Planes, Trains, Boats, and Automobiles!

Being avid UCONN women's basketball fans, it seemed like a slam dunk (pun definitely intended) to go to the NCAA Women's Basketball Final Four when we saw that it would be held in Tampa this year.  So I put my nimble fingers to the keyboard and began to plan.  Initially the plan was to see some Yankees Spring Training and then end our time in Tampa with the Final Four.  But spring training ended earlier than normal this year, and realizing that we'd be in Tampa without much to do beyond taking in the sun, we decided to switch our auto-train tickets to a later date, see the final four and then spend some quality time in Savannah, Charleston, Washington, DC, and then a quick trip to Strasburg before heading home. Katie Lou Samuelson, one of our favorite players! Napheesa Collier, another favorite! That plan held firm until my niece, Nichole, and her lovely wife, Amanda, purchased a house in Elkton, Maryland.  My sister wanted to make it a family weekend and i...

The Road to the Final Four: Part 1 - March 30 ~ April 2 Car packed with suitcases, Jeff's piano (he won't leave home without it), some pantry staples (I won't leave home without them), and three boxes of Mom's painted china items, we left our house bright and early Saturday morning - 15 minutes ahead of schedule ... Amazing!  We stopped for a quick breakfast and then headed south.  It was a mostly uneventful drive, and we arrived at Nichole's pretty much on time.  Vicki wasn't there at the time, so we had a house tour led by Nichole, met friends and other family, and settled in with a beverage and a few snacks. Nichole's new home is quite lovely.  Located in a community with a golf course, recreation center, and swimming pool, it overlooks the 14th tee with a wooded area between the house and the tee.  It is a center hall colonial style with an open concept first floor.  You enter the home and to the left is a dining room area that is open to the k...

The Road to the Final Four: Part 2 - April 2 - 4, 2019 We had a leisurely wake up in our hotel suite in Woodbridge, Virginia.  Breakfast downstairs wasn't the best, but it was included, so I had coffee and an English muffin while Jeff enjoyed what he said was a very good bowl of oatmeal.  We had plenty of time, so I did my last blog entry while Jeff read the paper.  Then off we went to the Amtrak Auto Train station in Lorton - about a 30 minute drive away.  We checked our car in - #139 (although there was no rhyme nor reason to the numbers, and there were only 90 total cars on the train), made our way into the station with our overnight bag, checked ourselves in, and then settled into a wait until the 2 p.m. boarding time. The auto train is quite a marvel.  Each of the car carriers is "double-decker," meaning that two cars can be stacked on top of one another.  When you check your car in, an Amtrak employee walks around it taking a video to ensu...