Vacations | Carl's Blog

Spring Break – Day 3.14

Happy π day!

If you need ideas for how to celebrate pi day, click this link to the site I’m using this image. Or just go eat a piece of pie. This may prove harder to do than you think. I was looking at the online menus here in Canyon Lake, Texas and couldn’t find a single pie on a menu. The Wildflour Bakery I had lunch at yesterday, only said they have pies on occasion, mostly in November or December. Today’s trip took me into Wimberly, Texas and there I was able to find at least 2 restaurants with pies on the menu, Wimberly Cafe and Chill’s On the Creek. More about my pie quest for π day later.

I know I mentioned going to a history museum, but I decided not to go. Looking at their information online, and they didn’t open until 12 PM. I didn’t want to wait around that long so I decided to go to Wimberly, Texas.

This town puts Gruene, Texas to shame. Or maybe, Gruene needs to learn a thing or two from Wimberly. They had nice public bathrooms, easy to find and access near the public parking.

There was both a city QR code linking to the official city website with things to do. and a QR code linking to the app store to download a Wimberly Shopping app having most of the stores listed and the ability to create a plan to visit each using a map on your phone.

One recommendation if you plan to visit Wimberly, Texas and you want to see all the shops, you need to go on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday. There are a handful of shops that are closed for the rest of the week. I also suggest getting breakfast at one of the restaurants, because the shops that are open, don’t open until 10:00 or 10:30.

Speaking of breakfast, I decided to have a regular breakfast, 2 eggs, hashbrowns, sausage and an English muffin at Wimberly Cafe. I’m glad I decided to get something to eat, because the place was filling up quick. It was here that I first noted that pie as on the dessert menu. If I failed at finding pie anyplace else, I knew I could return here for a slice with lunch.

After breakfast, it was time for some Pokemon Go, (yes, I’ve been trying to catch’em all during my trip) and shopping. I’ve been looking for a bracelet and ring for my index finger. I’m size 15 so it’s been very hard, and by the end of the day, I was only able to find a bracelet, which is actually and ankle bracelet. If I was smaller framed, I could have easily found dozens of rings, bracelets or necklaces. The shops just don’t cater to my style, if I was inclined to wear dresses, I could have spent so much more money than I did. Enough talk about my shopping spree, I have some new socks, T-shirts, candles, and gourmet popcorn.

This town has some interesting objects and murals to look at while walking around. For example, this train car is next to the public bathrooms and public parking.

I believe this mural is on the side of the Chill’s on the Creek. Oh, and that rock leaning up against the wall, has a warning about the door being active and in use so pay attention. How did I notice? I saw one of the servers exit from that door as I crossed the street.

Cypress Creek runs through the city. A section has a small dam along the park side (right picture) and its a normal flowing creek on the side leading away from town. (right picture)

This tree provides shade to the Creekhouse Kitchen & Bar outdoor dining area. The plaque on this tree shows the date of 1400 AD.

This vine, with yellow and orange flowers is growing on the trellis outside of the Creekhouse.

I know, you’ve been wondering what about the pie for π day. Listen, I couldn’t have just finished breakfast and went straight to lunch. I spent some time exploring and I’ve been sharing what I found and skipping over all the shopping. So here you go, it’s now lunch time…

Chill’s on the Creek, drink special was $2 off their signature cocktails, so I had to try the Texas Tornado. It was a rum based pineapple, orange juice drink. I do recommend it, especially if you like pineapple. For my main course, I had the Mahi Tacos and green beans. Concluding the meal was the frozen lemon pie. And that was very delicious. Reminded me of a lemonade cream frozen popsicle.

Oh, the suit of armor is just there because I found it interesting. It guards the exit of the restaurant, so maybe it comes to life if you try to skip out on your check.

Thus ended my day in Wimberly. Tomorrow I must return home and face reality and the return to work on Monday.

I hope you’ve enjoyed my rambling.

Published in:

on March 14, 2024 at 5:15 pm Comments Off
Tags: dining, food, pi day, restaurants, spring break, travel, wimberly

Spring Break – Day 2 and 3

Sunday’s time change hit be hard on Tuesday, so I got to a very slow start. I’m on vacation. I don’t have to do it all in one day.

After lunch time I went to a hiking trail near my hotel. But the trail was less than I expected. The Madrone Trail’s only high point was the butterfly garden. It is in the actual shape of a butterfly. The rest of the trail was confusing. There are too many connected trails. If you stopped paying attention, you could easily just walk in circles. I took the time to find one Geocache and then left.

Wednesday morning, I woke up early and ready to get going. So different than Tuesday morning; however, the weather and sunrise were not on my side. The Canyon Lake Dam overlook park didn’t open until 8 AM, luckily the donut shop was open at 6 AM. I enjoyed a kolache and a chocolate iced donut with sprinkles along with my coffee.

When the sun made an attempt to show up, the clouds and the fog had something else to say. The hike at the Dam was not pleasant with 92% humidity.

So back to the hotel and time for 2nd breakfast and some reading while I waited for the weather to improve.

At 11 AM the weather had improved. The fog had cleared, and the sun started to make appearances through the clouds. I head out for a little shopping Natural Rocks Crystals before going to the final trail of the day.

I went to the crystal shop hoping they’d have some rings my size, but they didn’t. I was able to purchase some pocket gem necklaces which allow you to drop polished rocks into a net. I will be able to use them with some malachite rocks I bought in Utah last summer and create my own “handcrafted” necklaces.

My final hiking adventure for the day was at Canyon Lake Gorge. This gorge was created in 2002 after a record amount of rain created the conditions were the dam overflowed the spill way and cut out the gorge. Be sure to check in at the office and pay the $5 access fee then trail is an easy out and back of 1.3 miles with signs along the way pointing out key features found in the gorge. You can book a guided tour, and I’m just going to copying and pasting the site blurb, “Join a certified guide on a trip down to the bottom of the 64-acre Gorge to explore limestone layers from an ancient sea, perfectly preserved fossils, waterfalls and springs where the Trinity Aquifer is exposed, and much more.”

Sorry for the heavy breathing. This is the view returning to the trail head.

After a very good burger from the Wildflour Artisan Bakery & Grill. I head to my final destination of the day, Crowded Barrel Whiskey Company.

I’m now back in my room and trying to decide if I should just have a bowl of cereal or something else light. Seriously, that burger earlier was very filling.

I’m thinking tomorrow I will visit the Hill Country History Museum, and then find a place to have a piece of pie. The forecast is for rain off and on, so outside activities could be very limited.

Until the next post!

Published in:

on March 13, 2024 at 7:42 pm Comments Off
Tags: flowers, hiking, nature, spring break, travel

Spring Break 2024 – Day 1

For this year’s bring break I decided to visit Canyon Lake, Texas and stay at the Holiday Inn Club Vacations Hill Country Resort. I’m planning on the final post in this series to be a full review of the resort and my current thoughts on the Holiday Inn Club Vacation. Now on to what I got up to yesterday, March 11th.

I cooked myself breakfast, a bacon, egg, and tomato taco. I forgot to buy cheese and I’m just realizing that I forgot to buy cheese again yesterday before I returned to my room for the evening. Going to have to make that a priority for today.

The plan for the day was to visit The Alamo, and its museum, then visit Natural Bridge Caverns and finally end with dinner in Gruene, Texas.

Canyon Lake is about an hour from The Alamo. I had plans to get to The Alamo at 9 AM when it opened, but I wanted a 2nd cup of coffee and was enjoying the latest podcast from Going Medieval. If you like history I recommend this podcast. While listening to the podcast, I was also trying to determine the best plan for parking in downtown San Antonio. I ended up parking at the parking garage that houses the Whataburger in downtown San Antonio. This was the first time I brought my dslr camera with me and I didn’t rely on my cell phone for all the pictures.

San Antonio and The Alamo

I arrived around 10:30 AM and exited the parking lot walking toward Commerce Street. This art deco structure has already amazed me.

It is called La Antorcha de la Amistad, “The Torch of Friendship”. It was created by Mexican artist, Sebastián. He is known for creating massive steel structures. “More than 200 of his monumental creations can be found all over the globe, including Mexico City, Paris and Jerusalem.” You can learn a bit more about him here in this MYSA news post (2019) that I quoted. News post about Sebastian.

As you walk toward The Alamo at the time of this post (March 2024), there is a major construction project in the works to transform Alamo Plaza. In the space available, they are trying to reconstruct the buildings that have long been lost to history and provide visitors with a view of The Alamo during that 1836 battle. The building across from the plaza has been taken over for the new Alamo Museum, so the places I would buy T-shirts and ice cream have been forced to close. Don’t worry the buildings across from the Menger Hotel are still open for business so you will still be able to buy T-Shirts and tourist trinkets.

The line to purchase tickets to visit The Alamo church was large in size; however, I joined Friends of the Alamo and with your membership you get free tickets to visit The Alamo and the museum exhibit on site. So I ordered my tickets using my membership and was able to head over to the line to get into The Alamo. OMG, if I thought the line to buy tickets was long, the line to get into The Alamo was 3 times it’s size. At least it moved quickly and if I understood the podcast from Alamo Podcast, “The Battle of the Alamo,” we were in line where the Mexican army made its final assault along the long barracks toward The Alamo church were the Texans made their last stand. The church was also where the women and children were hiding during the fight. Every person fighting inside The Alamo was killed. At the start of the battle, Santa Ana had raised the red flag, signaling to all the defenders of The Alamo, that the Mexican army was not taking prisoners and they would be killed even if they surrendered. The battle last about 90 minutes and the only survivors were the women and children.

One thing I want to note about the church. In 1836 it was more ruins than a functioning church. It didn’t have a roof and had been fortified by the Mexican Army before the Texans took it over and setup a defense inside. Also, the defenders were expecting to get help from the other Texans mustering in the East. History shows that help was on the way, but it wasn’t able to get there in time. This leads me to the big news of the year. The Travis Letter.

The Travis Letter is on display in the museum behind the Alamo. Along with many other artifacts and Phil Colins’ collect. Yes, that Phil Colins, the drummer of Genesis. He even does the voice over inside the museum that retells the battle. But back to the Travis Letter…

How do you know this is a big deal? Out of view of my picture is an armored Texas State Trooper who is facing the Travis Letter. Normally, security is standing by the door or in the corner surveying the room. Not this guard. I don’t have a clue what the letter is worth, but being as it is one of a kind and is one of the last letters that Travis wrote asking for more help before the fall of The Alamo I’m guessing it’s near to priceless.

I mentioned there were a variety of artifacts in the collection. These are the ones that interested me the most so I’m going to include them here with my own ramblings. 🧐

This is a statue of Joseph. According to the note at the base, it is missing the baby Jesus normally found with statues of Joseph. What I found the most interesting is the ability to bend the elbows and rotate the arms at the shoulders. It was designed so someone could move the arms and reposition them.

I didn’t get the exact date when this wallet of flints was in use, but I like how it connects us back to Stoneage humanity. Modern humanity isn’t really much different than ancient humanity.

I’m going to conclude my Alamo visit with some of the pictures on display of the Alamo. From 1850 to present date, tourists have been visiting The Alamo. You can even see a picture of the Pope, Queen Elizabeth and a ZZ Top.

Natural Bridge Caverns

Back to the truck and $30 to get my truck out of the parking garage and off to Natural Bridge Caverns. I’ve trying to remember the last time I was at Natural Bridge Caverns, and I can’t remember the exact date, but it had to be over 10 years ago and the complex has changed. It is no longer just a place to go see a cave. Above ground they’ve added picnic areas, areas where you can “pan for gold or artifacts”, and rope/climbing course and an area for concerts.

In the gallery below you will see pictures from Natural Bridge Caverns. The tour has changed dramatically since the last time I visited. Before you when down with a tour guided and they lead your through the cave and gave you speeches about the formations and the history. Now you follow the path from tour guided to tour guide and at each stopping point you hear about the formations and history and then you move on to the next location. I miss the old way, but I can see how this system is much more efficient and the improvements to the path along with all the handrails is much appreciated.

Gruene, Texas

Off to the final destination, the historic city of Gruene, Texas.

This little city, now part of New Braunfels, Texas has really learned how to trap tourists. Don’t get me wrong, if you want to shop at some unique stores, you will find them here. If you want to listen to local singers and musicians, you can find them here. What you will have a hard time finding is parking. There is one main parking area, and it is very large, but it was almost full when I arrived at 4 PM. Now most of the shops close by 5ish. Yes, I’m right 5ish I should have taken a picture of all the stores that operation hours. Basically, if people are in the shop still buying items, they won’t be closing. Smart move on their part. I would recommend a visit but bring a friend or two or at least a designated driver. Some places allowed you to purchase, “to go” beverages.

I finished the day with a meal at the Gristmill Restaurant. The main course, bronze catfish, was good but the M.L. Special, a desert was the winner of the night. It’s a fudge cake with pecans, ice cream, strawberries and whipped cream. I have to give a shout out to my server, Gigi, for recommending it.

Day one’s adventure ends here. We started our day visiting a historical site in the birth of the state of Texas, traveled to a natural wonder and enjoyed a bit of nature, and we concluded the day visiting a historic town in central Texas. Was a good day overall.

Published in:

on March 12, 2024 at 2:44 pm Comments Off
Tags: alamo, history, san-antonio, spring break, texas, the-alamo, travel

Christmas Adventure – Day 4 – Dec 28, 2023

Walked down Canal street to the river front. I thought about taking a street car, but after yesterday’s attempt and a notice on the official app, I decided walking would be faster.

I tried to get a beignet from Cafe Du Mont again, but it wasn’t open at 8:45 AM. So, I went to church again, but this time with my DLSR camera to get better pictures and I knew the doors opened at 9 AM.

I thought about getting another coffee at Cafe Beignet near the meeting point for the New Orleans tour, but decided I’d already had enough at breakfast so just decided to take some pictures of the steam boat and train station nearby.

I’m now sitting on the tour bus waiting for the tour to start.

Stop 1: Cemetery 3 Hear are some facts about New Orleans funeral practices.

You cannot open a grave for a year and a day. So, if some dies before the time frame, you have to rent a tomb or find a friend who will loan you one for the time. These above ground tombs get up to 400 degrees in the summer speeding up the decomposition process. The boneman will come back later and place the remains in a bag and reseal them in the tomb. These bags now, because of Hurricane Katrina, are non biodegradable with markers and identifiers of the deceased. The flood waters destroyed and damaged many of the tombs and remains were moved around with the waters.

Interesting story behind this tomb below. Skelly spent all her money on the tomb to spite her daughter who is not legally allowed to be laid to rest inside. Obviously, this was not a good mother/daughter relationship.

Some more facts… Families take care of tombs and reuse them for family members. The ones that are falling apart are family lines that have ended.

Now on to the Garden District… The Garden District was created from an old plantation that was subdivided. The further away from river for wealthy closer to river for working class, industry smell. Lessons are architecture

2nd most haunted house in New Orleans – yellow fever victims – Nicholas Cage owned it before going bankrupt.

After the tour ended I had to find a Lucky Dog Vendor on my nieces recommendation.

Kate, the tour guide said I should try a Sazerac.

So here we go…

The Sazerac from Cafe Beignet. It’s a cocktail made with Sazerac Rye, absinthe, Peychaud’s Bitters and a twist of lemon. The one here at the Cafe is a bit sweeter than I like.

I went to the Ritz to buy my sister one of their signature candles. Check out the decorations in the lobby.

Then it’s time for a short rest.

It’s only 5 PM, and I’m not going to just sit in my room. So off to Bourbon Street..

I’m hungry. Let’s go eat at a vampire restaurant.

The place is called Vampire Apothecary Restaurant and Bar. Check the linked website to learn more. I highly recommend a visit. The portions are small, but the taste is amazing.

There is a magic show later, so I’m eating and drinking slowly.

The Sazerac here was so much better. It had to be the handcrafted absinthe and bitters.

Time for tea and cake.

I’m going to call it an end to this post. Maybe I will tell you about the magic show in tomorrow’s post, but maybe not.

Published in:

on December 28, 2023 at 6:36 pm Comments Off
Tags: cake, cemetery, New Orleans, nola, tours, vacation

Christmas Adventures – Day 3 – Dec 27 2023

Why do some IHG hotels offer free breakfast and others don’t? And why do some offer free parking and others don’t? I guess I know the answer – Money Money 💰💰💰

Didn’t do much structured adventuring today. I did a total of 9.3 miles by the end of the day. Let’s just call is lots of exploring.

One thing I can say about Bourbon Street… It’s not really my vibe. I prefer it during the day vs the night. Don’t get me wrong I like a good adult beverage, I just don’t think you are getting your bang for the buck. With that said, you have plenty of choices for frozen, slushy beverages. Something else I noticed were all the small art galleries.

I didn’t get pictures but I saw groups of “stem punk” dressed individuals with manual type writers that would compose a poem for you on the stop for any topic you gave them. I even saw a magician performing magic on the sidewalk outside Cafe Du Mont.

Speaking of the Cafe Du Mont, I’m not going to be trying their beignets unless I can get there very early. I don’t stand in lines that long.

I planned on going to the Museum of Art. I even purchased a ticket to ride the cable cars for the day; however, the cable cars all lost power and after waiting 10 minutes I decided to go to church.

I arrived at St. Louis Cathedral Basilica just in time (3:45PMish) to be warned the church would be closing in 5 minutes. So I took the pictures above and quickly left. I booked a history/cemetery tour for 10AM tomorrow and I think the cathedral is one of the first stops.

I’m hoping to do one of the bus ghost tours because they go to some of the cemeteries but in the evening. Assuming I can myself to an afternoon jazz club vs a nighttime jazz club. Tomorrow will tell. My feet hurt.

I’m going to end this post with a picture of a tanker on the Mississippi River. Enjoy.

Published in:

on December 27, 2023 at 10:28 pm Comments Off
Tags: cathedral, Christmas, nola

Christmas Adventures 2023 Day 2 – Dec 26, 2023

NOTE: I’m posting a day behind.

Today is the second leg of the drive to New Orleans. Since check in isn’t until 3 PM, I’m in no rush.

Had a nice breakfast at the Holiday Inn, but the person that set up the buffet paired the sausage and the hashbrowns in one section with the eggs and bacon in the other. I feel that the sausage and bacon should be together. I’m probably just being silly.

Nothing exciting happened along the drive, unless you count the Audible book I was listening to while driving. It was Love, Lies and Hocus Pocus: Legends by Lydia Sherrer It is book 4 in the series.

So I’ve crossed the state line from Texas to Louisiana and had to stop at the welcome center.

There was even a short board walk labeled a walking trail and after a few hours of driving who can’t resist a good leg stretch?

And now back to the road and my book. Just more driving, until I get to the bridge that crosses the Mississippi River…

I don’t take pictures while driving, but technically I was parked. Whatever the accident was, it wasn’t a quick clear and eventually all 3 lanes stopped moving. Google actually provided an alternate route and once getting over the bridge I took the first exit, drove through a residential area, and then reconnected with I 10 and was on my way again to New Orleans.

Learning my lesson from my stay yesterday on Christmas Day, I didn’t go straight to the hotel, but looked for a grocery store to get the basics for making a sandwhich. I checked out Rouses Market. Being from Texas and having access to HEB, I am very spoiled. My choices for lunch meat was just the named brands, ie higher costs so if I’ve got to pay more for deli meat, I’m off to the deli to get fresh cut smoked turkey and muenster cheese. Strangely, I found Rouses branded deli meats there, but not prepacked. Another difference, there was a liquor store in the grocery store. You had to buy liquor at the “special” register. Liquor laws fascinate me in their absurdity. Not going to say anything more here, other than the laws are stupid because they is no consistence with them. Ok, I’ll move on…

I found my hotel easy enough on the west edge of the French Quarter. No place special just a 2 star Holiday Inn. The breakfast here is free, but you have to pay for parking. That brings up another thing of stupidity that would be nice if the corporation could have consistence between locations. This is one of those “If I was King..” moments..

A disadvantage of traveling during the winter is how quickly the sunsets. It’s only 6 PM and getting dark, so most of my pictures this evening are not the best, however; the Christmas decorations standout.

I skipped lunch today. I say that to explain my next quest, dinner. I googled like most of us do and picked a restaurant. The food was good, but the prices were touristy. The only costs that were on par were the drink prices, but $35 for grilled red fish and sautéed green beans. You’ve got to be kidding me.

I was still hungry and wasn’t going to get dessert at the restaurant. I went in search of beignets.

My plan was to eat at Cafe Du Mont, because my sister had sent me their mix to make beignets at home and I wanted to try the real thing. I’m going to blame the bright lights and the jazz music, but I went to the Cafe Beignet: French Quarter.

This may have been the “wrong” place, but the beignets were great and later I learned from a local, they prefer Cafe Beignet over Cafe Du Mont. I will have to make a comparison.

Anyone ready for ghost stories? How about a vampire story? Well I suggest to leave now, because that is how I ended my Tuesday, the 2nd day of Christmas. Pictures first.. short summary after.

My summary of the tour will be very short, because I don’t want to ruin it, very limited spoilers ahead.

The tour started at 8 PM, Witches Brew Tours has a variety of tours. All of the basic ones were already full so I was forced to take the 21+ tour. In the description the only difference, this included stories about murders and crimes. We also had a pitstop halfway through the tour at a “haunted” bar.

My ghost guide, Mia, is a professed witch and Catholic. Wrap your head around that. She is also full of “Dad jokes”, and bad puns. I’m going to give her the benefit of the doubt for some of the stories she told, since she is from New Orleans, but some of the info about Voodoo didn’t line up with a recent podcast I listened to on a history podcast I follow. Check it out here at American History Hit. Overall I enjoyed my time and feel the tour was worth the money and with all the walking I didn’t have any trouble falling asleep. Staying asleep was another issue, but I blame the stupid “night light” by the sink in my hotel room that doesn’t have an off switch. Tonight I’m going to put a towel in front of it.

This concludes, Christmas Day 2.

Published in:

on December 27, 2023 at 7:23 am Comments Off
Tags: Christmas, food, Ghost Tours, louisiana, New Orleans, nola, travel

Christmas Adventure 2023

Today’s adventure started with me packing my bags to travel to Houston and then on to New Orleans The strange thing about the drive is how few people were on the road although it is Christmas Day so that would explain why the traffic was light. The second thing I noticed as I was driving was the number of places that were closed. It’s nice to see at least a few places given their employees the day off for the holidays. I even saw a few people trying to get into a Whataburger, however; every Whataburger along the drive was closed.

I do have to thank all the people that work at the gas stations though cuz I had to stop once to fuel up and then a few times to stretch my legs.

Whenever you get a chance you got to stop at a Buc-ee’s.

And guess who I saw getting more cookies before heading home.

Now I should have planned better while I was at Buc-ees cuz I grabbed something for lunch but I didn’t think about dinner. The hotel was supposed to have a restaurant but when I checked in the lady at the desk said we’re on Christmas staffing and if you need extra towels you have to come down here and get them yourself and the restaurant is closed. So next time I travel on a holiday I will bring bread and ham and cheese to make a sandwich

So I spent the afternoon playing on my computer, watching the new Doctor Who special. I’m confused about that one and I’m going to have to watch one of the YouTubers that explains it cuz it was confusing.

I’m excited for tomorrow driving to New Orleans with plenty of things planned. Hopefully I can get some good content and pictures to show off to everybody.

Published in:

on December 25, 2023 at 8:23 pm Comments Off
Tags: Christmas

Blue Ridge Parkway

Today’s adventure was all site seeing. My 2nd reason for coming to the east coast was to see the leaves changing colors, so my friend and his wife drove me up and down the Blue Ridge Parkway with a focus on Grandfather Mountain here in North Carolina.

Don’t forget to look down our you could miss the beauty of the small things…

I hope you enjoyed this small sample of nature photos. My trip ends tomorrow with my return home. My next adventure should be “crossing my fingers” during Christmas or New Years.

Published in:

on October 18, 2023 at 10:48 pm Comments Off

Charlotte

I have to tell you about my room for last night. I’ve never stayed in a room that had a dedicated sitting area and a bedroom. It feels like a small apartment.

The bed was very comfy and I almost slept past my alarm. I normally wake up 15 minutes before my alarm. I’ve always been an early riser. I think that comes from wanting to watch cartoons as a kid before school.

It’s now breakfast time and I’m off to the RedEye Dinner. I thought it was a bit further from the hotel or I’d have walked here last night and avoided the over priced pasta meal.

I’ve got some time so let’s explore some.

The hotel has a “roof” button I think I’m going to press it.

Well, the door is locked. 😔 Roof access is for special events only.

Published in:

on October 17, 2023 at 8:40 am Comments Off

Train Travel Time

Started the day off just as before, with a nice breakfast at the hotel. Packed up all my things and drove 26 minutes back to Baltimore to turn on the rental car.

I had to take the shuttle back to the airport so I could get a taxi to Penn Station and then catch my train.

Interesting announcement on the train. It is running on electrical power but when we get to the Washington DC station it will be switching to diesel so the train will lose power and the bathrooms will be unavailable until the switch is completed so go now if you need.

Arrived at the Washington DC station around 10:40 AM and I overheard one of the other passengers saying it was going to be a 30 minute wait to allow boarding and I assume other things probably connected to switching from electric to diesel.

Most of the people in my car got off and the conductor let us know that we would be filling up again.

At 11:03 the fans turned on and the light by the power outlet relite.

I helped two people traveling together for work by switching my seat and they gave me $20. They could have asked the other person but I got lucky. It sometimes pays to be nice and helpful.

Just crossed over the Potomac River.

11:25 AM arrival at Alexandria, VA

Next stop is Quantico about 20 minutes away and a perfect time to see how fast the train is going.

It seems the train travels slower on diesel, between 65 and 70 mph.

Good news after the last stop, the cafe car opened. The prices are what you’d expect for a captive customer. For example a can of soda is $3.00.

11:58 Now arriving at Quantico and passing over Quantico Creek.

And just like that we are off again. I’ve tried to take some pictures, but the train is moving too fasts and there is too much foliage making all the pictures blurry. You will just have to take the train yourself.

Fredericksburg is next stop at 12:20 PM

Ashland is a town where the train goes down a street. Also look at all the houses decorated for Halloween.

Ashland, VA

Next stop is a 10 minute wait someplace outside of Richmond, VA. Staples Mill Road Station at 1:29 PM

Found a cool website to track my train. railroad.net/trains/79/

Next is Pittsburgh, VA yep on time 2:11 PM.

North of Garysburg

Rocky Mount, NC stop at 3:48 PM

Wilson, NC at 4:10

Stopped at Salem, NC

Raleigh, NC at 5:17

Next stop still in Raleigh but at The State Fair 5:30.

Cary, NC at 5:47 basically we are still on time.😃

Next is Durham let’s see what time we get there.. 6:07 I think that’s good.

I had hoped to see the change of the leaves but I’m guessing it’s not gotten cold enough to trigger the trees. I’ve got a solution to that problem. 😎

After a night in Charlett I’ve got a friend going to pick me up and heading to a cabin in the woods, he’s mentioned the trees there have started to change colors. 👏🍂🍃🍁

Burlington, NC is up next arrival time is/was 6:50 PM it’s starting to get too dark to take pictures so I’ll have to improve on the commentary.

Greensboro, NC 7:20 PM arrival

High Point, NC 7:40 PM

Salisbury, NC 8:12 PM

Kanapolis, NC 8:30 PM whoever was doing the arrival announcement really like saying Kanapolis. I think he said it about 8 times during the announcement. 😆

Now 25 minutes left…

Charlotte, NC 8:55 PM

Now to get a Lyft to the hotel, sure I could walk the 1.8 miles but I prefer a 6 minute ride over a 30 minute walk in the dark, in a city I don’t know, dragging a suitcase.

Made it to the hotel just in time to get a meal to go from the kitchen and a drink for dessert.

Published in:

on October 16, 2023 at 10:15 pm Comments Off

Carl's Blog

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Spring Break – Day 3.14

Happy π day!

Spring Break – Day 2 and 3

Spring Break 2024 – Day 1

San Antonio and The Alamo

Natural Bridge Caverns

Gruene, Texas

Christmas Adventure – Day 4 – Dec 28, 2023

Christmas Adventures – Day 3 – Dec 27 2023

Christmas Adventures 2023 Day 2 – Dec 26, 2023

Christmas Adventure 2023

Blue Ridge Parkway

Charlotte

Train Travel Time

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San Antonio and The Alamo

Natural Bridge Caverns

Gruene, Texas

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Blogs I Follow