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Late December - If Its Tuesday . . .

12/31/2008

We prepare to board the Carolinian on route to FL.

From Rochester, NY to Emporia, VA to Winston-Salem, NC to Raleigh, NC to Jacksonville, FL – we’ve made another Christmas pilgrimage to see the family and have returned to Orion to welcome in the New Year. It was a good trip, but it feels good to be home again.

Christmas Celebrations

After doing what we could to help out Dave’s parents as they moved out of their house, and enjoying some time with Dave’s sister Wendy and her family, we began heading south to join our children for Christmas. The frigid temperatures and blanket of snow gradually gave way to bare ground and much warmer temperatures as we made our way south, leaving the heavy coats and sweaters behind.

On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we were with our children’s families, enjoying their thrill as they waited for Santa and the awe of discovering he had actually come.

The day after Christmas, we moved further south to Winston-Salem, NC for a few days with Cathy’s family, enjoying several days with her mom, sisters and their families.

Train Travel

For the first time, we left NC by train, catching Amtrak’s “Carolinian” from the old Southern Railway station in downtown Greensboro to Raleigh. The old station had closed back in 1979, the year Cathy and her family had moved away from Greensboro after she graduated from high school there. (With her dad’s frequent use of the Greensboro station during the time he lived there, Cathy joked that that must have been the reason it closed upon their departure.) In the interim, it had been restored and finally re-opened in 2005, looking better than ever.

We had a long (11 hour) layover in Raleigh, so we took advantage of the time to tour the downtown of NC’s state capital. It’s a great place to spend the day, with so many free tours and museums a short walk from the station. We toured the historic Capitol building, the State Legislature building, the Museum of History and the Nature and Science Center. In the afternoon, we met up with Cathy’s niece, Christine, to see her new town house and eat supper before returning to the station to catch our train to Jacksonville.

We arrived in Jacksonville around 7:15am New Year’s Eve morning and caught the bus back to the marina, arriving there before 9am. Not a bad trip.

Orion Starts up

The big question in Dave’s mind when we returned to the boat was: will she start? We lost little time before putting the key in the ignition and giving it a try. Well, it wasn’t the first try, but she started on the 2nd try without us having to bleed the fuel lines. It’s a good sign, but only time will tell for sure.

Plans on Hold

We are in Jacksonville for a little while longer as we wait to see how some family situations resolve themselves. We plan to get some more projects done on the boat while we wait and – maybe we’ll go to Disney World.

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Early December - Christmas Travels

12/15/2008

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Grandpa reads to Jayden

After a couple of weeks in Jacksonville, we boarded a train bound for southern Virginia where we spent the weekend with our children and grandchildren. We then headed further north by car to Rochester, NY to help Dave’s parents move from their house to an apartment in a senior living community nearby.

All Aboard

One of the reasons we chose the Palm Cove Marina near Jacksonville was its proximity to the bus line into Jacksonville. The bus that ran right by the Marina ended its run at the Amtrak station. This made it easy to get to the train station for our trip north. We took a trial run on the bus into downtown Jacksonville a few days early. The bus system was easy to navigate and cheap (only a $1). We explored The Landing, a mall of shops by the river. It was windy that day, and the St. John’s River had a strong opposing current, which made it look . . . ahh . . . interesting. There was plenty of free dockage along the river wall. We learned that you can stay for 72 hours, but you must be prepared to allow boats to raft to you. We stored that info away for future reference. The docks are just beyond an on-request opening bridge (the Main street bridge). If a marina stay is preferred, there is one on the south side of the river opposite the Landing. A water taxi will cross to the north side of the river for a few bucks or the monorail for 50 cents. Pretty easy. We explored downtown by (free) trolley, which dropped us off at the bus transfer station so we could catch our ride back to the marina.

So, on the 5th of December, we caught the bus one more time to catch our late evening train north to Petersburg, VA. We enjoy traveling by train for a number of reasons. The Amtrak personnel couldn’t be more helpful. We had plenty of room at our seats. The train was served by a dining car, where we enjoyed a hot breakfast and got to meet a fellow traveler who was seated at our table. And we arrived in Petersburg right on time. It’s a much easier way to travel than driving.

Barb and Dave, Dave's parents

Dave’s parents had begun the process of moving from their house to an apartment in early October. We arrived to help with the final process of packing up and moving out, as the movers arrived the day after we did. We helped pack, load and unload boxes and furniture and then clean the rooms in the house as they were emptied. The bulk of the work for the move is now done, and his parents are in a position to enjoy the holidays as they begin their life at their new place.

In addition to our move activities, we spent some of the time in Rochester enjoying holiday festivities and taking care of some personal business, which included seeing the dentist and our financial advisors, since we don’t get this far north that often.

Little Troy with Grandpa

Time with the Grandkids

We enjoyed our brief stay in Virginia, visiting with the kids. We plan to return south to be with them at Christmas, before traveling to NC to be with Cathy’s family.

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