GIVING THE TRAIN MONEY AWAY PREMATURELY?  The Superintendent's Three Rules of Travel:

1. Never buy film at the amusement park.
2. Never buy beer at the airport.
3. Never buy shaving supplies at the hotel.

The first has been Overtaken By Events. Per corollary, make sure your digital camera has fresh batteries.  The second is all too frequently Honored In The Breach, thanks to sharp work by the screeners followed up by slipshod timekeeping by the carriers.  The third: if your Superintendent is flying, the aerosols and sharp objects are in checked baggage.  If he's on a train, they're along for the ride in his roomette.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to come up with a workaround to gasoline prices at the service stations nearest the airport.

In Orlando, Fla., two gas stations that are the closest to the airport, and across the street from each other, are selling regular at $5.29 and $5.19 a gallon.

The Orlando airport might be remote from residential areas, meaning these gas stations are competing
only with the tankage charge imposed by the car-rental companies, and those prices are not necessarily Signs of Things to Come.  All the same, Florida is the most recent state to turn down federal funds for Passenger Rail improvement (fine by us, there's a second track from Springfield to Alton begging to be restored), and with gas at five bucks a gallon, some Floridians might be wishing for a rail option to accompany "drive or fly"?