Trip Report: October 31 to November 26, 2007
by Ted & Sylvia Blishak
GRAND LUXE LIMITED AND AMTRAK TO PITTSBURGH AND GREENVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA
Friday November 9 through Tuesday November 13.
Greenville, South Carolina
We had become accustomed to arriving into Greenville at 4:54am and taking a taxi to the Westin Pointsett Hotel, where a delicious breakfast buffett begins at 6am. Enterprise Car Rental opens at 8am, and they would pick us and our luggage up at the Westin.
But this morning, we arrive shortly before 8am, claim our bags and call Enterprise when they open at 8am, well actually it is a little after 8am before they begin answering their phone. In a few minutes they pick us up at the Amtrak Station, and we soon are on our way in a Full Size Pontiac Grand Prix. (Whoever designated a Grand Prix as a full size car must be indeed a small person.) A brief drive to Simpsonville and check in at the Days Inn, where we stayed last year. The Days Inn has the basic amenities, plus free High Speed Internet Access, so this will be our remote command post for the next few days.
It has been nearly a year since our last visit with our son, daughter-in-law, and two grand children. It is good to see them all again. As well, Ted’s best friend since junior high school in Ambridge works in Columbia at Fort Jackson, practicing dentistry for the US Army. He drives over for lunch at the Westin and they talk over old times.
Tuesday arrives all too soon and it is time to drive to the Westin, where the doorman calls a cab to take us to the Enterprise location, where we drop our car and transfer our luggage to the cab, ourselves. Greenville Yellow Cab has the laziest taxi driver that we have ever seen in a lifetime of travels, and he sits in the comfort of his driver’s seat as we transfer our luggage at Enterprise and again at the Amtrak station. He even gives us a dirty look when I don’t close the trunk lid and he has to get up to do it himself. I figure he may be the great-great-great-great grandson of Rober E. Lee, fells that a life of ease is his heritage, and has nothing but contempt for us Yankees.
This is not meant to be a joke, I actually spoke with someone who hates General Sherman, 143 years after his burning of Atlanta and subsequent march to the sea. Confederated States of America flags are a common sight in the Carolinas, and an engraving on the base of a statue of Robert E. Lee states, "Time will eventually prove that the South was in the right."
The Crescent arrives just a few minutes late, we board and settle down for a shower and a good night’s sleep to Washington, DC.
