Day Eight of the Great Ten-Day Train Trip

Photos: Gabriel, Lucas, Michael; Kim and me; Jerica (her sister was camera shy); Pam and me--all at Starbucks!

(p.s. If it looks like I have "hat head," I do. Bought a hat big enough to be an umbrella to keep the sun at bay.)


Big sigh. :-) Today was our day off. Even on a vacation, sometimes you need to take a breath and breathe.

Ginger and I slept until we woke up, a luxury if there ever was one. I was up by eight, so I went down to eat a light breakfast and to do laundry. (I had plenty of clothes, but I wasn't wild about the idea of hauling a suitcase full of sweaty duds.) Once I got downstairs, though, I realized that I had forgotten 1) my room key, which I needed to get INTO the hotel laundry room and 2) my wallet. So I had to go back upstairs and disturb Ginger to get my wallet, then I went back downstairs only to realize that my wallet had no quarters in it.

So I went to the front desk, but they had no quarters, either. But a man standing behind me assured me that he had just dumped several quarters into his wife's purse, and she was outside in the car, waiting on him.

So I went outside and knocked on the window of a car belonging to a woman I didn't know from Adam. After looking startled, she rolled down the window to hear me say, "This may sound strange, but you have quarters in your purse and your husband said you'd give them to me." I held out a dollar, two dimes, and a nickel, and smiled, trying to look sane and sensible.

The poor woman looked flustered, but she dug out her purse and found the quarters at the bottom. By that time the husband came running out, and soon I was on my way to the laundry room. :-)

After laundry time, Ginger and I went next door for lunch, then we walked to a small mall that had some fantastic stores in it, and the stores were having fantastic sales. I found a silk shirt for $6.88. Really!

Then, feeling inspired by last night's cooking class, we walked across the street and visited a kitchen store. We didn't buy anything, but we left with the vague idea that soon we might actually cook something.

And then we walked to our Starbucks stop. Almost immediately, we were greeted by Pam and her husband, Kevin, and her darling daughters, Jerica and Callie. I had met Pam at a writers' conference in Tuscaloosa, so it was fun to renew that acquaintance. A few minutes later, Kim walked in, accompanied by her husband, Michael, and her boys, Gabriel and Lucas. What fun to meet all of them and talk to their children! Two boys, two girls, and all were adorable. Kim's family lives just over the border in South Carolina, and Pam's family was on vacation in Savannah.

So tonight we're going to hang out and pack for another leg of our train trip. Tomorrow morning we leave early again and take the train to St. Augustine. If you can believe it, I'm a Florida native and I have NEVER been to that city--which is one of the oldest in North America. So that will be fun.

Until then!

~~Angie