bike check

So, the plan was to take the train to Montreal. Maybe relax there for a day, maybe not. Then take the train to New York, stay the night or more. And finally take the train to South Carolina - an exact location wasn't important to me. I had booked the first leg of the trip on Via Rail. I got a bedroom to Montreal for a steal at $114 - using a late train credit.

The Montreal to New York train is operated by Amtrek, and so I gave them a call to see if checked baggage can be left with them over night in New York, and discovered there is no checked baggage on the Montreal train. And on further inquiry found there is no way of transporting my bike from Montreal to New York by train. Making my life difficult.

I have explored other options. Ideally I would like to ship my bike. But, you can't ship by bus across the border. I talked to Fedex and UPS, but I was provided with an estimate of $200 and potentially 10 days for delivery. Plus, I was warned customs might not be too nice to it. I was looking forward to shipping the bike from the get go; thinking after taking the train to Montreal I could rideshare or whatever down south - but there is no way to make this happen.

I can take the bus from Montreal to New York and accompany my bike across the border. It'll be 12 hours of pain. Plus, I'll need to get from the train station to the bus station in Montreal, and back to the train station in New York. Which will be difficult with a large bike box. I'm thinking it won't fit too well in a cab. I could take the bus all the way from Montreal to Charleston, but it'll be 36 hours or something obscene like that.

I can fly. The Air Canada flight to Charleston on Jan 15th my departure date is $1000. Four days later its $200.

The other option is to fly Westjet. While they don't fly to South Carolina, they do fly to Florida. So, I could just go there. They don't charge you anything to bring a bike along. But, this is less than ideal: I want to get warmer as I go, not colder.