Mind the Gap

For four months I've had the bitter taste in my mouth of my last train trip to Florida, which ended prematurely in Jacksonville . I've been determined to complete the northbound trip on Amtrak's Silver Star, particularly because there was one stretch of the route through the Carolinas that I had never seen in the light of day. Amtrak had given me a full refund from the truncated trip in April, and after I kvetched a little more to them about their customer service they threw in an additional $75 voucher. I'll take it. My birthday seemed like a good time to use the voucher. So I figured I'd fly down to Tampa for the day, then catch the train in the evening back to D.C. I invited my best friend from college, Eric, to join me in a roomette. I took the 6:30 a.m. flight to Tampa to begin my trip from National Airport. We were a bit delayed in taking off, and touched down around 9:15.  This is where things get fun. Tampa's airport has a series of people movers that co