Our trip started on a freezing Monday morning. And it was my birthday. I didn't go to bed until 5am. What was I packing? I'm still not quite sure, but somehow that was the amount of time it took me, and to make our home not so scary when our friends drop by to water our plants & drop off our mail.
A usual 4.5 hour car ride to the Virginia auto train station turned into a 6 hour journey. We started out a bit later than we wanted to and getting out of Monday morning city traffic took us a while. To make sure we meet the cut-off time of 3pm car boarding, Andrew drove like a cab driver. And Devin got car sick & all the raspberries he ate earlier came right back up. It was alarming to see all the red stuff coming out from his mouth. I think both Andrew & I aged about 10 years for the couple of seconds it took us to figure out that it was just raspberries.
When we arrived at the station, the whole process was fairly easy. After we boarded our train, our attendant dropped by to give us the run-down. There are 3 bathrooms, exactly the same ones you use on the airplane, and 1 shower stall. On our sleeper car, there are 4 roomettes with 2 people each and our family room that sleeps 2 adults & 2 kids. On the other end of our car, there's an accessible bedroom with its own bathroom. So the ratio per person/bathroom isn't so bad. It's the bathroom itself that gives me the "ICK" feeling. Surprisingly though there were none of that toxic blue cleaning smell or solution in sight. I was glad, the "ICK" factor on my scale instantly got lower.
The food on the train was pretty good, they even have a vegetarian entree and a kid's meal. But according to Andrew, DON'T order the surf n turf if it's on the menu (there are about 3 options). The meal comes with drinks (wine or soft drinks) and dessert. Oh, they even have a wine & cheese hour before dinner. And after dinner, they show a movie with snacks. Or lighter fare can also be purchased at the lounge car. And a continental breakfast was served in the morning.
Sleeping on the train wasn't bad. The attendant turned down our beds at a time we requested. At first it was really nice to have the motion of the train swaying us into sleep. But then the train was going super fast in the middle of the night, our beds were shaking REALLY REALLY bad. Andrew & I woke up but eventually we went back to sleep.
On our return trip back, everything was pretty much the same. But Andrew & Devin both got sick towards the end. Devin felt fine after we got off the train but Andrew ran a mild fever & couldn't eat for a whole day.
This auto train experience is definitely one to remember. Would we do it again? Yeah but not in the immediate future, LOL.
Andrew & Devin were excited to ride the train. On Andrew's left, there's a small closets for our coats & small tuck-aways.
Andrew & Serena
Devin was busy looking at the scenery. My crazy hair is from riding & sleeping inside a car for 6 hours to Virginia.
Fine dining at the AutoTrain. Yep, real table cloth & silverware with the exception of the water cups: they were plastic.
Devin with his truck at dinner.
The 2 kids bed upper & lower-Devin watching his DVDs before bedtime.
The 2 adult beds-the bottom is wider than the upper bed.
Watching the sunrise from our window.
