Midwest & More Road Trip Discussion (Pre-departure)

[YFlower]

This promises to be another great trip, and the Amtrak twist was a surprise! I use them all the time in the Northeast corridor; much more reliable than flying amongst NYC, DC, and Boston. Will we be treated to any recollections of childhood adventures ala Death Valley or are most of these places new? As a tween our family did a couple of trips on your route from El Paso west--LOTS of fun stuff that I wish I had time for now that I can appreciate it more.

[HostDave]

I don't think there will be any trips down Memory Lane this time My mother's family is from Kansas City, so you'll notice we're not going near there. I'm not in a big hurry to see any of the people who are left, if you catch my drift. I've been to a few places in Texas (my dad was a cowboy on a family-owned ranch before time began.) I only went to the ranch with him once and I have no clue where it was. All I know is it was in the middle of nowhere and I still own a share of the water rights. Bill might have some recollections about Arizona since his aunt and two cousins live there. I haven't asked him yet if I need to schedule a visit, but I will. As I mentioned before, we'll be doing a more intensive road trip through the Southwest maybe in the fall.

The point of our road trips, I guess, is to visit places in the U.S. we should have visited long ago before we were sucked in by Crystal If the train works out reasonably well, we might give an east coast road trip a shot. However, it gets more and more risky for us to be gone for extended periods of time unless we can make alternate arrangements for someone to stay here while we're gone. We're OK for right now, so we're taking advantage of it while we can.

[Mike808]

The adult menu certainly looks better. Now it really does look like fun. And if Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney are singing about snow in the club car...

[HostDave]

Heck, if they dredged up dead entertainers I'd feel like I was back on Crystal

[FeAudrey]

The route guide is already posted in the blog ...

The link that's there now is to the timetable; the route guide a different item, a description of the stops and sights along the way.

Side note: Boarding in Fullerton leaves you one stop shy of doing the Southwest Chief's complete route. Avoiding the pressies who stalk the stars at Union Station?

(Pressies are who the likes of Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney would have been ducking. Paparazzi came later, by which time the stars had switched to air travel ... )

[HostDave]

What I'm avoiding is going anywhere near downtown LA.

I'm aware there is a route guide. I will link to it in the text when we actually start the trip. I never leave any stone unturned when it comes to planning a trip.

[FeAudrey]

Saw your hotel booking update.

As a phrase, "the Loop" has generalized to mean "Chicago's Central Business District", but there is a literal Loop, an oblong-shaped section of the elevated rapid transit structure, encircling the center of downtown.

theWit is perched on one of the corners just outside that Loop. A non-south-facing or a higher floor will be quieter; the opposite will give you a bird's eye view of the trains.

[HostDave]

Keep in mind that nothing is booked yet. The hotels listed are the ones I'm leaning toward for various reasons. I'll list the rest of the front-runners for other cities shortly.

theWit is the best use of HHonors points for what you get at the moment, but as the date gets closer that often changes. The runners up are the Palmer House Hilton, Hampton Majestic, and a couple of Kimpton hotels in the Loop area. Heck, even the Renaissance is on the short list, although I don't have enough Marriott points to stay for free.

[FeAudrey]

theWit is the best use of HHonors points for what you get at the moment, but as the date gets closer that often changes.

Downtown hotels tend to be filled with guests on business; week-end deals are often very heavily discounted.

The runners up are the Palmer House Hilton ...

theWit sounds fine. And the "L" runs past the east side of the Palmer House, too (not to mention the State St. subway, also for both).

The two are at opposite ends of the spectrum as buildings -- the Palmer House is floridly classic and theWit, modern design/new constuction. They are about four blocks apart, so no big difference with regard to convenience of location.

[HostDave]

While classic hotels are nice to look at, we often don't enjoy actually staying in them, so none of the older places are very high on the list...unless, of course, the price drops or Hilton offers a special deal on points , then all bets are off.