A Little Help From My Friends

Early this morning we made our way from DC to Philadelphia.  Our plan was to spend the day in Philadelphia seeing the sites and then take the "red eye" bus to Boston.  We didn't want to haul our bags all over the place with us so we sought a location at the bus/train station where we could store them.  There is a little (10x10) "Traveler's Aid" (accurate name) station inside the terminal that we wouldn't even have noticed if one of the bus company staff hadn't pointed it out to us.

Elaine had previously read that there were lockers for rent in the terminal.  The kind man at the Traveler's Aid station told us that there were no lockers at the terminal nor at any terminal he knew of.  As we told him our plans and desires he understood just what we needed and the information began to flow...

Here are his AWESOME instructions almost word for word:

• "Don't tell anyone I told you this."
• "Amtrak has a luggage storage service for customers with an Amtrak ticket."
• "See that blue machine over there?  Take your credit card to that machine and buy 4 of the cheapest tickets you can find.  I recommend "Exton".  It is the cheapest destination I know of."
• "See that blue sign on the wall across the terminal?  Take your tickets and bags and follow the arrow on that sign pointing to the left.  Check your bags in to the Amtrak luggage storage service.  There might be a per-bag fee."
• "Go and have fun."
• "When you get back collect your bags."
• "If you really want to game the system, take the train tickets you purchased back to the Amtrak counter and ask for a refund.  Tell them your plans have changed.  There may be a small refund fee but you will get most of what you paid back."

We followed his instructions to the letter and it worked perfectly, just like he said!  In the end it cost us $5 per bag or $25 total to NOT have to carry our backpacks around the city all day.  Well worth it!  Thank you Traveler's Aid!