Today, Jeff, Sherry, and my lovely bride Karyn rode with me up to Sanford Florida to see me off on my trip. It was a beautiful cool spring morning ride of about 120 miles up to the train station. We met Chris at the Osteen Diner for a nice lunch with a very cute 19 y/o waitress (Karissa) that Jeff was sure had "Daddy" issues. But that's another story.
After lunch, following the GPS, we were led through Da Hood in Sanford Fl, it was pretty scary! Would not want to do that again.. But we arrived at the train station about 1:30. The rest of the group parked their bikes and I immediately got my bike secured on the train carrier. It's really pretty awesome! I have done this one time back in 2010 when a couple of friends and I took the train up to DC for rolling thunder. They have you ride your bike up on the carrier into some wheel chocks. Then they secure the front wheel/fork assembly with ratchet straps.. See pic below:
That's Jeff standing behind my bike.
The train will take me as far as Lorton Virginia. It is a 17 hour ride, they serve dinner and breakfast tomorrow morning. They have a lounge car with drinks and snacks.. Because of the time of year, I am one of the youngest of 466 people on this train. All the snowbirds are going back north. The waiting room at the station was like a sea of blue/gray hair... Talk about the Geezer Express!!
I am typing this as we are moving.. The clickty clack of the rails and the motion is making me sleepy.. More to come later.
You missed the real excitement when we left and had to go to DQ in the hood and Jeff desided he would pee behind the dumpster. Lol
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