Next Stop: Willoughby

Our plans to attend Gina's graduation from Wellesley involved some complex and not yet clear steps in pulling it all off.  The scheme involved me driving to Orlando to meet up with Adele.  Then Adele and I would head north on the Amtrak Auto Train with Lucretia's car.  Our train ride would begin at 4:00 PM from Sanford, Florida, just north of Orlando and end up the following morning at 9:30 AM in Lorton, Virginia, just outside of Washington DC.  This would allow Lucretia and Gina to load up the car with Gina's dorm room possessions after graduation and head back to Florida with stops in NYC to visit the Js and Rs, and a stop in Virginia to visit old family friends.  I was to head to Albany to visit family, and Adele would spend some time in NYC visiting Js and Rs and then spend some time visiting friends in Albany.

Our trip began beautifully!  Pulling into the station, we were greeted at the booth.  After giving the woman our name, she attached a magnetized number on the driver door after writing the number in a booklet which she handed to us.  She told us to pull ahead into one of the lanes near the station entrance.  We did, and were instructed to take the things we wanted to bring with us on the train and leave the key in the ignition.  We then left the car and headed into the station to check in.  The woman at the desk asked us which dinner seating we would like, and since the 7:00 PM was fully booked, and the 9:00 PM was a bit late for our tastes, we selected the 5:00 PM seating.  She told us which car we were assigned to and which seats were ours.  She thanked us (Mr. and Mrs. Gabriel.  Adele thought maybe she thought that Adele was a gold digger!) and said we could go to the platform and board.  This whole process was so quick and efficient, I don't think it took 10 minutes!

We headed to our car, walking along the platform amongst a wide array of people, many (most?) of them elderly and slow . . . (just sayin').  Our seats were on the upper level, to the front of the car.  The car ahead of us was the last car of the ones with the sleeping berths.  There was a sign on the door indicating that only those with berths were allowed past that door.  That meant that there was very little traffic past our seats.  The club car and the dining cars for we coach passengers were to the rear of the passenger cars, so all of the traffic was back that way.  The people with berths had their own dining cars in their section of the train.  We had three restrooms located down the steps on the first level.  There was always availability throughout the entire trip.  It was a very long train.  Someone had said that it was about a mile long!

OK.  So our troubles began shortly after leaving Lorton.  The train stopped dead on the tracks.  Seems this indicator light came on which signaled that there may be a problem with the wheels/axle on one of the empty auto cars (we were pulling two of them).  For safety reasons and by Federal regulations, the axles needed to be inspected, for if allowed to continue they could heat up and disintegrate.  OK, no problem.  We could live with that.  But . . . we soon learned that we had to stop every 100 miles if the indicator light flashed again and another inspection had to be done.  We also learned that because we were traveling on CSX Corporation's tracks, we couldn't drop those two cars in question for later pickup.

Our dinner, breakfast, and snacks throughout the trip (apples, bananas, cookies, coffee) were included in the price of our ticket.  I did get to enjoy my first ever dinner in a dining car.  Adele and I shared our table with the couple who were sitting behind us in our coach.  They were very nice!  Little did we know how close we would become to those sitting around us!

We got to watch the sunset later in the evening, and the sunrise the next morning at breakfast.  The down side:  by breakfast we had not quite reached the half way mark!

So, every 100 miles we got to get a very close look at our scenery.  And, we got to watch the sunset the next day as we were riding through Fredericksburg.  At least we were in Virginia!  We were beginning to feel like we were in an episode of The Twilight Zone, one where this train ride would never end!

We arrived at our destination in Lorton at 9:30 PM, twelve hours after we were scheduled to arrive.  There were a couple tables of cheeses and crackers and cookies and vegetable platters for us in the station.  We also were instructed to check at the checkin desk to get information about compensation being offered by Amtrak.  Fortunately for us, our car was one of the earlier ones to be unloaded!  By 10:00 PM we were pulling out of the station!

Adele and I still had our drive to Boston ahead of us!  Our original plans called for us to pick Lucretia up when her flight came in just before midnight at Logan in Boston.  Fortunately, Gina was able to borrow a car to pick her up and bring her to the motel in Framingham where we were staying.  So Adele and I headed through the most densely populated corridor of the U.S.  The good news:  there wasn't much traffic in the middle of the night!  Kudos to Adele!  She put on her rockin' music and drove the entire way.  Through DC, Baltimore, Delaware, New Jersey, New York City, Connecticut and into Massachusetts.  We were driving across the George Washington Bridge into Manhattan at 3:00 AM.  By 3:17 AM we were exiting the Bronx on the NY Thruway!  We got to witness the sunrise again, soooooo much earlier than in Florida, as we drove through Connecticut.  We pulled into our Red Roof at 6:10 AM!  Talk about Gulliver's Travels!

Some people have asked me if I would ever take the Auto Train again.  My first choice would be to fly.  I mean, my flight back to Florida from Albany was just under three hours.  No contest.  But . . . if I had to take a car with me, I would definitely do the Auto Train again.  Some of our co-travelers said they have taken the train many times and this was a first.  So, yes, if my situation called for a car to accompany me, I would do it again!  And I wouldn't trade the time spent with Adele on this adventure for anything!  It was much nicer sitting in a rail car then sitting in traffic!

Next chapter:  Wellesley 2013 Commencement Events