My work was slow so they offered voluntary time off (without pay of course). O.K. here's my chance to visit my mother in Florida without having to use up vacation time. Am a train nut so decided to go that way again. Did it last year and loved it.
Left Harrisburg on 3/03/08 got there next morning. Had couple good but cool and rainy days, then mother got a bad cold. She stayed in bed most of next two days.
Although each time I'd ask she'd tell me she was feeling better but still bad. Then on the 10th she winds up in hospital for couple days. We were scheduled to leave on the 11th. Needless to say that was changed. She has bad ticker and that was part of problem but she is much better and gaining strength so since both of us are running out of meds and I was planning on going back to work Monday we left Sat. evening @ 7:20, 3/15/08 by bus from Ocala, FL to train @ Jacksonville which is leaving @ 10:57 that night. Wonderful, everything right on schedule. Y'all know how we say "DOWN SOUTH," not anymore for us, believe me it was all downhill going north. Train heads northwest @ Savanna to take in Columbia, SC and then back northeast. O.K. we were lucky as there had been bad weather thru Atlanta & east before we got there. Reported tornado around Savanna. We missed that, thank God!
What we didn't miss was two trees that were about 12-15 inch thick. They were just around a bend in the tracks so not seen in time to stop. This about 2:30 A.M. Sun. The engine was not one with the cow catcher on so therefore instead of pushing them off track we went up on them. Raised the engine up and had debris scattered back several cars. We were very lucky we didn't have a derailment. Now we have to wait for crews to come and remove trees plus repair engine (yep, it was damaged). No running engine so no lights (except emergency) and no running water for restrooms. Ugh! 2 1/2 hours later we get going again. Next thing I know we stop again. "Sorry, folks, but there is another tree across tracks." This one not hit but still had to wait for crews to come remove it. Bill slept through that one. Now we are about 4 hours late. So guess who has to get off to the side tracks to let other trains through. RIGHT! Us! Now the crew on our train has put in about all the hours allowed so at Columbia, SC we are told we are going to have to wait. I asked conductor just how long of a wait and he said, " A long wait!" O.K. now I've been on the train for hours and hours and the restrooms on them are not the greatest so figure here is my chance to go to a nice one. It was. When I went out (which wasn't long) a lady asked me if I had been on the train. Told her yes, and looked out the window. No train! She said, "Oh! Good, at least there are three of us they left." So I figure, nah! they just pulled ahead to repair some damage that they hadn't before. NOT! Station manager tells us it left and that was the last one headed north until next day. The guy with us is furious with Amtrak, the other gal is concerned as her meds and checkbook were in an open bag with only her sweather over it. Course y'all know me enough to know that by now I'm thinking its funny as heck. I could just see Bill's expression when the train started pulling away. (Didn't realize then that he had paid them to leave me behind! Only kidding.) Had just gotten Bill a cell phone for Christmas but I had left mine on train. Now listen carefully. Bill calls my cell, while waiting for me to answer he hears mine going off in my "activity" bag and he wonders who the heck is trying to call me while he is trying to get hold of me, so he looks at my phone and sees, "Bill calling." Bless his heart he was so darn beside himself he didn't give it a thought that it was him calling my phone. So the lady with us lets me borrow hers to call him and let him know that they are going to get us to Florence and then onto another train for Philly. Yes, we'd be parted until then. And what was I worried about??? My books and CD player was on the other train! Other lady was concerned about her meds on other train. Don't know what or how important. Next thing I know we're told that our train has to wait about ten miles up the track so they are getting us a taxi to take us there. No, it wasn't us they were waiting on it was a new crew. Even after we got there we had to wait about an hour. Tracks belong to CSX and AMTRAK was told to get train off tracks at Columbia. Maybe another train was due through there??????? So this big colored dude that had told me the train would be there for a long time then tells me how upset Bill was. He says that he thought he was going to slap him so he took him to the other guys over him and let him blow off steam. (To bad it wasn't a steam engine) yea, bad! Bet you think my story is over. NOT! So it's go, stop and wait quite often rest of trip. Bill is sleeping again, I notice this guy walking up the isle. At first thought he was looking at seat numbers, no, he's looking on shelves above and in seats, going back and forth many times, then thought he was looking for something to steal and then notice he has this rubber band in his hand and he is working that through his fingers a mile a minute. I figured, oh, crap, this guy is about ready to flip out. He went into cafe car and sat down. I kept watching for him or someone to report him to. He did go back through later but seemed better then. I went to cafe car to charge phone. When I went back to seat (we were stopped again) there was an ambulance and police car outside. They had escorted that guy off train. They just announced there had been a medical emergency and we were waiting for a freight train to pass. So finally get through Richmond, Washington & Baltimore then they opened her up 120 mph. Get to Philly about 3 in the morning. We're only about 10 hours behind schedule so do we want to wait for commuter train at 5:30 or take a cab, at their expense, to Harrisburg station? Oops, station closed so would have to wait outside in the dark. Decided to wait for train. Then they decide they will take us to our door. They didn't need to do that but did let them take us to Bill's daughter's place (109 miles) where we had left our vehicle. Much closer than our place. Now our lives are in the hands of a cabbie from Palestine that was driving like he wanted to do us all in. No, he really seemed nice and knew what he was doing, getting us there very, very quickly. So got to Bill's daughter's place, have cup of tea and leave for home, after she told Bill to watch out for the deer. NO, we did not hit a deer! Bill got stopped at least two inches away from two of them after laying a patch of rubber behind. This was about two miles from our place.
Now I'll bet you all think we'll never take the train again, right? Nah, if I had the time and money I'd be willing to head out again soon. Not so sure about Bill though. And to think he always tells me that I'm going to miss him when he's gone. Poor guy! If he doesn't quit his worrying he's going to lose his hair. I'd really say we were lucky! After all #1 tornado could have hit the train; #2 trees could have fallen on train; #3 train could have derailed; #4 I could have missed the experience @ Columbia; #5 that guy could have had a gun or knife and flipped out and on an on, so not complaining. Besides I wouldn't have had a short book to share with you guys. LOL
 

P.S. After reading over this I thought to myself, "Gee, if someone told me this story I'd probably think, yea, right!  I swear to you that every bit of it is true.  In fact some of it could be varified thru AMTRAK. March 15th, 2008.  Actually, was probably after midnight when things started happening. Check 'er out.

This is an email I had sent to several of our friends shortly after we arrived home.  To save much time I just copy and pasted it onto here.

We went to Lancaster today to visit my mother-in-law and saw the commuter train going by and all I could think and say was, "I want to go again"!  Crazy, huh?