Thinking about taking a scenic train ride.

ALAYMAN

ALAYMAN

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Anybody ever take a scenic train ride, like for the fall foliage change?  There's a couple of options for these out of West Virginia, and I'm debating on taking one, so just lookin' for opinions.  Some are all day and even overnight deals, but I'm thinkin' bout doin' just a day trip, maybe to the famous Greenbrier Resort.
 
ALAYMAN said:
Anybody ever take a scenic train ride, like for the fall foliage change?  There's a couple of options for these out of West Virginia, and I'm debating on taking one, so just lookin' for opinions.  Some are all day and even overnight deals, but I'm thinkin' bout doin' just a day trip, maybe to the famous Greenbrier Resort.
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Been thinking of doing one of those myself.

We have done a shorter train ride at Strasburg, but would love to do something like ...

http://www.vtrailway.com/routes.php
 
Let us know all about it.... sounds beautiful
 
I haven't done the day trips, but I'm sure they would be great.  We have done the short Cass Railway trip up to Whittaker Station and from Elkins we took one of the Cheat Mountain trips. 

I noticed some foliage changes along the interstate today so it should be a beautiful season.
 
JrChurch said:
I haven't done the day trips, but I'm sure they would be great.  We have done the short Cass Railway trip up to Whittaker Station and from Elkins we took one of the Cheat Mountain trips. 

I noticed some foliage changes along the interstate today so it should be a beautiful season.
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A coworker did the longer Cass 4.5 hour excursion a couple of years ago and loved it.  I was looking at one of the trips out of Elkins, but more than likely will do the Greenbrier train that leaves out of Huntington.  It's ALAYWIFE's b-day this coming Monday and I'm going to let her pick either the train ride, or a dinner theater in Dayton that has a "Church  Basement Ladies" theme.  The Greenbrier excursion has a tour of the bunker and a lunch buffet as part of the deal.  I've (and she) always wanted to see that bunker.
 
Timothy said:
We have done a shorter train ride at Strasburg,
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Is this near the Poconos?  We were there a couple of weeks after the 9-1-1 bombing.  Pretty country it was.


Sub said:
Agawa Canyon train out of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario Canada.
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Did you enjoy it?  A couple of fellas I work with said they did one out of the station I am considering and both said it was boring and they'd not pay to do it again.
 
Did a scenic/dinner train ride I think it was Bourbon County Kentucky! Had a nice time. While traveling in Georgia, north East of Atlanta in the mountains there is a small touristy town that does train rides.

 
kaba said:
Did a scenic/dinner train ride I think it was Bourbon County Kentucky! Had a nice time. While traveling in Georgia, north East of Atlanta in the mountains there is a small touristy town that does train rides.
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I looked at one of those dinner trains.  It was a murder mystery dinner type.  Might try that someday if we like this one.
 
They would pick people from the audience to "help" They didn't know what they were doing when they picked my husband!!! He stoled the show! But food was great, countryside beautiful and the "show" was funny!
 
kaba said:
They didn't know what they were doing when they picked my husband!!! He stoled the show!
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Did he tell everybody to GET OUT!



;)
 
ALAYMAN said:
Timothy said:
We have done a shorter train ride at Strasburg,
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Is this near the Poconos?  We were there a couple of weeks after the 9-1-1 bombing.  Pretty country it was.


Sub said:
Agawa Canyon train out of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario Canada.
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Did you enjoy it?  A couple of fellas I work with said they did one out of the station I am considering and both said it was boring and they'd not pay to do it again.
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Located in PA near Lancaster
 
Well, that stunk.  Not the train ride.  We never got to take it.  The place we had to board the train was an a little more than an hour away from our home, and we had to be there at 6:30AM, so we stayed in a hotel about 10 minutes from the station Thursday night so we could get up just a little bit later than we would have had to if we'd stayed in our own beds.  That cost us an extra $115 but I figured it would help make the train excursion more enjoyable by allowing us to get a little more sleep before we boarded. 

We woke up fairly well rested and got to the Amtrak station on time, only to be told that the excursion would be about three hours late leaving the station.  I was ticked.  Trying to figure out to do for three hours waiting for the train was nerve-racking.  We sat in the car and talked about whether we wanted to wait for three hours.  We couldn't go back to the hotel for some quick snooze-time, as we'd already checked out.  About 15 minutes later we were told we didn't need to worry about the train, it wasn't coming. >:(  This was a birthday present for my wife, and she took a day off from teaching to do it.  They gave us the option of getting a full refund, or switching to the December excursion going to the same location.  We opted for the refund.  <grrrrr>  I'm about to quit travelling out of West Virginia, as this is the second time I've been majorly hosed there.  Last time I had to spend an extra night in Florida with emergency late-night reservations because their airport wouldn't authorize our landing.

Anyhoo, we made the best of it by driving to the Greenbrier Resort and did their "Bunker Tour".  That was absolutely fascinating!  Anybody know the story behind the Greenbrier's "Fallout Bunker"? 
 
Never heard it ....so give us a history lesson...
 
How does that train expect to stay in business??

You had a beautiful day for a trip....I love the drive to The Greenbrier.  Little story about the owner, Mr. J,  who used to live here until he sold his business.  A friend from church and her college age daughter were flying to Indonesia from Lewisburg, but the flight kept getting delayed until it was announced it was cancelled.  The airport was also closing and the friend was without transportation or options as her husband had dropped her off on his way out of town.  So husband called the owner, Mr. J, (buddy and former neighbor of our friends) and asks if there was a way he could arrange to get wife and daughter to a rental car.  No problem.  A driver and limo show up and take our friends to...... Dulles where Mr J arranged for a flight to NYC so they could catch their original connection.  I love a good West Virginian. 
 
Sherryh said:
Never heard it ....so give us a history lesson...
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The nuclear arms race that began between us and Russia in the early 50s caused our government to consider what would happen to our form of government in the event of a full-scale nuclear attack.  As a result, they felt like they needed to be able to whisk all members of congress away from D.C. to a secure secret location that would be a low priority on the nuclear strike list.  White Sulphur Springs West Virginia (The Greenbrier Resort specifically) was the solution.  They had been in existence since the early 1900s and was already somewhat of a retreat for the rich and famous, as well as political dignitaries, so they elected to "add on an additional wing" to the Resor.  The secret operation know as Greek Island was begun in 1956 and finished 6 years later.  Ironically, the Cuban Missile crisis occurred within that first year of operation, and that was the closest that the resort came to actually being used for its intended purposes.  The top secret nature of the bunker was compromised in the early 1990s, and it was then declassified and opened to the public for tourism purposes.  There's much more to the story, but that's the summary form of it.
 
JrChurch said:
How does that train expect to stay in business??

You had a beautiful day for a trip....I love the drive to The Greenbrier.  Little story about the owner, Mr. J,  who used to live here until he sold his business.  A friend from church and her college age daughter were flying to Indonesia from Lewisburg, but the flight kept getting delayed until it was announced it was cancelled.  The airport was also closing and the friend was without transportation or options as her husband had dropped her off on his way out of town.  So husband called the owner, Mr. J, (buddy and former neighbor of our friends) and asks if there was a way he could arrange to get wife and daughter to a rental car.  No problem.  A driver and limo show up and take our friends to...... Dulles where Mr J arranged for a flight to NYC so they could catch their original connection.  I love a good West Virginian.
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Interesting story.  So Jim Justice is a friend of your friends?  Cool. 

This was our second trip to Greenbrier.  The first one was more than a decade ago.  When we went the first time there was the usual high-brow rich folks there, but in addition to that the atmosphere was pretty stiff as imposed by the Greenbrier administration.  We remember seeing signs back then that essentially said "In this area men are expected to wear sportcoats" and "no shorts or jeans to be worn here".  It seems Mr J has dumbed things down a bit, as we saw lots of casual dress, including shorts, in those same areas of the resort this time.
 
I think he is everyone's friend.  He lived in my mom's neighborhood in a typical home and was just one of the neighbors. 

The Greenbrier has changed but it sure has brought in golf business.
 
JrChurch said:
I think he is everyone's friend.  He lived in my mom's neighborhood in a typical home and was just one of the neighbors.
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That is hard to believe.  Me and Mrs ALAYMAN found ourselves regularly asking ourselves about the immensity of the operations there.  Things like how many people were employed there.  How White Sulfur Springs would just dry up altogether if they didn't have the Greenbrier.  The maintenance costs, all the beautiful landscaping, etc.  The operating costs must be enormous.  I have no clue how much he paid for it, or what the story of Justice's wealth is, but to own that gargantuan enterprise and just live in a regular house and to be just one of the neighbors is simply incredibly unbelievable.

JrChurch said:
The Greenbrier has changed but it sure has brought in golf business.
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Yeah, we walked the trail that passes through all three golf courses.  I'm just a regular bogey golfer, and haven't played at a ton of ritzy courses, but I have to say that as pretty as the Old White (PGA course that the Greenbrier is played on) was, it wasn't as stupendously kept as I had expected.  Of course I would have loved to play it, but as a courtesy to Mrs ALAYMAN I didn't even pack the clubs. :D 
 
Leaving golf clubs home on the birthday outing was a good idea.

Not being native to this area, I was not aware of the background of Mr J, I just knew he owned a good company.  And he was just a regular guy in the neighborhood.  Absolutely nothing stood out in their home, cars or dress, although he stood out because of his height.  When the paper reported he sold his business for $450 million, while retaining millions of shares of stock, I figured he had more than I thought ;)
 
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