ~850 m down to Union Station. The plan was for her to hang out in the Metropolitan Lounge until her train left at 2 PM Chicago time. When Union Station remodeled a few years ago, they build a new lounge that opens off the main hall and is huge. It's a very comfortable place to wait for your train. When train time comes, they call it in the lounge and escort all of the first class (sleeping car) passengers down to the train.

As I write this, Amtrak train 5, the westbound California Zephyr, has departed Galesburg IL, having left Chicago on time. I don't expect to hear from Lisa again until Thursday morning. Her scheduled arrival in Reno is 9:13 AM. I will of course be watching the train's progress and will leave for Reno when the train passes on Thursday morning. I hope she gets lots of rest in her roomette and gets to watch the lovely scenery go by without having to worry about connections or hotel rooms or airline flights.

Comments

[arlesstra]

May this last leg be pleasant and restful.

[delosharriman]

I was vastly irritated, because I had to haul my baggage all the way from my hotel. There was a "summon a taxi!" button at the hotel front desk, similar to the ones we saw everywhere in Britain, but unlike those, it wouldn't work without a mobile phone number — and it rejected the number I put in! I thought maybe if I went out onto State Street I'd find a taxi going by and hail it, but no such luck.

[kevin_standlee]

I've never noticed that anywhere before. I have a trip to the Bay Area that is troubling me because I'm going to need a taxi to the train station at 4:00 AM. Lyft will let me make the advance request, but they caution that there's no guarantee that there will be any drivers available. I hope that if nobody shows up at 4:00 I can get a taxi in time to get me to the station before 4:30, which is when I have to catch the bus to Oakland in order to (eventually) make the eastbound CZ to Reno.