When we left Herrington Harbour, we left our truck behind. When we moved aboard in 2012, we sold the truck, and had no vehicle. This — it appears — was less than optimal. This time around, we're keeping the truck.

Now that we're in Charleston, it's time to move the truck down to where we can use it.

This operation has a number of moving parts. It works like this.

1. Get a ride (Uber, Lyft, Taxi, whatever) to the Charleston Amtrak station.

2. Take the Palmetto (departing 10:00) to Union Station (arriving 19:43.)

3. Take the Red and Yellow lines from Union Station to National Airport.

4. Take a shuttle to a nearby hotel. There's a Holiday Inn in Crystal City that's particularly helpful for this. It's a half-mile walk in the cold and dark. The shuttle's more fun.

5. First thing in the morning, take the shuttle back to the airport rental car location. Terminal A. They drop you off outside, take the tunnel; don't wait for the bus.

6. Drive the rental car down to Deale, MD, to get the truck.

7. Drive both vehicles back to the airport to drop off the rental car.

Now, we can drive to mom's in rural upstate NY. Final arrival is about 19:00.

From there, we will be getting on the Lakeshore Limited to Chicago. This is a 19:00 to 09:00 overnighter. And then the Southwest Chief to LA. This departs about 15:00 and arrives 43 hours later in LA. The roomette will be pleasant so we can stretch out to sleep.

We'll be back on Red Ranger in a few weeks.

For now, we're doing some other kinds of travel. Pictures will follow.