7:21 PM Sun Jan 1, 2023


So here we are in the first day of the year. I some ways it feels uneventful and even anti-climactic. It is a long train ride. I feel a bit anxious about my luggage. Yet at this time tomorrow we will be in our nice hotel with a real bed and a real shower. The shower here on the train is a joke. There is a time shower room that you can hardly turn around in. Then the water is nothing more than a dribble. Apparently there is another button you can push to get a bit more but exasperated I just rinsed what needed rinsing and headed back to out roomette. On this train, the Silver Star, it is a bit nicer than the Capital Limited. Frankly these trains need a major upgrade. Not bad for one but defiantly small for two people. David of course has been very kind and patient, at least we have some WiFi which only means I can use my iPad.

We just pulled into Rocky Mountain, North Carolina. There is nothing to see as it is dark however there is a giant lit up Christmas Tree and other lights outside the window. The food on the train isn’t bad, similar to airline food. Apparently come March there will be more formal actual mad to order meals instead of pre cooked heated food. I had some kind of pasta ziti with a salad and I drank a beer. Oh well, it wasn’t  bad and I have been acquiring a taste for it. 

Today was all about the train ride. We stopped in Washington DC and had an hour or so to wander around the Union Station. Very ‘art deco’ and grand. Not as nice as the one in Chicago which is beautiful to say the least. There were two different wedding happening and the brides were everywhere posing for pictures. The big accomplishment for the day was taking a self-administered Covid test, photographing  the negative result and getting it all up and loaded into an Ap called VeriFLY. With few difficulties we got it done and within and hour were ‘cleared’ to fly. So back to my luggage. It is all packed away in the baggage car and even if I had access to open a suitcase would be explosive. I have everything packed and full without even a millimeter of extra space. Anything I might buy as a souvenir will need to be very small. We met some interesting people along the way here. One couple, Harry and his wife are in the same voyage as us. This is their second time doing this same trip. They loved it so much they are doing it again. The wife went in an on about it was worth a second voyage if nothing else than to return to Antarctica. It is hard to fathom I am going there. I guess there is so much anticipation on my part, I have never done anything this ‘Grand’, hence the ‘Grand Voyage’ moniker.In any case a very unusual and exciting way to start the year, it will be an amazing year filled with travel and adventure.


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