Day #70 – Driving to Pittsburgh

Lorton, VA to Pittsburgh, PA

I loved sleeping on the train!  Kelly took the upper bunk and because of the way the curtains were hung, I could keep them open all night.  For a long time, I just lay there, being rocked to sleep as I watched the trees fly by.  I slept really well!  I didn’t even wake up when Kelly crawled down for her mid-night toilet run.

We woke to snow – lots of snow.  Kelly decided she would not leave the train until it returned to Florida.  We dressed and headed to the dining car for breakfast.  It was simple, but good - tea, fruit, muffins, and cereal.  Because of frozen switches in Charleston, South Carolina, we got to Lorton, Virginia a couple hours late.  I enjoyed the treat of watching out the window a couple extra hours. 

When we finally arrived in Lorton, Virginia, we still had to wait for our truck to be off-loaded from the Auto Train.  We stood in the waiting area and watched as train staff drove each vehicle off the train.  I saw a police officer playing with his K9 in the snow - even sniffer dogs like to chase snowballs!

The drive to Pittsburgh was pretty uneventful.  We marveled at the snowy fields like a couple of tourists.  We ran from truck to rest area buildings very quickly because we had no winter coats.  Actually, dressed in layers of Capilene (thank you Exkursion - http://www.exkursion.com) and Polartec, we were quite warm. 

Our first stop was our little storage unit.  Our parkas were right where we’d left them and ohhh so warm!

Our second stop was Kathy’s house for the annual pizza birthday party.  Kathy and I are one day apart in age.  She usually hosts a bring-your-own-topping pizza party to celebrate with the Wednesday Night Supper group.  It was fun to crash it and surprise everyone.  Even though we’d told a couple people we’d be in town, the word had not got ‘round.  There were many discussions – one big one was the ethics of removing children from Haiti.  Needless to say, my opinion was not of the majority.  It’s a thorny topic and I was relieved to switch to Avatar and the hot (hot!) pilot.  We lingered after everyone left and settled down into easy chairs to hold cats and catch up a little with Kathy.

We stayed the night with Carolyn and Nina.  Like Carolyn’s kids, we chose to sleep on big comfy sofas in her family room, in front of a gas fireplace.