Maryrose and Eve - Chicago and Southwest Chief

Subtitle - We're not in Kansas anymore




















Union Station Chicago
Maryrose, or a Roswell alien?
In La Junta, CO next to Southwest Chief

We detrained the Capitol Limited from DC around 9 in the morning in Chicago. As Maryrose has mentioned, the compartments are compact, but as long as there is a bed to stretch out on full length for the night, I am happy. The cars are double decker, and the club car is the place to enjoy the vistas with windows that give a partial sky view.

Chicago was sunny and delightful. We walked east past the Sears Tower, tallest building in North America, with the goal of catching a glimpse of Lake Michigan. That we did, and in the process came across beautiful city gardens in Millenium and Grant Park, myriad numbers of children playing in fountains built for that purpose, and a symphony orchestra rehearsing in the outdoor performance space. A sinuous footbridge, called the BP bridge, took us across a highway to more gardens and an ample view of the Great Lake.

Chicago’s Union Station is a grand old station of elegance, beauty, and lofty spaces. The Corinthian columns brought to mind New York’s Penn Station, where fragmented Corinthian columns depicted as artwork on the walls remind us of its former grandeur and misguided destruction.

On board the Southwest Chief around 3 in the afternoon, we were pleasantly surprised to meet our car attendant, Cynthia, who broke the mold of the Amtrak employees thus far encountered on the previous two trains. Let me just say that you have to be prepared to set certain of the Amtrak family straight on who the paying customer is. So here we are Wednesday morning rolling through the flatlands of Colorado and loving every minute. I woke up just as dawn was breaking over Kansas, and went to the club car where the phenomenon of multiple sunrises manifested itself, as the numerous hillocks and hummocks repeatedly obscured the sun only to reemerge as we moved westward. The golden orb finally broke free from the earth and shone forth - Happy Bastille Day!

We have met a variety of characters at meals and are reveling in the views which bring to mind the narratives of Paul Theroux, a great advocate of train travel, who found the destination secondary to the passage there. It is a wonderful relaxing way to travel, and I do not regret spending the big bucks for this experience!

Maryrose and I have just rendezvous'ed with the family after a Greyhound bus ride from Albuquerque to Las Cruces, NM. So far, so good!