Alas. I am not on the car-train to Florida. Only in my dreams. There was a time when I did dream of the car-train to Florida. It was 1992 and we were on a long sojourn to Florida in our horribly over-packed red minivan. We had everything with us on that trip including Zack, Lurky, and the kitchen sink. Or maybe Zack and Lurky were on an earlier trip, Anyway, it was waaaayyy before you could twitter or friend people on Facebook, in fact only the hardcore geeks could manage to navigate the internet, but we just *had* to take our old MacPlus computer. Too bad we didn’t pack the keyboard. It’s a little weird to think that nowadays the GG and I alone usually travel with 3-4 laptop computers plus our two iPhones. You do the math.

Instead of driving straight down the I75 SUV Speedway, we took the loooong route, visiting Washington DC, the Maryland shore, and Chincoteague Island along the way and then on (and on and on) down toward the Sunshine State. We were somewhere along I95 and we were at the point where we really didn’t care that the almost-five-year-old was climbing all over the interior of our vee-hickle (just like I did when I was a kid), when I started seeing billboards about the Amtrak car-train to Florida. You and your vee-hickle could get on in New York and, when you disembarked, you would have your vee-hickle right there with you! We had seen all kinds of wondrous sights and I think I will always remember walking along the shore on Chincoteague (in my down coat) but man, I was taaarrrred by that time and we were slogging down the freeway in South Carolina or somewhere and Mouse was bouncing all over everywhere and I was dreaming about taking that car-train. Note that my brain was ignoring the fact that the car-train began its journey in New York City and I live in Michigan and, at that point, there wasn’t an opportunity to join the car-train. Car-train, car-train, car-train. I will write more about that trip to Florida some other time. We did a lot of fun things and it was wonderful and memorable, although I would like to forget the raging swimmer’s ear infection that I managed to contract. And maybe a few other little details… At least my “biorhythms” weren’t all screwed up on that trip.

Tonight. There is no car-train from The Planet Ann Arbor to the Great White North. An Amtrak passenger train runs through town a couple times a day but it goes to Chicago and that ain’t anywhere near the Great White North, although folks in Florida might think of it that way. Us? Lemme see. Fly Honda Express. We knew ahead of time that a fiery truck accident had US23 all snarled up so we swung over and up the Lansing route which was infested with construction and closed exits and bridges and then I had one sorta near deer miss north of Mt. Pleasant after it started getting dark. Sigh. We are here at the Houghton Lake Group Home and I hope the blasted webcam isn’t pointed at me but I am too fried to check that out.

Tomorrow? Well, stay tuned and you will see.

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