Hi all,

My family has decided to take a trip to Houston for Thanksgiving this year to spend time with my father’s family.  This group will consist of both of my brothers, my parents and our families (my sister will not be going this time because her family has just returned from a big trip to New York a couple of months ago). 

Because there are three of us (my husband, daughter and I) and we are trying to buy a new home soon, we are watching our finances (ie..we’re budgeting big time now) and plane tickets were not an option for us.  I suggested that we make the drive with my brothers, but my husband was sooooo against driving all night and being exhausted and therefore unable to really enjoy himself.  Earlier this summer, my husband and daughter took the train to New York they both really enjoyed the ride.  He had mentioned that he would like to do another train ride for a family trip again; so I’m thinking this might be the perfect time.  I check on prices of train tickets for three and I’m so pleasantly surprised to see that for the three of us it will only be around $560.  WhooHoo!

We didn’t get the tickets right away (procrastisnating is a big issue in our household 😦 . ) but yesterday I’m checking on a rental car and decided to look at the drop-off point for the train in Houston so I can plan the car rental pick-up spot.  I had to re-price the tickets to get the final destination and OMG! OMG!  The price has gone up on our wonderfully inexpensive tickets!  When I say the price has gone up I mean the price has gone UP!  The new and improved price is now around $1000 ($1007.70 to be exact)!!!  I immediately text my husband and he just calls me back forget the texting.  We ended up calling Amtrak to make the reservations in hopes that there was a computer glich and the tickets weren’t that much (they were).  I asked the helpful representative if there was any chance of the price going down and she said only if around 40 people cancel there reservations.  Huh?  Why would the price go down if you have more tickets available.  She said that as more people bought tickets the price goes up…Huh? Later on after we got off the phone I asked my husband how can this be…they are making money as more people buy tickets so why up the price?  He stated “supply and demand”.  I talked to my good friend about it and she said “supply and demand”.   Listen folks…I didn’t like nor agree with the law of supply and demand when I was taking Econ and I don’t like it now…especially when it made my train tickets double in price in less than a month.

A day later I’m no longer peeved, I’m happily making mental plans of all the wonderful food items to pack for the train ride.  You know how I get excited at the prospect of preparing the perfect picnic, lunch, dinner, breakfast, brunch, snack…of just face it, I love to think of great food.