I have been derelict about posting my trip south, until the very end. It has been a very awesome 3 week trip so far. I will try to catch you up. Also, if you are a FB friend of mine or follow me on Twitter, I am now using that Gowalla app that allows me to share where I am traveling and what I am doing at the time.
Week 1
We took the Autotrain from Lorton, VA, boarded our car and rode south to Sanford, FL. Clickety-clack down the tracks is a lot of fun. The lounge car offers a variety of pre-trip refreshments which are not too bad. We had the family room which is the largest sleeper in the train car. You have to use the community bathrooms, but for us, the legroom is great and if you can believe it, it was cheaper when we purchased our room.
You meet a lot of different and interesting people when traveling by train when you go to the dining car to eat. For dinner, we had a couple from up north. Those folks actually drive down to Virginia just to get on the autotrain to get to Florida. It is fun. The next day for breakfast, we had another retired couple to share our breakfast with. Their son is a pilot in the Air Force and is currently the pilot of Vice President Biden's plane when he travels. They were from Vermont and say they really love living there.
We arrived in Sanford Station which has been remodeled. It was fantastic, I must admit. Before, the station had been pretty dinky, a real hole in the wall. Happy to say we were not the last vehicle to be unloaded. Yeah!!!!! We drove to Disney in Orlando and our room was ready at the Wilderness Lodge Villas and was very lovely. This was the first time we had stayed at this Disney resort and we really loved it. We had a one bedroom apartment. Steve worked during the day and I stayed at the resort and enjoyed the pool or went over to the Magic Kingdom to run around some. Steve was able to go out in the afternoon and evenings, so we went to the Magic Kingdom in the evenings a couple of times to catch the Main Street Electrical Parade, the fireworks (Wishes) and a new show that they have called something about the Memories and You. I can't remember exactly. It is a slide-show shown on the castle and is well worth seeing. We actually got there early enough that we camped out at the train station by the railing and everything was perfect. We did that on our last night before leaving. We actually had another magical moment the first night we went to the MK. We decided NOT to stay for the fireworks but take the boat back to our resort. We got aboard and were surprised that the boat had the music piped in. We were able to watch the fireworks from the water. How incredible. I have read about this fireworks cruise before and this was actually the boat we were aboard. You pay money to get this moment. Since they did not have anyone sign up for the cruise, they just picked up a load of people and gave us the experience for free. It was awesome!!!!! Also, on this night we stayed out at the resort on the "beach" to watch the Water Pageant. This is a group of barges that sail by with a light show, sort of like Christmas light decorations. We had never seen it before and it was well worth putting on a jacket and viewing.
The Flower and Garden Show started at Epcot on March 1st. This is always quite spectacular. The colors are vibrant and the Disney topiaries are magnificent. It also means the Flower Power Concerts and we were able to see and hear Jose Feliaciano. Awesome!!!!! He is a fabulous artist and wonderful entertainer. I must also note that when you wait for the concert to begin, you always meet some terrific people. The lady sitting next to me owns an Alpaca farm in Fancy Gap, Va. Her name is Linda and she gave me her card. She and her husband stay in Florida during the cold months because of her arthritis. I can relate. Her daughter and grandson take care of the alpacas. It's a good set-up. I told her that I enjoyed needle arts and we had a lot to talk about. She invited me to visit the farm, which I intend to do. I checked out the website and those alpacas sure are cute and their wool looks quite beautiful.
I will try to post some picture from this portion of the trip later. I really enjoy the time we spend at Disney and am grateful we are Disney Vacation Club members so that we can have the wonderful resort amenities available to use and not have to spend an arm and a leg. I will get into that discussion at a later time when I get to the third part of our trip. So, until then, I continue to travel.
