Dinner with a Rat & an OTOL Rail Fest
This is the last of our gastronomic adventures! Please hold it down; I can hear the cheers and applause right through the internet. I’ll have more about that in the last paragraph of 9.2. So this trip starts as most of our trips do, I board the Pere Marquette in Grand Rapids bound for Chicago and JoeG gets on the Saluki in Carbondale. We rendezvous at the Metro Deli in Union Station and head for Dylan's Tavern and Grill for lunch on the patio. I grab a tuna salad sandwich and JoeG has nachos, both are very generous portions and will fortify us (more than we realize, at the time) for the train ride. The itinerary is the Capitol Limited to WAS then the Silver Meteor to Orlando. While there we plan a points run to Tampa, then head north to join the On Track On Line Atlantic Coast Rail Fest (ACRF).
We board the Cap Limited #30 in the late afternoon and depart Chicago on time. Before we reach South Bend the conductor makes us aware there is a 29 car freight derailment on our track just prior to Toledo. The powers that be plan a detour for us. We are initially pretty excited that we are going to see some “new” track but it gets dark before we divert to the south. To rationalize, one northern Indiana cornfield looks pretty much like any other in the middle of the summer. AU members much wiser than the two of us on historical rail matters figured out the routing was on some popular route prior to Amtrak. JoeG woke up about 6am, checked his Amtrak app on his phone, and realized that we were about 20 miles east of Toledo, or said another way, about 6 hours late. He went to the bathroom and the train was making headway to the east. He came out of the bathroom and the train was backing up to the west. We ended up back in the Toledo station where the local gendarmes hauled one of the passengers away in handcuffs! We were back on our way, another hour behind schedule. JoeG needed to brush his teeth but he was afraid if he went in the bathroom again, we would end up back in Chicago Union Station. We conferred and I stayed alert until he finished his bathroom chores and we luckily continued eastbound.
There is a silver lining to this delay. In either direction on the Cap Limited this area of Ohio and Pennsylvania is always during darkness. It was a beautiful morning and it was fun to see the big coasters at Cedar Point as we traveled past Sandusky and very interesting to see all of the Cleveland lakefront activity in the daylight. The end of the train ride came at Pittsburg for the 5 of us who were connecting to the southbound Silver Meteor in WAS. We climbed on a bus, and JoeG employed his navigational skills and determined we would still get to D.C. in time for a couple of refreshments at Kelly's Irish Times before our departure time. That is, until the bus engine blew up at 86 mph on the Penn Turnpike!! We limped into a Pilot Plaza service area to wait for a replacement bus and to grab some food. The Cap Limited had refused to serve us lunch and there were no provisions on the bus so at 5pm the Amtrak breakfast was long gone. Once again back on the road we figured we would just make WAS without a minute to spare and all was going fine until we took a wrong turn in downtown D.C. at 7:26 and possibly jeopardizing our 7:30 train. After a beautiful tour around the National Mall (in heavy traffic) we arrived at Union Station about 40 minutes late. To our surprise Amtrak representatives were waiting for us in front of the station. They whisked us off to the awaiting train. Curbside to boarding the train in less than two minutes, I’ll bet Joe Biden didn't beat that time during his train riding days!!
We maintained the 40 minutes behind (which we caused) all the way to Orlando and suffered no further delays. Looking back on it, Amtrak did a very credible job of handling the problems. The derailment was out of their control and the detour was time consuming, the incident at Toledo was a police matter that definitely had to be resolved and the decision to bus us to D.C. was a good one (and is pretty standard practice). The conductor kept us well informed all along the way. Moral to this story: be sure to contact Amtrak Customer Relations even if your trip does not get delayed or cancelled, just inconvenienced as this one was for us. There is remuneration even for inconvenience. The bus, on the other hand, was raggedy, old equipment, the driver had no business driving at the speeds he was trying to maintain, and the wrong turn in D.C. was frustrating. JoeG said as much in a scathing letter to the bus management. Now, on to more pleasant matters - eating!!
Our first evening in the Orlando area, we went to Apopka for dinner at The Catfish Place. The place had a train theme with lots of interesting memorabilia to check out. They also had some great seafood. I tried the broiled sea scallops which were delicious. JoeG had the Shrimp ala Bob with extra Cajun - a hot and spicy, to say the least, BBQ shrimp dish. We had NO leftovers! If you find yourself in Apopka, this is a must do place.
We were staying at JoeG's brother’s house. We traded him rooms and transportation for meals. It turned out to be a good deal for all. On Saturday he accompanied us on a points run to Tampa. Our goal was to eat in Ybor city. From the Tampa Amtrak station we rode the TECO streetcar to Ybor City, one of the oldest Cuban settlements in the state. The area is a big scene for the young folks in the evening but we “old folks” had a good time in the afternoon. There are three main attractions in Ybor; good Cuban food, hand rolled cigars, and tattoos. We partook of 2 out of 3! Lunch was at Gaspar's Grotto. We all started with black bean soup in a word - delicious. I had a sandwich of Jamaican Jerk chicken on Cuban bread with apple wood bacon, avocado, mango, lettuce, tomato, provolone, and Jamaican mango relish; it felt like I was on a tropical island! JoeG chose more traditional with a pulled pork quesadilla with mojo roasted pork Cuban style, onions, red peppers, mixed cheeses, served with Guava sour cream salsa. This was pork to perfection! We waddled away from here full and happy on our way to a cigar store. We found the Feuntes Cigar store and bar. We both got a couple of hand rolled choices and enjoyed them on JoeG's brother's lanai later that evening.
Sunday was spent at Walt Disney World. Joe's brother is a professor at Eastern Michigan in the winter but spends his summers as an ESPN special events photographer at Disney World. Being from Grand Rapids, I don't really understand doing the winters in Michigan and the summers in Florida but I did say he was a professor. Anyway, he has a really good life and has it all figured out especially the part about being able to take two guests in the park for the whole day. We started in the Magic Kingdom so we could ride the steam train that circles this theme park. And we timed it to get to ride the one ride per day that the horse pulled trolley takes down Main Street. Then we rode the Merry Go Round. We were spurred on by the tough old soldier, JoeG. It really was fun and proved we are just kids at heart. By now it is mid-afternoon and time for our reservation at the Epcot restaurant in the Canada exposition.
The restaurant is a replica of a cozy cellar in a Canadian chateau called Le Cellier Steakhouse. Our waitress was very knowledgeable about the menu and guided us to several wonderful decisions. We started with an appetizer of Charcuterie, the chef's handcrafted meat selections with their handcrafted Flagship cheddar and accompaniments. This is a great way to sample a wide range of dried meats in small portions. Of course, this appetizer was accompanied by an ice cold Canadian beer. My entree was a rack of venison with mashed potatoes and lima beans. JoeG selected the New York strip steak with potato pave, caramelized onions and a Vin Rouge reduction. We washed it down with a bottle of Cardaretta cabernet. Our bellies were full but our waitress talked us into topping off the meal in a terrific way. We enjoyed four artisanal cheeses: Beecher's Reserve Truckle paired with honeycomb, Woolwich goat brie paired with fig almond cake, Bayley Hazen Blue, and a goat cheese packed with truffles and paired with a berry compote. As if this weren't enough, these cheeses were accompanied by a flight of three Ice wines: a Meeker FroZin Zinfandel, Inniskillin Vidal Icewine, and Domaine Pinnacle Apple Ice Wine. What a great afternoon. When Mickey Mouse dreamed up the Epcot World Showcase he was one smart rat!!
Monday morning we enjoyed a fresh breakfast at the First Watch Daytime Cafe. I had the Parma Hash, and JoeG had an avocado omelet. In an unusual turn of events we actually fixed our own late lunch at JoeG's brother's house. We fixed up some fresh shrimp with a tasty homemade cocktail sauce, picked up three different types of fresh bread at a local bakery and made a fresh lettuce salad with a dressing we whipped up. After lunch it is time to get down to the Amtrak station and continue our adventure up the Atlantic seaboard with the ACRF group. That account will follow shortly.
