March 2007 - 4:00 AM Up for the Train

4 am comes awful early, especially after a night of celebration....but knowing that we'll be on a train for the next 38 hours, we'll be able to sleep and rest so off we go.

Roadway Inn - Flagstaff, AZ
Everything is packed and we head to the car to load up and head to the station, which is only a few blocks away.  While checking to make sure we have everything we have notice one bag was left behind, the most important one because it held our train tickets.  Court heads back to the room, puts the card key in the slot and it doesn't open the door.  He tries over and over but nothing happens - okay so we look at the window to see if we can jack that open to get and we can't so we start freaking out, just alittle.  We head over to the motel office and on the window it states they are closed until 6 am, this won't work because as I said our train leaves at 6 am.  So we start banging on the door, ringing the bell over and over and banging on the window.

The clerk comes to this little window and begins to tell us they are closed so we frantically tell him what's happened and he FINALLY gives us another key to try and it works!!!!  Let's get going....

Flagstaff, AZ
So we arrive at the station with plenty of time to spare thank God, I just hate being late for anything.....

Our train arrives Amtrak Santa Fe Super Chief.  We didn't get a suite we just took regular seats and since it wasn't full we each had 2 seats for which we could stretch out on and sleep at night. The trip was both exciting and uneventful making several depot stops along the way......

Depot in Albuquerque, NM
Stopover in Kansas City, Missouri

Rounding the bend
ending in Chicago for the night we get into Union Station. 


We decided to extend the trip and stay in Chicago for the night, something we did alot when we lived in Indiana.  We would take the Amtrak from Lafayette to Chicago and just explore. 

We stayed at the Chicago Hyatt and walked Michigan Avenue "The Magnificent Mile" which I always loved to do.
So many cool things to look at.....and of course our visit wouldn't be complete if we didn't eat at the Billy Goat Tavern.   

(Taken from the Billy Goat web site)
Ever hear of the "Curse of the Billy Goat," also known as the Cubs Curse?

Do you recall the Saturday Night Live sketch in which a short order cook would yell out to incoming patrons:

"Cheezborger! Cheezborger! No fries, cheeps! No Pepsi, Coke!"?

All of the above have one thing in common: the World Famous Billy Goat Tavern, a Chicago legend since 1934


As I said before, we used to go to Chicago quite often so we are no strangers to the town including walking Lower Wacker Drive and all the way down to Navy Pier, etc., but this time was different.  We started walking from our hotel and wanted to do our regular route but along came this guy, as soon as we left the hotel he was right behind us.  We get past the Wrigley Building and head to the Billy Goat and he's still behind us, which really wouldn't be too odd, but all of a sudden I decided to turn around and ask what his deal was.  He asked if we were from here and being pretty savvy to these things we said yes we where and he said not to worry he didnt' have a gun and Court immediately said he had one on him and with that the guy just walked away.

Needless to say we no longer felt as secure, safe and confident as we had in the past so instead of spending more time than needed we just went to the Billy Goat, had dinner and headed back to the hotel.    In all the years we have been going to Chicago, this was the first time we didn't feel comfortable.  So to bed we go - off to Lafayette to get the car and visit some friends - then back to Utah

1 comment:

  1. That train trip sounds like fun. Glad the fella that was following you didn't get the best of you. That's a little scary. Nice post.

    ReplyDelete