Covid era travel

[Balderdasha]

So, I have obeyed all the rules regarding quarantine/testing etc including self-administering a test on Saturday, following all the instructions to the letter. I sent it off in the envelope provided on Saturday morning (the post is picked up at 11.30 here and I posted it at 10.30). Still no results. Yesterday I emailed the company and they claimed it hadn't yet arrived (it's first class post and as I understand it they're doing covid related deliveries on Sunday, but even so it should have arrived on Monday at the latest.) Today when I got my test and trace call from the NHS I reported this, and they said they'd make a note of it but the best thing to do would be to contact the company again. So i did. They've just got back to me and said it's still not there. There are 3 possibilities as far as I can see
1. It got lost in the post somehow
2. It got lost by them when they received it
3. They just bin some of the tests to save money (they've already been paid for and I presume the actual testing is the biggest cost)

1. seems possible but pretty unlikely
2. seems more possible than 1
3. I probably wouldn't even have considered previously, but with this government and their awarding of contracts to thieves and incompetents, I'm leaning towards that.

I worked in a post sorting office for about four months before one Christmas. I wouldn't rule it out being lost in the postal system. I sometimes found old letters stuffed down the back of radiators (no idea who put them there or why). Other letters sometimes got accidentally shredded by the sorting machines and it then became hard to read the addresses. The vast majority of letters got to where they were meant to go, but certainly not all of them.

[ad hoc]

I'm curiously reluctant to pass this news on, but we went on holiday. Me and the family spent a week on Naxos in the Aegean with two nights in Athens at either end. I know people have strong feelings about things like this in the covid era so it feels like a bit of a guilty confession. Is it any more selfish than going on holiday normally is? I really don't know any more. But I can tell you that it felt fucking amazing. Relaxing, calming, perfect. I swam in the sea every day, ate too much, drank too much, and left behind a whole pile of stress. I wish I could have stayed for a month.

There was a lot of paperwork involved (getting on planes and on ferries both involved a fair amount) but in the grand scheme of things paperwork doesn't feel like an imposition.

It's probably been about ten years since we had a beach holiday. I'm not sure if I've ever had one this good.

I'm very conscious of my privilege - the privilege to be able to go on a foreign holiday in the first place, the privilege of being vaccinated, the privilege of living in a country with very few cases (and travelling to another one). But I'd do it again tomorrow if I could afford to.

[ursus arctos]

I think that your post amply indicates deep awareness of the related issues and am personally very happy to hear that you and your family were able to have such a wonderful break after a very stressful time.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Moi Aussi.

We are making tentative plans now. Early Autumn in Texas. Train to LA (La Signora's never been there) then across to Houston. London next Spring with luck. I have a long-standing date with a Fulham supporting friend for the derby in Shepherds Bush (April 2.)

[ursus arctos]

Be prepared for the Coast Starlight to be several hours late. It always is, It is also wonderful.

I also have it on good authority that the Texas part of the Texas Eagle seems endless, but Texas is huge.

[Amor de Cosmos]

Be prepared for the Coast Starlight to be several hours late. It always is, It is also wonderful.

Oh yeah it's gorgeous. I've done the Coast Starlight many times, but not since the early eighties, and never in a sleeper. Nowadays I expect most long distance trains to be late. Friends of ours took the Trans Canada on Via a few years ago and it managed to be eleven hours late arriving from Toronto.

I also have it on good authority that the Texas part of the Texas Eagle seems endless, but Texas is huge.

I've heard similar stories about traveling through West Texas desert. I've only done it by bus and that was mostly at night.

[San Bernardhinault]

The more west you are in Texas the more interesting it is, generally. But Texas takes forever and (heading west to east) starts off a bit boring and then gets less interesting as you go further. I’ve only ever done it in a car. A train has to be better because you can eat least eat, drink, read or sleep.

[Amor de Cosmos]

The more west you are in Texas the more interesting it is, generally. But Texas takes forever and (heading west to east) starts off a bit boring and then gets less interesting as you go further. I’ve only ever done it in a car. A train has to be better because you can eat least eat, drink, read or sleep.

Yeah. I have to check how long the journey is, and how much is at night!

[ursus arctos]

It leaves LA late and is two nights (arriving Houston at 11 am). You should get to do most of Texas at night.

https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/p...ule-100520.pdf

Sunset Limited, not Texas Eagle, which is from Chicago

[Amor de Cosmos]

It leaves LA late and is two nights (arriving Houston at 11 am). You should get to do most of Texas at night.

https://www.amtrak.com/content/dam/p...ule-100520.pdf

Sunset Limited, not Texas Eagle, which is from Chicago

Two nights! Wow, in a bedroom that'll be a bit pricey, I'd better better check the cost.

[San Bernardhinault]

The route is a southern one, which is probably better scenery in Texas. Arguably a bit less pretty through Arizona and New Mexico where the big mountains are in the north. That said, I love that Southern Arizona landscape. Yuma, Tucson, Las Cruces... it's quite a romantic sounding journey. It even goes through Marfa (although sadly doesn't stop there).

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Even travelling back from a green list country involves getting tested abroad before you're allowed to fly back home (by whom?), and getting tested again here (and paying through, er, the nose for the privelege) within 48 hours by one of these companies who it seems everyone is saying are bloody useless at doing what they are supposed to be doing. No chance I'm putting myself through all that hassle and stress.

[Sporting]

Even travelling back from a green list country involves getting tested abroad before you're allowed to fly back home (by whom?), and getting tested again here (and paying through, er, the nose for the privelege) within 48 hours by one of these companies who it seems everyone is saying are bloody useless at doing what they are supposed to be doing. No chance I'm putting myself through all that hassle and stress.

Yep, my feelings too. There are plenty of places in Spain I'd like to visit or revisit and no doubt the same goes for other people where they live.

[DCI Harry Batt]

It takes two days to go through Texas West to East on a train? Are there lots of stops? Or is it just a slow train?

[ursus arctos]

No, it takes two nights to go from Los Angeles to Houston on a train. Only the second night is in Texas (the first is in California and Arizona)/.

Though it is still a slow train

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

It takes two days to go through Texas West to East on a train? Are there lots of stops? Or is it just a slow train?

It takes two days from New Orleans to LA, of which nearly 24 hours is crossing Texas. Those long distance Amtrak trains are very slow and as ursus suggests earlier, will be late (partly because freight trains get priority). I did that trip many years ago (and several other long distance Amtrak trains) and think we were three hours late getting to New Orleans.

Plus there are scheduled stops of 30-45 minutes in some places presumably for crew changes and supplies. On one trip we had a stop in Denver that was sufficiently long that we had time to go for breakfast in a diner across the road from the station.

It's not everyone's cup of tea but I think it's a great way to do things and will do it again sometime.

[ursus arctos]

Absolutely agree.

An understanding and acceptance of the slow schedule and the likelihood of significant delays is an essential part of genuinely enjoying the experience. If you are anxious about arriving "on time" or compare the travel time to other modes of transport, you are going to make yourself miserable.

This particular route used to go all the way to Florida (another day), but the tracks east of New Orleans that were destroyed in Katrina still haven't been returned to passenger service.

[Sporting]

An understanding and acceptance of the slow schedule and the likelihood of significant delays is an essential part of genuinely enjoying the experience. If you are anxious about arriving "on time" or compare the travel time to other modes of transport, you are going to make yourself miserable.

This I learned in Sudan.

[DCI Harry Batt]

No, it takes two nights to go from Los Angeles to Houston on a train. Only the second night is in Texas (the first is in California and Arizona)/.

Though it is still a slow train

Ah ok, that makes more sense. Thanks.

[Balderdasha]

Back in the 2000s it used to take two days and nights to go by train from Shanghai to Chongqing and two days and nights to go from Chongqing to Lhasa, so getting across the whole of China from East to West would be a four to five day journey (I did both those journeys at different times, but never all in one go). There are much faster trains now but Google informs me that it would still take 48 hours direct from Shanghai to Lhasa (probably a different route too). I loved those train journeys.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Absolutely agree.

An understanding and acceptance of the slow schedule and the likelihood of significant delays is an essential part of genuinely enjoying the experience. If you are anxious about arriving "on time" or compare the travel time to other modes of transport, you are going to make yourself miserable.

This particular route used to go all the way to Florida (another day), but the tracks east of New Orleans that were destroyed in Katrina still haven't been returned to passenger service.

Our travels were pre-Katrina and the following year we did the New Orleans - Florida leg, as far as Jacksonville where we had the rarity of changing trains, to head north to Savannah - albeit the two trains were several hours apart.

Another thing factoring into the long journey times is that even "normal" stops can take a while - the long distance trains use "hold baggage" where the bags are stored in separate compartments under the seating (like on a coach), so it's often a faff getting bags on and off, plus getting passengers off and on can take a while because it is usually stepped access to the seating level. Add all this together and it's actually a wonder they get anywhere.

The long distance trips I did were in the 90s, when attitudes to smoking were slowly changing - some trains would have a smoking carriage, others didn't. On the latter, there would be unofficially designated smoking stops, where there would be an announcement in advance and all the smokers (of which I was one, at the time) would be poised to jump off, get one (or maybe two) in and jump back on.

[ursus arctos]

The smoking stops are now institutionalised, announced at the start of the journey and periodically along the way.

There have been cases of infrequent travelers nipping out for a smoke at a short stop and having been left behind. The scheduled stops are meant to avoid that.

Changing trains on Amtrak is indeed a rare experience outside of the Northeast Corridor from Boston to Washington D?C.

[hobbes]

There are plenty of places in Spain I'd like to visit or revisit and no doubt the same goes for other people where they live.

I live in dear old Blighty.
I'd rather just stay at home than attempt to "holiday" in this shithole.

[Sporting]

I live in dear old Blighty.
I'd rather just stay at home than attempt to "holiday" in this shithole.

Northumberland? I've never been but heard good things.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Northumberland? I've never been but heard good things.

Anecdotally, accommodation anywhere rural or "at the seaside" is in high demand and expensive, while city centres are currently a lot less expensive than usual.