Hello from Amtrak train 655 where absolutely no announcement about any of this has been made to the passengers!https://twitter.com/AmtrakNECAlerts/status/1035665362564591617 …
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My plan this weekend was to go to my parents house, go to my dad's union picnic at ye olde local amusement park (Knoebels), where my brother and his girlfriend would meet us and also hang.
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So the question of what to do becomes urgent. Do we get off in Philly? Can my brother meet us there? Can my mom drive to Lancaster to meet the train? (No on that last because the road between Harrisburg and Lancaster is apparently washed out.)
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We immediately start pricing hotels in Lancaster, as does everyone else on the five or so inconvenienced Amtrak trains. My mom "asks" my brother if he can collect us from there in the morning.
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Fun fact: hotels in Lancaster are surprisingly affordable! The first "industrial rehab" one was all booked, but nice about it. Struck gold with hotel 2, a 20-minute walk from the train station. Phew. Breathe a sigh of relief.
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Call brother, set up rendezvous plans, be a little glad I had options that weren't "crash on uncle's couch." See my mom is from here. I have vague memories of coming here until my teens.
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Walking down Queen Street all I'm thinking is "wow wait this town is surprisingly great! Not my childhood memories at all." But what is, really.
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We check in, the night is still young, and it turns out this town lives a good brew pub. So I call my mom to chat a bit, plot tomorrow.", then walk outside to find a beer.
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And that, twitter, is how I came to leave New York and get detoured to a big old hotel where my mom once sheltered during an air raid alert, half a block away from the tiny shop where my grandpa sat hunched over a bench for decades repairing watches.pic.twitter.com/MpYE2OqaHn
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THERE'S A CODA: my twitter ranting caught the eye of
@apbusch, who I had not seen in YEARS. He'd driven in from Cleveland to ride roller coasters at Knoebels yesterday. So thanks to Amtrak being dumb, and my inability to not complain, I got to play mini golf with an old friend.Show this thread
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Philly is probably the best option to make the best of the weekend, I’d think.
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It's hard to express how much a city is NOT where I wanted to spend this weekend
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Get off at Philly and have a fun Airbnb weekend.
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Whoops thought you were soliciting votes. I see now you were just telling the story. Lancaster sounds nice too!
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