Day #69 – Auto Train

Sanford, FL

It was a hectic morning. First thing this morning, Suzie had a mammogram appointment at a place we had never been (results pending!). Afterwards, we bee lined North up the interstate towards Sanford to catch the Auto Train (http://tickets.amtrak.com/itd/amtrak/autotrain).

The drive took a couple of hours and we needed to get there as soon as possible so we could pick up our tickets and get the truck loaded on the train. We arrived on time, but hungry so we took the shuttle service from the Amtrak station into historic Stanford. The city offers free shuttle service, at 20-minute intervals, from noon to 2:40 p.m., which is really cool. Who wants to hang out at a train station lobby? At Stanford, we dropped our bags off at the welcome center and walked across the street to Hollerbach's Willow Tree Cafe ( http://www.willowtreecafe.com) where we ate a wonderful German meal! We would have liked to visit the art gallery, next door, but we barely had time to finish lunch and retrieve our bags before catching the shuttle back to the train.

Once onboard, we settled into our tiny sleeper car for the 856 mile trip to Lorton, Virginia. It was pretty comfortable. Basically two cushy seats facing each other with a little tray table between us. The seats fold down into a bed, with a bunk above. There is a sliding glass door on your booth to block out noise, and gain privacy. It was quite nice.



Suzie was very excited about riding the train – you’d think she was about to receive a pin-striped hat and little choo-choo whistle the way she was beaming!

We attended a wine tasting on the train with cheese, crackers and veggies in the Lounge Car. We speculated on the history of the Auto Train. Was it military? It runs from a town with an army base to a town with large waterways. Was it for tourists mainly, being so close to Disney? We had a good time looking out the window, and watching towns go by.

Later we had a steak dinner in the Diner. We finished up the evening watching the movie “Julie and Julia” in the lounge and then we went to bed. History of the Auto Train http://www.themetrains.com/html/auto-train-main.htm