Day 16: Back Home

Because we were able to leave Washington  D.C. four hours early, we will get home much sooner than we had planned. Arising just after day light we are already in Florida, approaching Jacksonville.

Meeting two fellow travelers in the dining car, we find they are indeed from Jacksonville and are traveling to Winter Haven for the day and back to Jacksonville on the evening train.

Leaving Orlando , we are on the home stretch,as we approach Lakeland it has   begun to rain. Hope it’s not raining in Tampa when we get there.

Sunset on a great trip

The train has to turn around and back into the Amtrak station in Tampa to prepare itself for the return trip to Washington D.C. This little fact allows us enough time to grab lunch in the dining car prior to our departure.

From there it will be an Amtrak bus to Sarasota, these aren’t too bad , as Martz is the contracted carrier, they are much better than Greyhound.

As we arrive into Sarasota, I begin to wonder if our car is still there. We had parked in a city garage for no charge. I wondered if the guy who told us it was OK to park there really knew what he was talking about. It seemed too good to be true, but I figured a towing bill would be no more expensive than paying parking fees for sixteen days.

As the bus stops at our destination ,we disembark and begin walking to our car. Cool, the car is still here! I caught a break. And so ends a sixteen day adventure, all is well!

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