FL Day 8: Back to The Train & Day 9: Home Again

DAY 8:
  We stayed at a hotel about half an hour away from the train station.  We slept in, had a leisurely breakfast, lounged around the room some, and still made it to check in before they officially opened.
  I asked about upgrading to a sleeper again since it was so nice the first time.  We had been told that sometimes there are last minute cancellations and you can sometimes get one.  We did not get it, but we were the last coach car before the sleeper cars, so that should count for something.  Our car attendant kept warning us that he was new and had only been doing it for 2 months.
  The train still has 15 people cars, but has 30 vehicle cars this time.  There are 246 cars and 10 motorcycles, which four of those are BMWs.  It is going to take even longer than the previous 1.5 hours to get the motorcycles off.
  Bill fell asleep while they were coupling the train back together and the guy across the isle from us kept muttering "Oh God" every time Bill snored.  He then said something about snoring but I didn't catch all of it.  I found it amusing.

  The dinner menu between the sleeper cars and the coach cars are a bit different.  I really wanted to try something on the sleeper menu, but didn't get to.  Maybe someday.
  We did get to sit with new people this time.  We talked with a couple who were heading back to their up-state NY home and had 7 hours of driving after they got off the train.

  Bill convinced me to play Gin with him after dinner.  I've never played before but I seemed to pick it you quickly since I won a few games.  I even won two games with a single hand each.
  I had seen another knitter in the train terminal, but I didn't see her again on the train itself.



DAY 9:

  The neck pillow helped a lot but I didn't get the best sleep.  The rocking of the train was nice.  It didn't help that our seat was one of the ones with an exterior light still on.  I also heard our friend grumbling that he couldn't even sleep near 'That Guy' and that he 'hoped he woke up bright eyed and ready to drive.'  The worst part for this poor guy was when the guy in front of us started snoring and then the lady in front of him joined in at some point in the night.  His wife had no problems sleeping through it all.
  I also learned a fun fact.  If the door to the bathroom is perpendicular to the motion of the train and the door wiggles, the rocking of the train will unlock it for you.

  We once again got in early.  This time it was at 7:37am.  The employees at this station arrive a little earlier, so we could start getting off the train at 8:15am instead of 8:30am like on the other side.  Still not sure why they are so proud of getting us in early if it doesn't actually benefit us at all.  The dining car closes breakfast at the same time, no matter when we get in, so it doesn't help that section of crew.
  The motorcycles were unloaded soon after the 40 priority cars, so that was a nice surprise.  Bill helped to get some of the bikes off for anyone who might have been struggling a bit to get the wheel out of the scoop or back it over the ledge to get it onto the ramp to the parking lot.
  Bill asked me on the way home if I wanted to go do Rolling Thunder but I felt too tired.  I wanted to get home and unpack everything and deal with the mess I left when I was trying to decide what bag would fit everything I would want to be able to easily grab for the hotels when we only stayed one night.
  Time to go do that and get some more knitting to ease back into normal life again.