Tuesday, June 17 - Wednesday, June 18 We had to get up fairly early (6am) in order to get to the bus station in Tampa on time. I got up right away and showered, and then got Andy up. I had tried to wake him up before I got into the shower, but I guess he fell back asleep. So, when I got out of the shower, I got Andy up, and he got in the shower. He was pretty quick, and Mark got up during this time as well.

A little after 7, we loaded everything into Mark's car and headed out, after saying goodbye to Mark's mom, who had just woken up. It took us about 2 hours to get to Tampa, and we talked and listened to music the entire way.

We got into Tampa around 9, and since our bus didnt leave til 9:40, we decided to go hunt down McDonalds and get some breakfast. The security guy at Amtrak gave us directions and we went to get food. By the time we got back, we had about 20 minutes before departure, so we quietly ate our food. They announced our bus, and we grabbed our things and walked outside. Mark gave us a quick hug and he was off. I dont know why we let him leave so quickly, it was just weird. Like all of a sudden he was gone. We could have put our stuff on the bus and then come back out, but we werent really thinking clearly. It sucked we had to say goodbye so fast :(

The busride wasnt too bad, about 2 hours. I think Andy and I both slept, and my tummy wasnt feeling too well. When we got off the bus in Orlando, my stomach really hurt, so after we got our bags, and checked them for NYC, Andy and I went inside where it was airconditioned and he got me a water. We didnt have to wait too long for our train, so we went outside and stood in the shade. My stomach was still funny, but I think it was mostly from anticipation of our trip.

We got on the train shortly after 12:30pm, and found our seats. The ride wasnt too bad, and actually went by fairly quickly. It seemed a lot faster than our trip down, but doesnt it always. We didnt play any games on this trip, actually we didnt do much else other than read. I was still rereading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire and Andy started (and finished) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Our train also had outlets right at the seats, so I could keep my cell phone plugged in with no problems. I napped early in the evening, and Andy decided to hit the hay around 11 or so.

Before he went to sleep, the train stopped and was sitting on the tracks. This is not unusual cause a lot of the time there are other trains coming through and stuff, so we have to stop and wait. But this time, we were stopped for quite some time. Eventually Andy asked one of the Amtrak employees what was going on. Apparently a large tree had fallen across the tracks, and we had to wait for someone to come cut it down. Ugh! I stayed up a bit longer, talking to Mark through text messages, and emailing a little with Lissy. I also kept reading, keeping an eye out for any train movement. Eventually, in the wee hours of the morning, we started moving, and I went to sleep.

We woke up early in the morning to notice that we were about 2 hours behind our schedule. We ate breakfast and read some more, but I mostly watched the scenery. A little after 11 we got into NYC, about an hour and a half behind schedule. We went upstairs and checked our carry-ons into temporary storage and went out again to explore the city. We called Mark to let him know we made it to NYC and we were off. We didnt have much time this time around, so we decided to walk up to Times Square, which was about 15 blocks uptown. On the way there, I noticed this sandwich shop I wanted to eat in, and we said we'd stop there on the way back to the station. Times Square was pretty cool, lotsa billboards and stuff, and definitely a lot of people because it was lunchtime. It was cool, but I was sorta disappointed we didnt get to go to the Empire State Building cause we didnt have enough time. I took a bunch of pictures of Times Square, then we went back to the sandwich shop and grabbed lunch.

We walked back to the station and got all of our bags out of storage. We parked ourselves in front of the large departure board in the middle of the station and ate our lunches quickly. We didnt have much time til they called our train. After eating, Andy booked off to find us some dessert. Right after he left, they posted our train on the board with its departure platform. I tried to find Andy in the crowd, but he was gone, so I stayed with the bags hoping he'd be back soon. He was, and we joined the huge line that lead down to our platform.

After waiting in line, we got on the train and got settled (which was no small feat cause we had 7 bags with us). It was gonna take us about 4 hours to get to Utica, so we took out our books and kept reading. I was getting sleepy, but finished Goblet of Fire. Mark also called during this time and we talked to him a bit too. After finishing my book, I dozed off, I was exhausted. Andy ended up finishing Sorcerer's Stone then woke me up and by that time we were almost to Utica.

We had tried to call Andy's mom to have her pick us up but she had something going on that evening, so we called Andy's brother Ron instead and he came to get us. Since our train was a little late getting into the station, he was already there. He was happy to see us and called us "tan bitches". LOL

We drove straight home to Andy's house, and talked to Ron and Andy's grandma for awhile. Andy gave them their souvineers and they loved them. Ron left then, and Andy and I got showered cause we were super stinky (at least I was). After this, we sat around relaxing for awhile, then decided to get something to eat. Andy broke down and let me get Trio's pizza again (I LOVE their pizza). Later that night, Andy's mom got home from her thing and she came over. We showed both her and Andy's grandma our pictures, and Andy gave his mom her souvineer.

I dont remember much of what we did after that, but I think we just put on a movie and went to bed, we were pretty exhausted.

then || now