Even before the trip, I knew the Southwest Chief would probably be late arriving in Wilmington Jct, the stop before boarding the Grand Canyon Railway to the Grand Canyon. We were due to arrive at 9:33pm and spend the night at the Grand Canyon Hotel. They try to sell you this package of the hotel, dinner, breakfast and a 90 min bus tour once in Grand Canyon. I knew we'd never make dinner and after 2 days on a train, a bus ride would just be aggravating! So I just booked the hotel as it was the only one that had the shuttle to train stop and back to town. I knew we'd be arriving late and did not want to try and find a taxi to another hotel. I should have tired harder to figure this part out!
We were only about an hour behind and had made it all the way to Lamy, Co for a brief stop. About 10 minutes after we started to move we felt the power go off! Turns out our lead engine had a problem. We would have to stop and go and then wait for a freight to pass us before we could pull up to a switch track. It mean uncoupling from train and putting good engine in front. Then we had to pull forward so they could uncouple again and the good engine went back to get the bad engine so we could proceed. It made our stop in Albuquerque longer as they fixed or maybe found a replacement, regardless, it would make us 8 hours late into Williams Jct, Az.
So instead of getting there at 9:33pm, we rolled in at 5:15am! The boys slept until we stopped and both just popped right up out of bed and we switched to a shuttle for a ten minute ride to hotel!
Lordy, I was tired as Miles had woke me up at 3am and while he went right back to sleep, I never did make it to dreamland! At the Grand Canyon Hotel, our $225 a night where we would spend 3.5 hours, the hotel reception could not find my registration and I had to call Hotel.Com for help. She eventually found it and wondered why it didn't come up by my name. I was tired and a bit irritated by time we checked in and got to our room!
Boys let me rest for 30 min before asking to go to the pool. Miles, my diplomat, told me it had a hot tub and I really needed it to help my sore mucsles! I gave up and said pool is now open so let's swim to get wiggles out! They would meet 3 boys - 2 from Tucson and 1 from Pittsburgh! Miles's Chicago souvenir, a vinyl football, was tossed around and a great ice breaker. Zacky managed to set on step, but not being able to swim, the water is "boring"to him. They were right, the hot tub did revive me!
Everyone was refreshed and ready to go see the ''cowboy show'' before boarding train. Miles liked it right off but the jokes went right over Z who was bored at first. Then they had some shoot outs and he was cheering and laughing with Miles!
We were ready for the Grand Canyon Railroad train to the Grand Canyon! Out coach's guide was Kathy with a K and she was funny and sat down with everyone to help them figure out the best hikes for your time.
I suppose we should have tipped, but since it was with the hotel, I figured they had enough of my money!
Next stop --Grand Canyon!
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