But the point is, you can’t choose between them and Dominion. In RVA Dominion is your only choice; on the eastern shore A&N is your only choice.

I missed that, thanks! The increase in the standard deduction alone would decrease OP's taxes by $371 if OP is filing as a married couple - that could explain a good portion of the increase.

Did you itemize your deductions this year? VA requires you to take the state standard deduction if you took the federal standard deduction, but the state standard deduction is very small. If you itemized this year, that might have increased your deductions by $10k+ over the standard deduction and led to a higher refund.

This is exceptionally minor, but at RIC the baggage claim belt runs from left to right. At pretty much every other airport in the US the belt run from right to left. I think it's to let locals get prime spots to get their bags as soon as they are offloaded, since most people unfamiliar with the airport will go stand on the right side. Perhaps you could have your character stand on the right side of the belt expecting to get his bags first, only to discover that he's in fact at the very end of the belt?

There be dragons south of the river.

If the train starts in Richmond it's likely to be on time. If it's coming from further south, there's a greater chance that it's late. I've found Amtrak to be reasonably reliable between RVA and DC, but it definitely isn't as good as it is north of DC.

If you want to do the train, it would be better to take it to Alexandria instead of Woodbridge. Not all trains stop at Woodbridge, but they all stop at Alexandria. Also, the Alexandria station is right next to a Metro station, so if the slugging option doesn't work out you do have the Metro as a backup. I would imagine public transit from Woodbridge is quite a bit worse.

Fun story: despite calling the City and telling them when I was moving in well in advance of buying the house, they continued billing the person I bought the house from for gas for a month and a half. Of course, 6 months later they added the amount back onto my bill.

Note that Henrico charges for water every other month, so you might want to set some money aside in the off months to pay the water bills.

I lived there from 2015-2017. The apartments were comfortable, but small - probably the smallest 1 bedroom I ever had. Management was very nice, and the gym was decent. I'll admit that the Exxon was sketchy; I once had a guy point out a bullet hole in the gas pump I was using. The rest of the neighborhood, including the McDonalds, is mostly fine, although I wouldn't hang out outside the clubs when they close at 3 AM.

If I have an 804 number, does that give me credit towards no longer being a Yankee carpet bagger?