Cleveland and the road so far

We are at- the Hyatt Regency Cleveland after about 30 hours on a train. Most of the ride was in darkness and the route from Carolina was rough and bumpy. I must sat - the AMTRAK people are exceptionally friendly and accommodating. We had a good lunch at the DC AMTRAK station. After a 4 hour wait we boarded the train (Capitol Express No 29) and hit our first real snafu.

Apparently gimps like me - who cannot climb the narrow, windy stairs to the second floor must have lower level specified on their reservation. Oops - my bad. The conductor had a hissy fit and gave me a number to call to try and get things corrected or I had to go upstairs. Not possible so I called the number he offered, The good news is an agent happily made the change to the ticket while the trip was in progress. However, the bad news was the next 2 legs of the trip had no room in the lower level unless there were some  cancellations. Sigh. Why would anyone willingly choose lower level over observation deck when the rockies and sierras are the view?

Yesterday was the second try at modifying our reservations. No luck so on to plan B. There is a second train (the 449 - we were on the 29) that could accommodate us one day later than originally planned so we made the change. There was also a seat on the 5 train - aka California Zephyr so I am safely covered - and it turns out the seat is actually the same physical location we have occupied so far so although Jim does not have an official lower level seat we may catch a break. Whew, We just get to Sacramento a day later.

Jim has peppered Facebook with photos of our day in Cleveland yesterday. We ate lunch at a place called The Chocolate Bar and our waiter was a young guy named Steve, We had a great time as Steve is a huge fan of 60s and 70s music and we laughed and talked through lunch - great food and conversation. Steve also recommended the barber I visited (again well documented by Jim on Facebook with photos.

Today is a new day - the adventure continues.