This trip involved a solar eclipse, an earthquake, computers down, flood, and a train wreck. We traveled by train, car, and plane and did lots of visiting. All in all, very exciting!
John and I started our trip taking a sleeper train to Philadelphia. The last time I traveled on a train, the meals were reheated and I ate alone. This time (post-pandemic), there was a chef and we were seated with others. We enjoyed our meal with our ‘neighbor’ on the train. We had a fascinating talk about Chinese customs, green card procedures, and working as a junior professor in Florida. Breakfast was with a nice lady from Michigan.
When we got to the lounge while waiting for our next train, everyone was talking about the earthquake. So, we were in Philadelphia during the New Jersey earthquake but we think it hit while we were on the train as it entered the city. With all the rocking of the train, we didn’t feel it. BTW, the Amtrak station is gorgeous.
From there we took a train to Pittsburgh. The trips is through Amish country, Allegheny Mountains, and around the “World Famous Horseshoe Curve”. People travel for miles to sit and watch trains there. The cool part is supposed to be that you can see the end of your own train as you take the curve but our train was fairly short so we could only see a few cars.
In Pittsburgh, we stayed a night in a hotel then walked to Enterprise car rental. They told us our car was ready but their whole company’s computer system was down so we couldn’t get the car since they couldn’t process our credit card! After some time at a nearby coffee shop and after we sweated working out alternative car rentals, they called us back and we were able to get our car.
The next few days were with John’s son, Johnny. We met his girlfriend Kathy and enjoyed catching up. John is very handy and did that guy-bonding thing by helping Johnny repair a couple of doors.
One evening was spent with my friends from my first job out of college. It was great to see each other in person after doing zooms for a couple years. We did a traveling dinner in two different houses. In the first, we saw all kinds of amazing furniture that Tom made. In the second, Michael was a BIG train fan and had a basement full of trains and tracks.
The big event was traveling to my brother’s house for the eclipse. Bob and Pam are great hosts! The sky was clear for the eclipse despite the early forecast of clouds. John took some great pictures. It was truly amazing!!
Then we drove to West Virginia to visit with John’s family. First, we stopped at Friendship Hill National Historic Site. That makes 157 national parks/sites/etc. for us.
We just love Sue and Frank!
The highlight here was a lunch that Sue planned with John’s aunt. Aunt Barb was only told the four of us were having lunch. However, when we got to the restaurant more relatives were there for a total of 10 people. She was shocked!
One evening and night was spent with John’s friend Bill and Barb. We enjoyed talking around the fire and the special breakfast.
Then we returned to Pittsburgh for 2 nights at the hotel. Interesting fact...the hotel used to be a Federal Reserve bank. They still have the vaults which now go to conference rooms.
The time gave us a chance to walk around downtown seeing the architecture. This building was built in 1884.
It’s spring in Pennsylvania (it’s summer in Florida).
Had to go to the museum there too.
The excitement wasn’t over. We took the train from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia okay but then found out our train back home was canceled. There had been a train wreck in Georgia on the line so all trains were canceled that day. Amtrak would have put us up in a hotel with food vouchers for the night but they weren’t sure if the tracks would be open the next day. Instead we got the price refunded. While it was stressful to get an uber to the airport and find a flight, we ended up getting home earlier than we would have.
What a trip!
