Pandemic Diaries - Year 3 - Flying South for the Winter

30 January 2023

I took a little break from posting - turns out I have arthritis in my hands.  I've learned to block out low achy pain, so I didn't notice I had a problem until my thumbs starting turning inward.  I'm in the process of taking care of that, but that will be another blog.

Between my hand issue, and still recuperating from my post-Covid pneumonia, we decided to give our car a break and take the auto train.  I hadn't heard of this previously, but it seems to be very popular!  There's a train that goes from Lorton, Virginia, to Sanford, Florida, with train cars designed to hold a batch of autos, motorcycles, and small trucks.  Passengers pay for a seat or little room on the train, as well as for their vehicle to ride on the train!  It saves almost 17 hours of driving, or nearly 900 miles.  Amtrak has all kinds of information about how much car pollution it prevents from entering the atmosphere.  (So we really didn't fly south, we trained south.)

For us, it was more about saving the stress and exertion of driving, and making it a more relaxing way of getting to our winter rental in Florida.  

We moved up the date when we'd leave New Jersey because there was a huge weather system moving through the US east coast. The day we drove to Virginia was the major day of rain - torrential rain so heavy, there were times we couldn't see the painted lane dividers on the interstate!!!  We managed to get to the hotel I had booked about ten miles from the train station, and we hunkered down for two days.  The weather system brought freezing temperatures, so everything was iced over from all that rain.  We opted to stay in, have meals delivered, and skip the ice.  

On 24 December, we drove to Lorton, checked in with Amtrak, and followed their procedures.  I took photos as some of the autos were loaded onto the rail cars, with crew members driving up ramps and into the two-storey coaches.  Each vehicle received a magnetic number, and that was the identifier for the rest of the trip.

We eventually boarded the train, found our "roomette," and got comfortable.  The roomette is tiny  - as wide across as two seats, and just long enough to lie down when the bunks are folded down.  Our car wasn't very full, and we had a really kind and helpful steward.  There were bathrooms and showers down the corridor, several other roomettes, and one or two full rooms which run across the width of the entire rail car, preventing access to the next car.  Upstairs was a similar setup, though the corridor connected to the next rail car.  

Our steward told us the kitchen was short-staffed due to the weather as well as the holiday, and that our dinners would be served in our room.  He took our orders from the limited menu, made sure we were comfortable, and said he'd be back about 10 PM to set up the bunks.

It was an interesting ride once the train left, just about 5 PM.  First, the train pulled forward so the vehicle cars could be attached.  That took quite a while, I think there were something like twenty-three rail cars hooked up to the train.  The conductor said that even though the train wasn't full, the entire train of passenger cars and train cars was still roughly half a mile long, making the auto train the longest train in the world.

As we rode along, Richard and I saw all sorts of little towns and houses  decorated for Christmas, with buildings and trees outlined in colorful lights, inflatables, and swags of greenery draped around.   Two favorites stood out:  first, someone had a Santa in his sleigh figurine, and eight "deer crossing" yellow diamond signs, with the deer all leaping across the lawn, and yes, of course, a red nose on the deer leading the team!!!  Funniest yard of decorations ever!

But the prettiest was either a park or forest adjacent to someone's house, with scattered lit-up snowflakes hanging from the trees!  The house was nice, with the "icicle" lights framing the house.  But the randomly placed glowing snowflakes really were outstanding - it looked like some random magic forest along our train route!

There were a few problems with our train ride.  Due to the staff shortage, dinners were served much later than anticipated.  Every passenger had a choice of having their meal at 5, 7, or 9 PM.  The woman two rooms down from us requested her meal at 5 PM, and she received dinner at a bit after 10 PM.  Our dinner, expected at 7, arrived about 10 as well.  Our room steward was so irate, he insisted that the head of food service come talk to the passengers in his car.  Not that it helped, but at least the head knew how many people were affected by this inefficiency.

The other issue was the upper bunk.  Our two seats faced each other, and the seats slid together while the backs slid downward, making the lower bunk.  The upper bunk folded out from the wall, a pad was put down, and then a sort of harness was snapped in place so the person up there couldn't fall out.  To climb up, there were small built-in "steps" that we used as shelves.

Well.  At bedtime, Richard lay down on the lower bunk.  The instructions for the upper bunk said to climb up the steps, bend over and get the upper half of your body onto the bunk, and crawl in.  That probably works for a child, or anyone under five feet tall.  I'm only about 5' 4", and my back hit the ceiling before I even got into crawl position!  There was no way I could do a knees-and-hands sort of crawl into that bunk!  I had to do that military belly crawl kind of thing, which of course rather messed up the sheets.  Rolling over wasn't the easiest thing either, because I could barely raise my head!  I don't think the upper bunks were designed for adults, but, well, I did manage a couple of hours sleep.  Eventually.  At least the rocking of the train lulled me to sleep.

 

Our room steward moved our luggage into the room across the corridor, to give us more space.  He also allowed us to sit in there so that we each could have a window and face forward.  (I really can't ride backwards, it makes me a bit ill.)  That definitely helped with our comfort when sitting, but there really wasn't much anyone could do about the sleeping arrangements.  Next time we might need to get a full size room.

Breakfast was served in the dining car, just a cold buffet sort of breakfast.  I should point out that meals are included for people who book the different room options.  People who book the seats only don't have meals included in their price; there's a café car, or they can bring food with them on the train.  Less expensive, but also less roomy and less private.

We arrived in Sanford a bit earlier than the train usually arrives, so the train sat for a bit.  When we were able to pull up to the platform, our friendly steward helped us get everything off the train and put it on a rolling cart.  I was ready to hug this wonderful man goodbye, but, well, Covid.  We were able to wait in the train station until our car was unloaded and his number was called.  We tossed our stuff in, and drove north to Saint Augustine, where we've rented a little house for the winter.  (We did stop along the way at a Chinese restaurant.  It was Christmas Day, and everything else was closed.  It has become a tradition for anyone not celebrating Christmas to have a meal at a Chinese restaurant, so we were happy to find this place!)

So, other than the capsule-like bunk, and the delayed dinner, the train absolutely saved us time and wear on our car (and ourselves).  Especially since I wasn't fully over my bout with Covid and all the subsequent illness.

 

That's our update!  I'll post a bit about our house, where we're located, and anything exciting we find in our wanderings.  I'll also do a short blog about my hands - and then there will be another break while one hand heals and the other does all the work.

 

I promise to keep everyone posted!