Before I explain how to sleep on a train, I must tell you my good news/bad news. I had my yearly MRI a few weeks ago and today I learned the results. The good news is that for the second year in a row I have NO NEW LESIONS!!! I do have a few that have grown a little but not much. Tysabri is doing its job. The bad news is that I have 3-5 lesions on my spine. These are older lesions that we did not know about because my neck has never been scanned before. One of the goals of MS patients is to keep lesions away from your spine for obvious reasons. At least mine are old and they are few in number.
Okay, now let's talk about the train. Charlie decided it was time to go visit his niece and Grand niece in New Orleans. As it turns out, Charlie's youngest sister and her husband decided to move back after spending two miserable years in Denver. They lived in Gulf Port, MS and were wiped out by Katrina. Then, Charlie's other sister decided to visit along with her daughter and so it turned into a mini family reunion. Charlie's niece, Erin and her husband Danny thought that our visit would be a great time to baptize their adorable daughter Vivian.
Now, we did not take the train to save money. Yes, it would have been a couple of thousand dollars to fly but we could have made the 10 hour drive for a lot less than the train cost. Charlie just thought it would be fun to sit on a train for 16 hours each way. Amtrak advertises that you will see glorious parts of the country and ride in comfortable recliner seats. I will post later about the beautiful countryside but for now, let us talk about comfort. We were lucky that for the majority of the trip we each had two seats so we could spread out a little. Yes, the seats did recline a little and the leg room was triple that on a plane. Sleeping was still extremely uncomfortable, the train was hot, and the food and drinks cost more than the train tickets. During the trip the kids were great and did not complain. Patrick did say how tired he was and wished he could sleep. I reminded him that this is an adventure and he would always remember it. He replied that an adventure was 'BEING A MALE STRIPPER'. The train was not an adventure, just a miserable long and very bumpy ride.
Vinny attempting sleep.
Mitchell sleeping.
More Vinny.
More Mitchell. Now, you might be wondering where Patrick is. He finally fell asleep here...
During Dinner he finally fell asleep.
Then after a quick meal he was able to get a few more minutes of shut eye.
When we were not sleeping...
Mitchell read the comics and talked with some friends while Charlie played with his I Phone.
Patrick ate chips while texting...
and Vinny ate granola bars while texting her friends.
Vinny and Mitchell played some tic tac toe.
Here are a few of the stops the train made. I am sure we made more stops but I was probably asleep.
Tuscaloosa, Alabama
Meridian, Mississippi
Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Picayune, Mississippi
and Slidell, LA. We also stopped in Greenville, SC. Clemson, SC. Birmingham, MS, and Atlanta, GA. There might have been more but like I said, I was most likely asleep.
Thanks for stopping by. Check in tomorrow to see what we saw while on the train.