As some on here may know from tha passenger forum I intended my first 4 day visit to the USA to involve a ride on the Cz as far as Emeryville then a SJ to Bakersfield with a bus to LA. The best laid plans of mice and men…can go seriously up the Elephant and Round the Castle. It started with Aer Lingus loosing my luggage at Dublin. Well, I say loosing I mean more leaving it behind and therefore leaving me with only the clothes on my back literally. Downing a few in a pub in Chicago the same night a plan formulated in my head - ask If I could get the luggage forwarded en route to a station and could I pick it up en route - well I could only ask I suppose…
The next morning dawned (coldly) and I hot footed it down to Union Station. Could I do the above plan I asked customer assistance (who had just been abused by a spotty yoof). No sir, came the reply - why? - something to do with checked baggage apparently. Ok, Plan B - change trains - it was to be the Chief after all. Expecting the worse (an enormo upgrade) and my hand sweatily grasping the credit card I made my way to the desk at Union station…and was helped out of the mire totally. The excellent person behind the desk listened to my tale of woe; guessed the accent (and no I am NOT Australian) and put two and two together to make stupid tourist. I was then booked on to the Chief with sleeping accom (roomette) at no extra charge! Excellent.
A trip around the Loop beckoned - only a few thoughts here. Only at O’Hare was it mentioned about passes for the day or two days - could this info be displayed aty all the stations? The rather striking lack of grafitti - or did they know I was coming; was also noted and - why not advertise the Loop as an attraction to come to Chicago - this seemed to be lacking as after all a few of us over the seas have watched the Blues Brothers…
To the train itself. A poster on here kindly offered to meet me and have
Thanks for the interesting trip report. Glad to hear you found our city enjoyable (I live thirty five miles west of Chicago)…and I chuckled at your pretty good attempt at spelling our typical Chicago greeting, which is more like a “hayadoin” than anything else. I hope you waved as you went through the BNSF Eola yard (which is my favorite train watching hangout as you may have guessed from my posting “name” and is about ten minutes or less west of Naperville via Amtrak). I may have even been track side when you came through Eola…who can tell?
I was in chigago 2 years ago and enjoyed it as much as you did also called an Aussie(FOR some strange reason) went on Amteack to Memphis so know about said track
hope you enjoyed yourself as much as i did even without your case
From what I’ve gathered, most foreigners still think of Chicago as a rough-and-tumble, shoot-em-up type of town, with the spirit of Al Capone lurking in every alley. I’m glad you got to see what most folks here are really like. Try to come again when you can spend some time–I’ve encountered folks from Britain on at least a couple of occasions, watching trains in LaGrange and Elmhurst.
Greetings back at you. If you enjoyed your short vist to Chicago in wintertime, you really need to come back and spend some time during the summer. I lived and worked in and around Chicago for 25 years, many of them working in downtown Chicago. I never tired of the sights and sounds. Just about 80 miles out, we still go in from time to time.
Glad to hear that Amtrak was accomidating of you. Too bad you couldn’t go as planned, but as you noted, the Chief goes though some very scenic areas.
Quick login before I head off to the land of the long white cloud (12hrs in Los Angeles!) to say that the train was full. A lot were retired folk, some were those who hated flying, some who couldn’t fly due to medical reasons and didn’t want to travel on the bus. Most noticeably from Alber. NM the train filled with young parents and professional types pn their way to Los Angeles and Fullerton esp. was a popular spot for detraining.
The remaining 1% were misfits like myself.
I will also check spelling, sentance construction and grammar when I have time…Next stop NZ and the Overlander…