01:15, Saturday, 11th August

You have to experiment with something new and different occasionally - see how things work and take the rough with the smooth if you don't want to get into a routine rut of the same old thing time and again.

And so it was - to visit Lisa's Mum near Washington DC from our base in the UK, we chose a different approach to that which we've used in the past; there are services that I've often wondered about, and things I would criticize in our normal "Via Heathrow" approach.

How can I put this politely? If you have a journey like we've had today (and are still having as I type this!) then you know that there's not much else that could go wrong!

"Let's try Bristol" we said - the 10:30 flight to Newark, followed by the 16:28 Amtrak train down to DC would see us in our Springfield hotel by 21:00. Looks good? Yes! Looks too good to be true? Well - it has been too good to be true!

The taxi to Bristol was booked for 06:30 ... except we got a late call to tell us to be picked up at 05:30 due to a clashing booking for our driver. So that was an 04:00 up to finish packing as I'd only got back from Leeds last night.

At Bristol Airport, the incoming plane was shown as being 25 minutes late but that jumped and crept later, and we were over 2 hours late away - a 10:30 flight leaving shortly before 13:00. And we made up no time in flight - quite the reverse since we were "out of sync" with Newark and ended up circling until the New York area could accept us.

Baggage comes though for First class first. Not us. Then for the airline's loyalty brigade and .. how much later can it be? .. the luggage for the rest of us. And why is it - today of all days - that the customs gent decides that he doesn't believe us when we say we have to food items and adds another loop into our already-delayed clearance into the USA. So our 16:28 train - for which we had just two minutes shy of 3 hours to make a connection - was missed. Never mind - there are one or two trains an hour, aren't there?

Well, yes, there *are* frequent trains, but it appears that the "unlimited" rail passes that we have bought are not really unlimited at all; in fact, there's only a quota of seats on each train allocated to them and, being a busy Friday, there's nothing later available from EWR down to DC. I short session of me playing "I'm the poor tourist, please help me" elicits the fact that the clerk can get us onto the 19:02 out of Penn Station in the centre on Newark, and it'll only cost us an extra 7 dollars to get down there.

So here we are - we left home at 05:30 and the UK clock on this computer says 01:15 next morning. Really it's 5 hours earlier here. Just getting dark. The belated 19:02 (about 30 minutes down) is just south of Trenton, New Jersey, and we've a couple of hours yet into DC ... then the metro if it's still running that late, then a cab or transfer bus to go. Probably close on a 24 hour journey.

Good points? I would fly Continental again. The train seats are comfortable. The company (though snoozing at the moment) has been good. As has the experience. And I was able to answer Friday morning business emails from the UK, during the day.

Bad points? We shouldn't have accepted an hour's earlier pickup - we really should have asked someone else to drive. The airport delay that stretched from the original - I find these stretches very frustrating. Turning up for tickets for the train at EWR - "Booking office open 9 a.m. to 7 p.m." and finding it un-staffed (that was a heart-stopper). And the conductor of the undelayed train ahead of ours who denied us boarding when we asked - politely - if we could get on his train as the one we had tickets for was lord-knows how late and we'd had a long day.

Conclusion? The jury's out on this method of travel - could just be our bad luck. We have a further 2 train journeys on Sunday, (up to Albany, NY state) and a final two the following Friday back to Newark. Reservations made for the first the first two already. Let's see how they go. I do strongly suspect - from what I see looking and listening to what's been going on around - that my conclusion will be "I'm glad I tried it, but ...."