DAYS 1 & 2: Leaving the Sunshine State

July 07, 2021

DAYS 1 & 2: Leaving the Sunshine State

Observation of the day

New adventures are exciting, but Florida highway driving is still boring.

Quote of the day

“It’s still public transportation.” – uttered by Matt, our sweet, 20-something porter, sharing with us what he would like to tell passengers when they complain about the Amtrak train. In this case, he was reacting to a woman who (NO JOKE) was complaining within 5 minutes of boarding about the sanitation process on the train, not because of COVID but because of lice. She apparently was alarmed at all the cloth in her compartment, e.g. curtains, carpeting, etc.

VM: Thanking our blessings that Hurricane/Tropical Storm Elsa spared us & our plans, EM & I departed South Florida early Tuesday afternoon enroute to Orlando.

We had a wonderful evening staying at Merrill’s home. I fondly refer to it as a “resort” as it as a gorgeous oasis in the middle of busy Orlando surrounded by the most ginormous, breathtaking oak trees with Spanish moss.

Our freshly minted (and practical!) mascots
are joining us on our journey.

Merrill and the family always make us feel welcome. Wyatt impressed us with his budding entrepreneurial skills, making us fun little mascots on his 3D printer to accompany us on our journey. And of course, the friendly fluff ball a.k.a. Finnegan helped ease our sadness of leaving our own felines & canines behind

Finnegan is the sweetest fur master of the house.

Today, we made our way to Sanford to board the auto train. We were happy we arrived early as we had a lot of fellow travelers joining us! According to the conductor these are some of our stats:

o 38 train cars 15 of which carry people

o 383 passengers total on the plane

o All our sleeping berths are full!

o 196 cars + 2 motorcycles are being transported

o There are 2 conductors & 2 engineers who swap in Florence, SC around 1am.

Our journey (courtesy of Google), but we're a bit delayed due to Elsa.

Check-in canopy.

How the cars make the journey.

Lots & lots of train cars for the cars!!!

Early birds! By 2:30pm, this terminal was PACKED!

Our starting spot.

While I would characterize our “berth” as more like a train nook, it is perfect for us. We are scheduled to arrive in Lorton, VA Thursday around 9AM but we have been warned that Tropical Storm/Hurricane Elsa may slow things down so we’re just going with the flow.

Our berth is cozy but cool! Nice to be traveling as a duo.

Not on the trainer's approved list of snacks.

Upon check-in, we selected to dine at 7pm. Around 6pm we made our way to the lounge to hang out. I absolutely LOVED this as it made for great people watching. EM likes to call it nosy, I like to call it curious. We had a pre-dinner treat & a laugh over the single woman passenger trying to hone in on a family's game of bridge. In fact, we learned the fascinating thing about train travel vs. air travel is LOTS of folks strike up conversations re: another group's "story" -- "where are you from? where are you going," etc. etc. Totally loved it.

Not nosy, just curious!

Solo passenger worming her way into the family's Bridge game was hilarious to observe.

Hanging in the lounge.

EM: I thought the only reason to visit Orlando was to go to Disney, but yesterday I got to experience the Puckett-Miller resort lifestyle & I loved it! Best shower EVER!

It’s pretty cool to start dinner in Jacksonville, FL, have dessert in Folkston, GA, go to bed in SC and wake up in VA. And I think it’s funny that instead of evacuating from the tropical storm/hurricane, we’re heading towards it.