Rains, trains, and automobiles

I miss my blog. More importantly, I hope someone else has. I find writing the blog to be relaxing and a good way to chart and stimulate progress, and I'm gratified when people read it. Anyway, a couple of weeks after I wrote my last blog, we went on vacation and I just haven't found the time to write, and I miss it.  That does not mean I've gotten a lot of work done on the house, but we have been busy.

All aboard! Cindy is ready to go.

Relaxing in our roomette*.
 * - train speak for tiny room 

I had a bachelor party to attend in the Florida Keys, so we decided to combine that with our annual beach vacation. Flying would have been cheap and fast, but we wanted to spend a few nights in Myrtle Beach on the return trip, which would have been logistically difficult, so we decided to take the Amtrak Auto Train. The Auto Train runs from outside of Washington DC to near Orlando, 7 days a week. They load your car on train and you sit back, relax, and about 16 hours later, you're in Florida. They unload the cars and you are on your way. The real advantage is avoiding the traffic, frustration, and  general ugliness of 700 miles of I-95. The train leaves around 3 pm and arrives around 9 am so we opted for a sleeper, a nominal charge but gives you a private room for the entire trip, and a real bed in which to sleep.

After the train got going, we headed to the lounge car for a drink. We had a very attentive bartender and grabbed a table with a big picture window. They sold Amtrak playing cards (very cool) so we bought a pack and played for a couple hours. Dinner was at 5 (included in your ticket price) and was actually quite good. I had a filet mignon with veggies and a baked potato, Cindy a pork chop. After dinner,  we returned to our room to watch a movie on my laptop. By 10, we were tired enough to have the steward unfold the beds and we went to sleep. We arrived pretty much on time in Sanford the next morning.

A soggy yet beautiful pool area at Margaritaville Resort.

Then the rain started. As we headed south to the Margaritaville Beach Resort, we drove into a tropical wave which would plague us for the rest of the trip. The resort and immediate area of the beach front was beautiful, and rather empty since it was off season (go figure), but the weather was not conducive to relaxing by the pool. So, the next day we headed to the Aventura Mall, a monument to excess and where Macy's is considered low end shopping. The good news is that Cindy was able to find a dress she needed for an upcoming wedding, and I was able to find a Chili's hidden in a far flung parking lot. They were NOT selling $10 beers. The bigger takeaway though was the traffic. Horrific. Especially when you throw in the rain. Multiple lanes of traffic at speeds completely disregarding the posted limit, tailgating, and various other traffic laws. I just don't know how people put up with this day after day. It was far worse, in my opinion, than New York City.  I'm really spoiled living in a small town.

Lunch at the wharf in Islamorada.

On Saturday I headed down to the Keys to golf with the bachelor party while Cindy stayed back. If you've ever have the chance to drive the overseas highway, I highly recommend it. It is just spectacular and so different, even from the rest of Florida. I met the rest of the party for lunch that day, and then we went golfing on Sunday. I was actually surprised there is a golf course on the Keys. These are tiny islands, most of them and land is very expensive, but sure enough a 9 hole course is out there. While Cindy stayed in the rain, it was very hot and sunny on the course and by about the 15th hole I had enough.

I drove back to Hollywood and Cindy after the golf and the next morning we headed out on the full day of driving to Myrtle Beach and the North Beach Plantation. Unfortunately, the rain followed us. The wave was now a depression and there was a watch up for a tropical storm. Ugh. Luckily, the system started to pick up speed and moved out Wednesday leaving us a couple days of good weather before we headed home Friday.

As I write this now the entire area of Florida that we visited in threatened by Irma. I fear we are on the verge of a terrible tragedy. Settling and living in paradise does come with a price, and millions of people are about to have their lives completely changed, perhaps forever. I hope those who can, have listened to the authorities and evacuated and will wait out the storm in safe areas. Good luck to all in Irma's path. My thoughts will be with you.

I did manage to get some work done when we got home. I finished the electrical rewire of the garage, and I do keep thinking about when I might start to stack that huge pile of wood in the backyard. Then there's the saga of the replacement door, but that's a story for the next blog.