Travel Americana: Taking the Auto Train North: First stop--Annapolis

We are lucky in Central Florida to have a very convenient service for travel. The Amtrak Auto Train leaves daily from Sanford, Florida to Lorton, Virginia and covers 900 miles of travel in 17 or fewer hours. It is scheduled to leave at 4:00 PM daily and arrives in Lorton (just south of Washington, DC) at 9:00 AM. You must ride with an auto and then pay for that and however many passengers in your party.

We caught a price break! They were trying to attract ridership and so we were able to book our car for about $200 and a roomette for around $160. During the "sale", coach seats were going for $29. That particular price is no longer available, but there was another price "break" for coach seats at $89. Check amtrak.com and search for the auto train in Sanford (or Lorton if you're wanting to come south).

The roomette is about 4' x 6' and gives you some privacy. You get 2 seats that turn into a lower berth and then an upper berth is brought down from above. You will have a lockable door, privacy curtains, bottled water, windows to look out, lights, temperature control, your own steward (and a call button), a fold out table, wi-fi and an electrical plug. There are two restrooms available in your car -- one upstairs and one downstairs. There are built in steps to the upper berth. They provide you the linens, a blanket, and a pillow.

Lower berth

Upper berth

Room passengers (there are also regular bedrooms for 4) are given dinner. Coach people have a snack bar at which to purchase food. Breakfast is available as a grab and go. Dinner had a choice of flat iron steak, cod, chicken, and manicotti. You also got dessert (a choice). Dinner was either at 6 or 8. They call you to the dining car when it's ready. Breakast was usually served 6 AM to 8 AM, but it was cut short this morning since they anticipated getting to the station early (we did not). They had cereals, yogurt, milk, coffee cake, fruit and COFFEE!

I had a hard time sleeping. The mattress was fine and the temperature was fine. I don't think the movement of the train bothered me. But they blew the horn so much that it kept me from falling into a deep sleep (noises bother me). I would recommend earplugs.

Also, pack a bag of what you need for the train and leave your luggage in your car. I brought an extra blanket and a small pillow (I need elevation for my head), a power cord for my phone. Don't leave any valuables in the car (we brought our electronics with us). I decided to sleep in my very comfy clothes but I noticed many people in their PJs the next morning!

We had one funny incident. As we were walking to dinner, an older couple (not THAT much older) stepped out of their room ahead of us. The lady had her purse and two pink tickets in her left hand. She was hanging on the door with her right. Her husband was still in the room. She yelled back at him, "Do you have the dinner tickets?" He answered, "I gave them to you." "No, you didn't!" she shot back. As I stared at the pink dinner tickets in her left hand, I said quietly, "They are in your hand." She turned to look at me very puzzled. I said it again. At that point her husband had come out and he said, "Good grief! Look at your hand!" She turned to look, and got the most sheepish look on her face. I chuckled, her husband chuckled and said, "I have to have her back at the home by six!" Then she laughed. They sat across from us and every time I caught the woman's eye, we both started laughing again. When I saw her this morning, we laughed again and she said, "Today is a lot better!"

It took about 40 minutes for our car to be driven out of the train. They assign you a number (magnet put on your car), and then as they come out, they call the number and you go out and claim your car. Our number was 354 (the month and year of my birth!). The numbers are random. The people behind us were 74 and we were called before they were. They did have about 15 priority cars (they pay extra). They get off first. Then we pulled over to a parking area and called our niece Linda, who lives in Woodbridge, about 5 miles south. She teaches military officers and has a degree in something to do with weapons of mass destruction! She has this sweet but untrainable dog named London who has a silver tooth! We followed her to Firebirds, a fire roasted restaurant about a mile down the road. We said goodbye to her there, and headed north on I-95.

London

Paul and Linda

We plugged in Annapolis into our GPS. Paul said he thought we would bypass DC by using 495 BUT the GPS sent us into DC on 395 where we hit a lot of traffic. We did get to see a couple monuments and the Capitol fly by.

Washington Monument

The Capitol

Finally got onto SR 50 and made it into Annapolis around 3:00 PM.

After a nice (and much needed nap), we headed into historic downtown Annapolis, one of my favorite cities to visit. It's just so colonial! We headed to the small harbor, parked, and walked to a historic tavern (since 1750) at which we had eaten before. The prices were way too high and the food was way too much, so we went next door to McGarvey's. There were several restaurants in that area. It was a nice evening so we chose to eat outside (inside was very noisy). I had chicken riesling and Paul had fish and chips (which he said was excellent). After dinner, we headed back to the room.