Day 1: Travel from MD

In general, travel days are my least favorite, but the scheduling of the AutoTrain has made things much better. I am not a fan of waiting to go anywhere, so I have learned to keep myself busy, for everyone's sanity. That means military like schedules, kept to with the ultimate precision.

Got up, packed last-minute items, and ate breakfast. After a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse for Lily, off to CVS for a couple items and then to Petsmart for opening at 9. Amused kid with fish and kitties for a half hour, bought at litter for the return, then to Panera. Got lunch to go and arrived home at 10 AM. Put everything away, got kid settled and prepped the cats for the resort. Got them dropped off and checked in and home by 11 AM. Husband moves carseat and loads two heavy suitcases. I finish car loading. Take out trash and cat litter, hop in car, hit the road at 11:30 for arrival at AutoTrain at 12:15.

Well, everything was okay until that last step. A multi car, bus, truck accident closed three if four lanes on 95, which meant an arrival closer to 1 PM. We still got the first dinner seating, so all was well....

.....until I realized we left Lily's day diaper bag in the car. Not a huge issue because I did pack enough diapers in the suitcase we did remember for 24 hours. When I got back from changing her, I noticed our car had not been loaded, so I ran out and grabbed the diaper bag. Better safe than sorry, and that was a VERY wise decision!

Our car attendant, Sallie, was an absolute delight, and because we were old pros, she let us have a very quiet time once she got us briefed. Erwin had to work, so Lily settled down for Mouse and a huge plate of broccoli while Erwin and I had cheese and snack mix.

We woke Lily up for our dinner seating, and sat with a guy originally from Rockville, but now living in Apopka. He had a Sony 3D camcorder....very neat toy, I must say. For dinner, I had the chicken breasts in a roasted red pepper sauce with a multigrain pilaf and spring vegetables. Erwin had the broiled salmon in lobster sauce (same sides). We ordered mac'n'cheese for Lily, but she ate my rice and I ate her dinner. For dessert we had a painfully rich chocolate torte.

Got back to the room, had a few more Mouse, and got Lily ready for bed. Knowing that I was tired and she would be up at dawn, and thinking we would pull in the station before 9, I called it an early night and went to sleep at 830 when she did. Good thing, too....because our run of odd luck with transportation was about to get even more challenging. (Continued in Day 2)