Home safe in Athens. Train ride was fine. We made up part of the hour lost to the time change, so got in to Gainesville about half an hour after we were due. Sleeping on the train is kind of uncomfortable. I keep thinking I won't be able to sleep. Then I wake up and it's morning, so I must have slept some. This morning when I woke up, Ray was gone. I thought maybe he was in the bathroom. Then I thought maybe he found an empty seat to sleep in more comfortably, but his pillows were still here. Eventually, I found him in the club car playing solitaire. Now he's asleep in his own bed.

Yesterday was rainy in New York--and cold and windy. We packed while Amelia baked. Then the three of us went to brunch. It was brutal trying to keep the umbrellas from turning inside out. After a pleasant brunch, we fought our way back to the apartment. We decided to spring for a car to the train station to avoid dragging the luggage through the rain to the subway. The traffic was pretty bad, though, so it began to be a little stressful as it got to be 15 minutes before departure. The car let us off on the wrong side of Penn Station and we had to slog through a giant puddle with our things.

We did, however, get on the train, and had a pleasant afternoon looking at the wet scenery and being glad we weren't flying or driving it. Ray continued to work on his notes for teaching and I worked on my photo albums. Since there is an outlet on the train, the computers can be charged whenever they run down. We had dinner in the dining car about Washington DC, with a woman named Fran from Jacksonville, who is originally from the Bronx. She talked about taking the subway out to Coney Island to find it is in danger of being sold for condos.

This particular train ride was very full, with a couple of young children in the seat ahead of us. Their caretaker, a grandmother, I think, was the kind who was constantly threatening to "pop them" if they didn't be quiet. Since the fussy child was about 1, I thought it might be more effective to try to soothe her... After they got off, behind us, a couple of young women spoke quietly about their classes, but I just listened to music on my iPhone. It was also really hot. But our car was there when we got off the train and my parents were just getting up when we got home.