Posted 11:01 AM by Marco

Back in DC. On Monday night I fell asleep easily, but was surprised to be dragging myself out of bed this morning to an alarm. Often I beat the alarm, but not lately. Still, I made it easily in time for the 0651, which was cancelled as well as all Acela Expresses (including the 0715) today. But, I got lucky because I had forgotten to add my guest reward number into the ticket machine, and figuring that I had almost an hour to wait until the next unreserved train at 0745, I figured I would wait in line to get my guest rewards added to the ticket. By the time I made it to the front of the endless line (actually only 20 minutes or so), the agent was able to get me on an unscheduled train at 0719, which left only five minutes late or so. Still, I had a conference call at 0900, and I dislike taking them from the train. That is why when flying, we always flew the night before, and I have gotten spoiled with the relative reliability of Amtrak. But I could have been flying AA or USAir.

The heat was intense as I crossed the street to check into my usual Grand Hyatt with no issues. My room was freezing of course. I turned down the air a bit and returned for another (not too, I hope) late night of moral support.