It's shaping up to be a busy week. But I did do one thing successfully this morning: I ordered tickets for a short visit with family (over my mom's birthday late in May). And I managed to use the $75 voucher they gave me after the miserable trip coming back from Christmas. I was kind of concerned about that; the last time I tried calling (before spring break), the hold-times to work with someone were running into 40 minutes...which, 40 minutes of my time is probably worth more than $75, at least, it would be if I were doing ecological consulting or lab analyses for someone.

This time I got right through. Talked to a nice man. And interestingly, the ticket prices were some $40 less than what the website was telling me (before the $75 voucher). So I got the tickets for over $100 less than I would have without the voucher.

I'm not sure it's enough to make me order my tickets by phone every time - at busy times, dealing with the Amtrak phone bureaucracy can be challenging (to put it politely), but I'm relieved I was able to use that voucher, and I'm happy I have my tickets on their way to me.