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| Chicago Union Station, Old Great Hall |
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First, my apologies for not posting daily during this trip. At the end of the day, when recapping the day's highlights, I didn't have cell phone service in order to connect to the Internet. The procedure was going to be: write the blog on the laptop, process images in Lightroom, connect to my iPad through its hotspot using the built-in cell phone connection, then use the iPad's internet connection to populate the blog. One critical piece is cell phone connection! I will try to catch up today, if possible.
Phase I; Virginia to California via Amtrak; Day 2-Chicago to Denver
Phase I; Virginia to California via Amtrak; Day 2-Chicago to Denver
My wife and I both had a restless night and didn't sleep well. I think there are two reasons for this. First, in the sleeper next to ours, there were a couple of young children. Mom read them a Harry Potter novel for over an hour. The walls are thinner than I would like so it was easy to hear her read. We wanted to retire rather early, but her reading was a distraction. I didn't want to ask her to read more quietly, because she was reading to her children, which is admirable, and I didn't want to do anything to end that effort. Not enough parents read to their children anymore.
Second, it was too warm in our compartment. The AC was on and the fan was blowing, but still it was a bit warmer than we like it. So, being warm, caused us to be restless and wake often. Hopefully, tonight we will be on the California Zephyr and a different sleeper and the AC will work better.
Because the train was supposed to arrive in Chicago at 8:45 a.m., the dining car people asked everyone to come to breakfast as early as possible so they could get everyone fed and start cleaning the car for the return trip this afternoon. We ate a hearty, and very tasty breakfast, at 6 a.m. Too early for either of us.
My breakfast, which I only ate about half, consisted of a cheese omelet, sausage patties, potatoes, grits and toast. Way too much for breakfast, since I'm used to having coffee and a couple of spoonfuls of peanut butter for my morning meal. My wife's was the same, except she had scrambled eggs and chose bacon instead of sausage. The potatoes were not supposed to be with my meal, but they were on the plate.
The meal was good. The coffee was good. The service was good. No complaints, except we ate much too early. Such is life.
We sat quietly as we rode toward Chicago. When we awoke, we were almost in Toledo. So we had a couple of hours to wait until we arrived in the city. The sights were rather depressing. It seems that the heavy industrialized portions of northern Ohio, northern Indiana and eastern Illinois (also the southside of Chicago) are way past their prime. There was a lot of old heavy industrial mills, some steel mills, that at one time, look like they were very productive and employed thousands. Not now. There was a lot of blight, run down neighborhoods, abandoned businesses and an unattractive atmosphere. I wish it were like it was in the 50s and 60s when American industry was going like blue blazes.
We finally arrived in Chicago about 25 minutes late. The reasons were construction on a draw bridge in downtown Cleveland and waiting for a couple of freight trains to clear in Indian.
We walked around downtown Chicago, but it was pretty cold and windy. Surprise! Not! We spent the majority of our 4 hour layover in Amtrak's first class Metropolitan Lounge in Chicago's Union Station. We ate a nice lunch in the station's food court and enjoyed the amenities of the lounge. Our train, the California Zephyr, leaves Chicago at 2 p.m., central time. As in D.C., an Amtrak employee will come and get us and escort us to the train before the rest of the passengers board.
And the saga continues....
We boarded the California Zephyr about 30 minutes before time to pull out. Again, like Newport News and Washington, D.C., no identification check, no taking off shoes, no stepping through a scanner and no TSA lines! What a pleasure to get on board. A throwback to how it used to be before that dreadful day in September, 2011.
We settled into our room and pulled out of Union Station, Chicago, exactly on time. We rolled south and west through the suburbs of Chicago, getting a view of neighborhoods that one does not normally see. As we left Chicago, we picked up speed and headed into rural Illinois. There was lots of farmland peppered with giant windmills. Windmills in Illinois! As we headed south and west, the speed limit is 79 mph and that is where my GPS said we were. The ride was a bit roller-coasty, but not bad. The attendants on the train tell the passengers to practice walking like a duck! It works!
The dining car supervisor came by and asked for what time we would like our dinner reservations and we made them at a time of our liking. Then, we left our 7 ft. X 7 ft. Superliner bedroom and headed toward the front of the train to the sightseer/lounge car.
It is so nice not to have to sit in a seat, buckled up, crowded, cramped, sitting next to someone who you would never want to know, as I would in a commercial airplane, and be able walk the length of a train, sit in our compartment, stretched out on the couch or sitting in the sightseer/lounge car with the panoramic windows and conversing freely with others.
Oh no! The train goes into emergency stop somewhere near Alba, Iowa! We stopped very quickly. The conductor made an announcement that an air hose blew and the crew would replace it quickly and we would be on our way. The little episode took about 30 or so minutes, but we were on our way.
When you eat in an Amtrak diner, you are seated with different individuals for each meal. They call in community seating. I love it. We met some of the nicest people at breakfast, lunch and dinner throughout the trip. And, except for being repetitious, the food was pretty good. The one thing that I would ask for is more selection choices and not repeat the same choices day after day.
We spent a good deal of time in the sightseer/lounge car talking with others and enjoying the conversations. When not there, we were in our compartment reading or, in my case since I get a bit motion sick if trying to read while moving, listening to some photography related podcasts.
We retired for the night about 10:00 pm, and because both of us didn't sleep well the previous night, we slept like the proverbial logs.
More coming for Day 3.
And the saga continues....
We boarded the California Zephyr about 30 minutes before time to pull out. Again, like Newport News and Washington, D.C., no identification check, no taking off shoes, no stepping through a scanner and no TSA lines! What a pleasure to get on board. A throwback to how it used to be before that dreadful day in September, 2011.
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| Out of the Back of the California Zephyr at 79 mph in Illinois at a Slow Shutter Speed! |
We settled into our room and pulled out of Union Station, Chicago, exactly on time. We rolled south and west through the suburbs of Chicago, getting a view of neighborhoods that one does not normally see. As we left Chicago, we picked up speed and headed into rural Illinois. There was lots of farmland peppered with giant windmills. Windmills in Illinois! As we headed south and west, the speed limit is 79 mph and that is where my GPS said we were. The ride was a bit roller-coasty, but not bad. The attendants on the train tell the passengers to practice walking like a duck! It works!
The dining car supervisor came by and asked for what time we would like our dinner reservations and we made them at a time of our liking. Then, we left our 7 ft. X 7 ft. Superliner bedroom and headed toward the front of the train to the sightseer/lounge car.
It is so nice not to have to sit in a seat, buckled up, crowded, cramped, sitting next to someone who you would never want to know, as I would in a commercial airplane, and be able walk the length of a train, sit in our compartment, stretched out on the couch or sitting in the sightseer/lounge car with the panoramic windows and conversing freely with others.
Oh no! The train goes into emergency stop somewhere near Alba, Iowa! We stopped very quickly. The conductor made an announcement that an air hose blew and the crew would replace it quickly and we would be on our way. The little episode took about 30 or so minutes, but we were on our way.
When you eat in an Amtrak diner, you are seated with different individuals for each meal. They call in community seating. I love it. We met some of the nicest people at breakfast, lunch and dinner throughout the trip. And, except for being repetitious, the food was pretty good. The one thing that I would ask for is more selection choices and not repeat the same choices day after day.
We spent a good deal of time in the sightseer/lounge car talking with others and enjoying the conversations. When not there, we were in our compartment reading or, in my case since I get a bit motion sick if trying to read while moving, listening to some photography related podcasts.
We retired for the night about 10:00 pm, and because both of us didn't sleep well the previous night, we slept like the proverbial logs.
More coming for Day 3.
Thanks for looking. Enjoy!
Dennis Mook
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