Road King Blog

Over the past couple of weeks, Sean and I had been discussing the possibility of meeting up and doing some riding.  He was headed down to the Maryland / DC area for business.  So I decided to head up and meet him for a week or so.  Given the short time I had available, it seemed the most efficient way to meet up would be to take the Amtrak Auto-Train up to DC, turning what would be a 2-3 day ride into an overnight trip.

So I packed up the bike, and then went for a test-ride to make sure the bags would stay where they were put and the bike would not be upset by the way the bags were loaded.  Everything seemed properly, and I was ready to go.

Around 1100, I headed out for Sanford, and just beat a pretty good size storm in.  Strong, gusty winds were moving into the area, making for some interesting riding, particularly across the exposed, hump style bridge over the railroad tracks.

Speaking of railroad tracks, the entrance to the station crosses several sets of tracks, at a variety of odd angles.  Makes for a bit of a challenging bike ride.

The bike was loaded onto an aluminum sled, and the sleds were then loaded into the auto carrier.  For our trip up, there were a total of 288 vehicles on the train - 280 cages and 8 bikes.  There were a couple Hondas, a handful of Harleys and a sportbike.  Once the bikes were loaded onto the sleds and strapped down, it was time to await the boarding call for the train.

Once the call was given, we all queued up at our various rail cars and shuffled aboard.

By the way, shuffled is a very apropos term.  The majority of my fellow passengers were on the high side of 70, it seemed.  Sort of a fountain of youth by association setup…..

Onboard, the accommodations were acceptable, if somewhat austere.  I was in a coach class seat, which was comparable to a first-class seat on an airliner.  I was in the front row, which offered an expanse of legroom.  Above the seats are generous luggage racks, with sufficient room for my carry on bag.  I surreptitiously  ran a cable lock around my backpack, and through a couple of the mounting point straps and locked it to one of the metal poles holding up the luggage deck.

After getting settled in, it was time for dinner.  I had selected the early dinner seating, and walked back to the dining car for some food.  Dinner was a braised beef with potatoes and veggies (steamed carrots.  Yak.)  Overall the food was good, but no spectacular.

Following dinner, I retired to my seat to get settled in and read for a while.  Sleep was sporadic, owing to the movement of the train and the frequent passage of people through the doors separating the cars.  Each time the door was opened, the rather bright light in the space between the cars was exposed, which was not conducive to sleep.

Around 0630, I gave up on sleep, and headed back for the continental breakfast in the dining car.  Cereal, some juice and a bagel combined to get the day started, along with some pretty heinous coffee.  Welcome to Friday, and welcome to Virginia.  We were rolling through Richmond as we ate, and ended up arriving about an hour ahead of schedule.  After 17 hours on the train, getting off the train was a rather attractive prospect.

To be continued…..