Every time we though we had our plans figured out, circumstances changed and we had to re-think how to get home. These are all the plans we went through before one finally worked and we were on our way home!
Plan A - Our original plan was to catch the train on Tuesday, in Chicago, IL which was the closest train station that checked baggage. Because we had all Rusty's stuff we needed to check multiple bags (5 bags were allowed for each of us). Two days before we were scheduled to leave, we found out the train was canceled.
Plan B - With train service being canceled Tuesday, Amtrak scheduled us on a train leaving Wednesday in hopes that the train would be running again. Although, with the day change, we no longer had a ride to Chicago since our friend took Tuesday off work for the 6 hour round trip drive to get us there. We looked into bus tickets to get us to Chicago. But tickets were a lot more than we thought they would be and the time the bus was running wouldn't have even worked in time to board the train.
Plan C - We called Amtrak to change the train station we would board the train. We would have to take as much baggage as we could carry on, then ship the rest to my house since there was no checked baggage. Rusty's Dad would be able to give us a ride since that station was less than an hour away. (Rusty's mom is disabled so his Dad can't be away from her for more than a few hours at a time). The Amtrak Representative told us the only way to change the station was to cancel our old reservation and make a new one, but at that point the train was completely booked and we probably wouldn't be able to get our room/sleeper car again if it was canceled. While on the phone with the representative.... the train was canceled for Wednesday.
Plan D - We changed our ticket to the train leaving Thursday from the station we wanted and still got a sleeper car. Luckily, we got part of our fair refunded back to us because fair on that day was less expensive and by changing the station we weren't traveling as far. We bought the largest size duffle bags that were allowed for carry on baggage since we were fairly confident that the train would run on Thursday. The refunded amount of out ticket was just about what we spent on the duffle bags and shipping for what we could fit in our 4 bags. Thursday was the very last day we could wait to get back home so we needed....
Plan E - If train service was canceled again on Thursday, we were going to have to fly home. We looked at plane tickets and they would have cost a fortune due to it being last minute. Then we would have had to pay for each bag we checked in addition to paying for shipping for the rest. Thank goodness Plan D worked!!!
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