Amtrak Adventure -- 20-21 Dec Train 98 to WAS

I decided I'd take the train this year to visit my relatives in the Boston area, a fortuitous decision, since the weekend I was due to travel there was a massive snowstorm which shut down most of the airports between Charlotte, NC and Boston. I was scheduled to travel my favorite train out of Florida, the northbound Silver Meteor, on Monday morning. If everything went as planned, I would arrive in Washington DC shortly before 8 a.m. the next morning, where I would board a regional train for the trip from Washington to Boston. It seemed a very prosaic trip. I had work planned and everything. However, the reality turned out to be much more of an adventure than expected.