Thanks again everybody, all opinions and details are very welcome.
Have to say I blame the Greyhound thing on Irma Kurtz, here's a link to reviews of her book of her travels on Greyhound in the 1990's. It's the first line in the publishers write-up, it rings a bell with me.
http://www.booklore.co.uk/PastReviews/KurtzIrma/TheGreatAmericanBusRide/TheGreatAmericanBusRideReview.htm By the way, it's a good read.
Rosie and I have decided to use the Sunset Limited to New Orleans, people on here have swayed me as I was fence sitting on this one. If I were on my own I would travel that trip Greyhound, but my sweet wife who insisted if I could do it she could would have 2 1/2 days without hardly any facilities, that's not fair to ask. We have agreed at her suggestion that we fly back to London from NY not Jacksonville, that will mean an extra bus ride from Jacksonville, Fla to NY, that's our big compromise.
So the outline is ~ NY to Chicago by Greyhound Chicago to San Francisco by California Zephyr SF to Santa Barbara by bus and train, transfer at San Luis Obisbo SB to NOL by Sunset Limited NOL to Jacksonville Fla by Greyhound Jacksonville, Fla to NY by Greyhound
The delay thing looks good, there's always a day between travel in our plans except from Santa Barbara to New Orleans where the Pacific Surfliner terminates in LA and we transfer to the Sunset Limited to NOL, there we have 2 hours 50 minutes. And again from NOL onto Jacksonville, FL where there will only be 3 hours. Hoping the 4:12 pm Surfliner from SB in particular is usually good for time as there are only 3 Sunsets each week and we would then have to fall back on Greyhound or rent a car.
The previous Greyhound trip was in 2002, 5 months after 9.11. Some people who would normally fly were scared to, didn't / couldn't want to drive and the train didn't go where they wanted to go, so Greyhound was the option of first and last? choice.
Maybe 10 years on the real Greyhound clientel has re-appeared, that's for us to find out now. The first Greyhound was just under 6000 miles in 7 1/2 days, met a lot of people and yes a few were anti-social, but that's life and no good trying pretend otherwise. The really, really interesting people met on that journey was a cafe owner in Duluth where there were a couple of hours layover. Wandered down Main Street to take a look at where Bob Dylan grew up. As it was mid February I now know what minus a zillion below feels like and dived into the cafe which was like a social club. In the mid west met a couple of ladies in their mid 50's who were obviously wealthy, an American Indian who had so much stature and presence it was scary, a man of few words, and a couple of second generation Mexicans who were travelling to the man's brother's funeral and I couldn't understand why he repeatedly mentioned he had such a good job as it came with health insurance. I then learnt almost at my destination that his brother hadn't any health insurance... And of course there were many more including drivers with attitude and those you may want as your best friend.
Have another different question re refunds and booking details, will post on a new thread, hope that's not too many questions?
