And we're off!

...but not in a motorhome!

Carl's RV has been in an RV service center in Lewisville, TX since the day after we got married (it went into the shop on 2/3). He has been calling them every week to get a status update... the primary reason it went into the shop was to get repairs done on the paint and awning that were damaged when he was driving from Illinois to Arizona in October - high winds literally ripped the awning hardware off causing damage to the side and roof of his rig. The insurance folks took two weeks to get there to assess and provide a check for the service, and it seems that they have been waiting on parts for most of the rest of the time. We heard that it was delivered to the service area that does body work on Monday, so we're hopeful that it is close to completion.

We had decided that we wanted to get both rigs to the farm in Virginia to consolidate down to one RV - so getting Miss Doozie there was the first step. But, we need to get them both there. We had talked about flying to Dallas, but decided that it would be fun to try train travel... so, we booked tickets a week or so ago to take the train from Richmond to Dallas via DC and Chicago. We have been debating whether it was wise to continue with our plans, but we decided that we might as well - it doesn't look like it is going to get "better" with regard to this virus anytime soon, and if we need to get both RVs to Virginia to do the consolidation, we'd better work on getting Carl's RV there.

So, Tuesday, March 17, we left Richmond, on our first leg to Washington, DC.

Patti in the Richmond Staples Mill waiting area - Carl asked the lady who was working at the snack stand if the amount of people was "normal" and she said that it was never "crowded" at this station, but usually more than this.

Carl and our luggage in the Richmond waiting area... I used to be good at packing light, no longer! And, the Amtrak train that we were taking from Richmond to DC did not have checked luggage, so we had to carry everything on.

The train was a little delayed - I think it had to wait in the Richmond Main Street station for a freight train to come through. We boarded about 30 minutes late.

There were very few people on the train...

The seats were large and comfortable and the ride was smooth.

We enjoyed a lot of the scenery as we were traveling. I remembered the man in Ashland who used to wave at all the trains as they went by (many many years ago - maybe when I was in High School!).

Coming in to D.C., we tried to get some pictures of the cherry blossoms and monuments...

Jefferson Monument with construction/renovation going on its roof

Washington Monuement

The Capitol Building between buildings

We couldn't check bags on the train out of Richmond, but we could for the remainder of our trip, so we checked two bags to Dallas via Chicago.

We decided to have lunch during our layover at Union Station in Washington. The food court had had all of the seating removed, but Johnny Rockets still had tables and chairs, so we decided to eat there. The server apologized for the small plates - they can only use paper plates now.

After lunch, we decided to go outside and enjoy some walking... the statue in front of Union Station.

 When I had checked weather a few days ago, the prediction was for rain in each of the cities we would be in (Richmond and DC on 3/17, Chicago on 3/18, and Dallas on 3/19) - but the weather in DC was *gorgeous*!

The Capitol is just down there... a little less than a mile away...

 We still had over an hour before our next train, so we decided to walk over there...

Along the way, there were parks with beautiful trees in bloom...

Beautiful!

... on each side of the street...

We arrived at the Capitol and decided to walk around it...

We saw the Supreme Court Building...

And the Capitol from the east side...

Carl asked a young lady to take a picture of us in front of the Capitol...

More gardens...

looking back toward the Supreme Court building

Library of Congress

House side

Senate side

on the south side of the Capitol

Trees on the west lawn of the Capitol Building

West side of the Capitol

Washington Monument - about 1.5 miles away

Carl at the Freedom Bell - back in front of Union Station

We made it back in plenty of time to stop in the lounge, get a snack, and then be dismissed to our train.

I have written this as we have traveled through Maryland and West Virginia. We'll be crossing into Pennsylvania soon. We decided to try doing one overnight in coach seats - the Chicago to Dallas part we have a "Roomette"... so we can decide what we would do if we did another train trip in the future.

We weren't sure whether we would look back on deciding to take this trip as a great adventure or a disaster - so far it has been a great adventure!

Signs

One of the things we enjoyed about our trips to Houston each week was that we got to stop at Buc-ees. If you're not from Texas, you may not have heard of Buc-ees: https://www.buc-ees.com/index.php

We would stop there, use their very clean restrooms, and get lunch.

They had interesting signs for sale - here are a couple...

 There was also an interesting sign at my dentist's office:

Finally, this one was at Walmart:

Monday on the farm...

Note: some of the pictures were not displaying on the web, so I am re-publishing Tuesday morning's post...

We've arrived at Patti's family's farm in Virginia and have Miss Doozie parked. Monday was our first full day on the farm; Carl has commented that folks pay big money for this kind of experience!

We got to feed the "bottle baby" during morning milking:

She seemed to think that both of us did an OK job in providing her milk, though seemed to think that it was NOT enough...

Later in the afternoon, Jimmy transferred the grain mixture over to the distribution container and made up the buckets of feed for the calves (teenagers) across the road...

We carried the buckets in the back of the pickup truck across the road to the calves there...

The calves were not sure about these substitute food delivery people...

 After Carl explained to them that we had credentials from the ILC driving a truck to Houston to get a food donation and delivering it back to Dallas, they decided to try the food that he delivered to the trough...

Meanwhile, Jimmy was moving round bales into a different area to make them easier to deliver to the mother cows and calves...

After supper, Carl had a bit of conversation with the chickens...

And then we enjoyed the beautifully painted sky at sunset out the front window of Miss Doozie.

Mongolia

One of the Sunday evening Sing 'n' Shares on the International Linguistics Center (ILC) campus featured a family who had served in Mongolia. I don't know a lot about Mongolia, and they had an information page that I found interesting:

I thought it was interesting that horses are both milked and eaten...

I hope you found something that you did not previously know!

Forest Lake Thousand Trails

On Friday, we drove from Fair Play, SC to Advance, NC and checked in to the Forest Lake RV & Camping Resort, Carl's second Thousand Trails campground. I had read online that this preserve was unique in the Thousand Trails system in that they assigned you to a campsite. When we arrived, the folks in the ranger station were a bit concerned that we might not fit into the campsite we had been assigned... and they started moving folks around, but were still concerned about our ability to get into the sites... I suggested that we unhook the Jeep and go look at the 3 sites that they were considering for us, and we all agreed.

Carl and I decided that we could fit into either of two of the 3 sites, so we picked one, went back and told the ranger, and then drove Miss Doozie and got parked.

Today (Saturday), even though the temperature was barely above 50, was a brilliantly blue-sky, sunny day, so we decided to walk around the campground. It is relatively large with lots of sites roughly around a lake..

Walking across the dam...

Cabins along the lakeside

We tried finding a walking path that was labeled on the campground map. We found a number of ATV paths and walked a couple of them... we eventually got to the information and membership building where I was thankful to find a ladies room!

Surprising in the ladies room was what appeared to be an instant satisfaction meter!!! (I didn't try recording my opinion...)

In the afternoon, the sun on the side of Miss Doozie (and Miss Doozie blocking most of the breeze) made it very pleasant for sitting outside, even though the temperatures were staying in the low 50s.

Sunday will hopefully find us on the farm in Virginia!