Almost a train wreck

Well, I moved out of my apartment on Tuesday. Wednesday night my parents dropped me off in Toledo at 10pm to catch the train. It arrived 2 1/2 hours late at 2:30am. We were in West Virginia and running about 4 hours late and then it happened.

All of a sudden, the train began to violently rock back and forth like I've never experienced before. I've been on many many train rides but none like this. The train rocked so far over, then back, that I had to brace myself. I didn't know it could go that far over and not jump the track. People starting yelling because, like me and everyone else on board, we thought we were going over. The train almost derailed. It was crazy. We happened to be on a hill at the time in the Appalachians. On my side of the train was the hill and the other side had a drop off of 20 or 30 feet. That could have been bad.

In a matter of seconds it was all over and the train had come to a complete stop. The conductor announced that luckily the train had not derailed. The guy in front of me was freaking out. He took the train because he was afraid to fly. It was a little scary at the time but it was over so I sat back and read some more. Then I fell asleep. I guess I wasn't as concerned as the other passengers. If it were a plane, I would probably still be freaking out. Funny how that works.

The train had to be inspected along with the track. All passengers were required to go to their seats. As far as I know, there weren't any serious injuries but at the next stop a man was taken to an ambulance but he didn't look too critical. The EMS were also waiting when we arrived in DC and took another passenger. According to Amtrak, the rail had become too hot and it expanded creating a kink. They called it a sun kink. I guess you aren't suppose to hit those at high speed. Those that saw it said the entire track was twisted.

I had expected to arrive in DC at 1:30 and have dinner with Carter before my train for Orlando left at 7:30. Unfortunately, the train was 6 hours late and they held my other train for our passengers to transfer just in time to depart.

The rest of my train ride was not as exciting and I arrived in Orlando. I pick up my brother tomorrow and we get on the boat in the afternoon. Then we are off to Spain. 14 days at sea should be interesting.

Good start to the trip!