Archive for the ‘Train Travel’ Category

Hurricane Gustav has its perks! You could wind up in San Antonio!

Monday, September 1st, 2008

Mission San Jose by Sheree Zielke

(An early morning view of the beautiful Mission San Jose in San Antonio’s Missions National Park.)

Thank you, Hurricane Gustav.  We are sitting high and dry in one of the loveliest cities in North America, San Antonio. We are supposed to be in New Orleans. But thanks to a little convincing by Gustav and American officials, we changed our plans.

On the day we were set to arrive in NOLA, evacuation orders forced nearly two million folks to leave the southern seaboard.  We had planned a holiday riding the rails, the Amtrak rails, but the trains were needed to take people out of New Orleans, so Amtrak cancelled our reservations.

We were in Houston (another area slated to be hit by Gustav) so we had no choice but to rent a car and head north to San Antonio.  In fact, on our way, we passed a convoy of 2 dozen buses that were heading south on a rescue mission.  Later, on TV, we watched as an endless line of buses, filled with those folks escaping the storm, headed away to safer zones like Dallas and Houston.

Now we are watching as the eye of Gustav makes landfall — the good news, maybe, for New Orleans, is that the eye will be passing farther to the west than expected.

But in the meantime, we are in San Antonio, where we have rented a comfortable house, we have walked the famous Riverwalk, we have ridden the canal boats, we have paid homage to the Alamo, and we have made an early morning trek to the old Spanish missions.  What a joy!

Read on . . .

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Riding the Rails – Take a day trip on the Amtrak! Affordable and fun!

Thursday, July 10th, 2008

Philadelphia Amtrak Train Station by Sheree Zielke

If you have never taken the train, or you haven’t ridden the rails in some time, then check out the nearest Amtrak station.  Especially when exploring a new city. That’s the Philadelphia Amtrak station showing above.

With the high cost of rental cars, gasoline, insurance, and with the irritation of battling traffic in a strange city, travel by Amtrak train is like a gift from heaven.

My husband and I have just decided to include at least one Amtrak day trip while traveling, and we are very glad we did.  We took the Amtrak between New York City and Philadelphia, and loved the trip.

Read on . . .

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Spend a day in Philadelphia – take the train from New York City – it’s a GREAT idea!

Sunday, July 6th, 2008
Click to play A Day in Philly 08
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Cheers,
Sheree Zielke