# 1st half of LD round-trip with my son...



## Renee (Aug 5, 2011)

Okay, so for those of you that asked me to come back and report on the trip, I will give a synopsis of the first half of our trip.

Our train was delayed just about 2 hours out of GRV due to flooding somewhere between Virginia and North Carolina. We were supposed to leave at 5am but ended up departing at almost 7am. No biggie here as we were excited about our first Amtrak experience however, on our 2 hr drive to GRV, we checked with Julie and text status messages and neither was working. I also checked the updates before we left the house and the website reported the Crescent on time.






We arrived in NOL about 1.5 hrs late, got a cab, went to hotel, and rested for the evening.

We caught the SL from NOL the next morning, Aug. 1, and everything was going great until we left the station in Houston, TX on our way to San Antonio, TX. We were about 25 minutes out of San Antonio at about midnight, maybe about 1230am, and the train came to roaring halt. Two emergency vehicles went racing past on the side street very shortly after we stopped and this was very curious. We were at a standstill for just about 2 hours when we finally got an update that a bridge ahead of us was burned out from a wildfire and we had to head back to Houston!!!! The locomotives disconnected, went around on some alternate track and hooked up to what was the rear of the train, and we were now cruising back to Houston backwards, yay.

4am- arrived in Houston, detrained, loaded up on buses, and took a 3 hr journey to San Antonio to board the SL that WAS headed to NOL but will now go back to LAX.

7am-I have had 0 sleep, but my 5 yr old son is being very patient and understanding. In fact, he was being more patient than most of the adults that were pushing ahead of us to get on the train in San Antonio. So rude. Could they not see that I had a child with me and luggage I was handling all by myself??!! Some people are just jerks.

After all this, made it to LAX on time and feeling good. OVERALL- we both enjoyed our first experience on Amtrak and I realize that the burned out bridge is not Amtraks fault. I was very pleased by the roominess of coach seating, the friendliness of the staff (except for the snack/cafe guy on the 19 Crescent), and loved that the Superliner has the dressing room with attached bathroom. This made it a lot easier for my son and I to go in together so I could assist him. We are excited for our trip home next week and will definitely book more trips with Amtrak when we travel.

Thanks for reading! Renee


----------



## Bob Dylan (Aug 5, 2011)

:hi: Glad you enjoyed the Trip!  Stuff does happen but you seem to have the True Travelers outlook, go with the flow! The jerks getting on the Train in SAS seem to be everywhere, here in Texas we like too think that people like this are from somewhere else, but a jerk is a jerk! As to the cafe LSA, hes out of New York, nuff said! :lol: Enjoy your stay in LA, hope the trip back goes smoother and you can be proud of your child, sounds like a case of good parenting to me! :wub: Look forward to your next Trip report!


----------



## johnny.menhennet (Aug 5, 2011)

Sounds like a good experience overall, and I hope you don't have to be bustituted on the return. If you don't have one already, be sure to get an Amtrak Guest Reward account for free for both you AND your son. Enjoy your time in LA!


----------



## Renee (Aug 5, 2011)

johnny.menhennet said:


> Sounds like a good experience overall, and I hope you don't have to be bustituted on the return. If you don't have one already, be sure to get an Amtrak Guest Reward account for free for both you AND your son. Enjoy your time in LA!


So the AGR account I already opened will only work for travel in my name? I thought that it would assign points to my account for the both of us. He's only 5 yrs old, after all. Hmmm...


----------



## GG-1 (Aug 5, 2011)

Renee said:


> johnny.menhennet said:
> 
> 
> > Sounds like a good experience overall, and I hope you don't have to be bustituted on the return. If you don't have one already, be sure to get an Amtrak Guest Reward account for free for both you AND your son. Enjoy your time in LA!
> ...


Aloha

Sorry but AGR accounts must be in the name of the traveler, your son. You can go to the AGR site and do a referral for your son. and then both accounts get a bonus. I am not sure, however on the points for the trip that is done. I did a referral for my granddaughter when she was 6 and we both got 500 points so the age doesn't matter.


----------



## the_traveler (Aug 5, 2011)

GG-1 said:


> I am not sure, however on the points for the trip that is done.


You can receive credit for any trip that occurs up to 21 days *PRIOR* to registering for your AGR account!



(You'll have to contact AGR I believe.)


----------



## GG-1 (Aug 5, 2011)

the_traveler said:


> GG-1 said:
> 
> 
> > I am not sure, however on the points for the trip that is done.
> ...


Aloha

Mahalo to The_Traveler for adding to my knowledge of AGR, he is our resident expert.. However I think further AGR discussion of AGR should be in this Link.


----------

