[l2ridehd]

Ha Linda, LOL. Driving can be a test of your love life. We have found that starting out early, like 5:00 AM or before, split the driving about every 3 hours or a bit less, and it works. I start and drive the VA back rounds and a little bit on 95, do one in the middle, then the last miles on the back roads from Jacksonville down. Takes between 13 and 14 hours. So we get there between 6:00 and 7:00 PM.

We hate the drive going North on 95. From VA to Maine it is an awful trip, tolls, traffic, cities, backups, construction, every thing possible to make the trip trouble. However from VA South, it is usually a great trip. Some construction in GA, some issues with speed traps on 301, but all in all a fairly easy drive.

We fly most of the time, and drive when we need to take stuff with us. I will leep checking the train, but so far it turns out to be expensive compared to flying or driving.

[djplong]

Golfnut & l2ride: I just priced out a one-way trip on the Auto-Train. I picked Saturday March 6th as the date and for two adults, one car, AAA discount, I got a total of $365. That was $198 for the car (kind of a peak season going south) and $167.40 *total* for the coach tickets. A roommette was a $187 additional and WOW - a first-class bedroom was $532 more! That's a LOT more than I paid.

On the car fare and room-surcharges - an example of a discount for the car would be northbound on Wed, May 6th when it's only $152. The same day, northbound, a 1st class bedroom is only $281 instead of $532, and a roomette is $124 instead of $187. The $281 is a lot closer to what I paid because I bought the tickets so far in advance.

It's definitely lottery-like as to which 'price bucket' you can buy on the Auto-Train. The general rule is, the longer in advance, the better your price.