We’re finishing up the last leg of our journey today.  We arrived yesterday at the Orlando Bus Station in the early afternoon to find that our train was running 2 hours late, which is not all that unusual for train schedules.  Amtrak is not, let’s just say, obsessed with customer satisfaction.  We had turned in the rental cars at that point, so with 22 kids, there was not much to do about it but to be there.

We have a 3 hour lay over in Union Station in D.C. and everyone agreed it was more pleasant to spend the extra time outside in the parking lot of a train station in the ghetto of Orlando, playing football, then to be stuck inside Union Station again.  Union Station is a busy center where trains from all over the East Coast converge.  Thousand of commuters to downtown D.C. swarm through morning and evening, carrying their briefcases, stopping for lattes and heading past on their seeming treadmill.  The shops are so upscale in Union Station that you realize the only thing you could afford in the luggage store is a designer luggage tag and that would be more then you would spend on a outfit at Wal-Mart.  But these are not Wal-Mart shoppers.

Another fitful night on the train.  It’s actually amusing to stroll through the train cars and see how everyone manages. Some people don’t look so good when they sleep.

Our last train connection will be to Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia, where hopefully parents will be sitting, waiting to take their darling children home.  I can’t wait to get home and hug the rest of my kids!

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Posted by Anonymous

Let me just tell you a brief version of my last Amtrak trip - the bathroom had some sort of a break down so we rode in a car that was about 500 degrees and smelled like a port-o-potty. There was evidently unexpected construction going on that had us stopped for 2 hours INSIDE THE TRAIN in the middle of absolutely nowhere. The employees were in the backs of some of the nicer cars (with AC and outlets for laptops,etc.- none of which was available to us - even though I asked about the outlet for my laptop so my 7yo son could watch DVDs) either asleep or hanging out with their homeboys or watching DVDs themselves. At one point, we gathered our belongings, and moved to a different car. I am not a very assertive person in this way - but I told them that we WERE moving to a different car, and they were not stopping us. Six hours of riding in a foul smelling car without air was ENOUGH! The trip from DC to Raleigh took 10 hours - which would've taken me 5 1/2 in a car! YUCK - and when you call Amtrak to complain or tell them about your trip - they could care less. I used to love using the train when my girls were little - but it has gone way down hill.

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Posted by nsremom

Man, it must be bad if you PREFER to hang out in a parking lot. LOL. Now that's what I call bad.

I've been in ONE bus station in my life and that's what I'm picturing.....minus the upscale shops. But I feel danger lurking in every corner and worried for my husbands safety........glad you hung around outside. Safer.

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