Of course it took two hours between explaining to the desk clerk what I was having done, where I needed bicycle box to go, when I needed it to be there by....by the end of it all he discovered that there is no Express Amtrak shipping to any station in San Francisco.
Blargh!
He gave me the phone number to Greyhound and suggested I try having them ship it to San Francisco. I hauled the cumbersome box out to the car again and called up Greyhound to find it would take 7-10 days to get the bike box out there.
No thanks.
After a second round of discussing options with the desk clerk behind the Amtrak counter we concluded that shipping to Oakland, CA would be the next best thing.
And so it was settled.
It should only take 4-5 days, perfect, and only cost $60.00 to ship.
Fortunately, San Francisco has something called the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit, very similar to metro system). Judging from the maps it shouldn't be too hard to get from the airport and across the bay to Oakland Amtrak station, pick up bike box, take the BART back to Golden Gate bridge area and start the journey.
Of course, things are always appear easier in writing.
Just 5 days or so until I fly from Richmond to San Francisco.
My legs are getting restless to get this trip going....
