·12 Jul: Cascades Train #506
·12-14 Jul: #8 The Empire Builder 1|2|3
·17-18 Jul: #48 The Late Shore Limited: 1|2
·21 Jul: Empire Service Train #208
|
·Introduction ·12 Jul: Cascades Train #506 ·12-14 Jul: #8 The Empire Builder 1|2|3 ·17-18 Jul: #48 The Late Shore Limited: 1|2 ·21 Jul: Empire Service Train #208 |
| The Last day on the Empire Builder #8: Through Dairyland and only a half-hour late into Chicago | |
I am half awake when we stop at 10:53P at Rugby, ND and sure enough I am joined by a seatmate. Who has that smell of smoking and drinking, he is wearing cowboy boots. I ask him how far he's going and he responds Fargo, in an accent that I believe is Spanish, I recon he's probably just a migrant farm worker going to a new job sit. This time I sleep much better probably from being sleep deprived, and figuring out that the solution is to get part-way into my sleeping bag. I am fast asleep when we stop in Williston, ND and Stanley, ND. I do wake up when there are again the lights of a big city, were going through Fargo, ND a tiny bit late arriving at 2:45A and leaving at 2:50A, just a little bit late. My current seat mate gets off and I am joined by a girl, of college age, I think, who is going to Red Wing, who as she says is just south of "the city". Other than that comment we don't chat at all each listening and dozing to our respective iPods. I fall asleep again and sleep through our stops in Detroit Lakes, MN and Staples, MN. I wake up for good again once the suns come out, and we've arrived at St. Cloud, MN at 5:45A. The first thing I notice is the fact the fields of Minnesota are much greener than those we left last night, we also navigate between quite a few lakes.
We arrive at St. Paul-Minneapolis's, MN Midway Station, a few minutes late at 7:33, I due my usual walk up and down the platform. Running into the large station building to grab a few bus timetables and the prize one of their new Hiawatha Light Rail line, the station feels quite suburban being located in St. Paul almost exactly at the midpoint between the two cities, unfortunately the Hiawatha Line is a north south line (from downtown Minnesota), and doesn't go anywhere Midway Station so I can't run over and get a few photos of it. Here another Superliner-I Baggage/Coach car is added to the very back of the train in order to accommodate the crowds using the Empire Builder for regional intercity service to Chicago and other points. (Amtrak's reservation system even gives this extra car its own train number, #808). They board the train in four sections, first any parties of 2 or more traveling anywhere but Chicago, then any single passengers going anywhere but Chicago. After it's two sections for Chicago passengers, parties of 2 or more, or finally passengers traveling alone going to Chicago. Tickets are no longer collected on the train (and never for the rest of the ride), instead everyone's ticket is collected at a podium inside the station, and seat-checks are given their. We finally leave MSP a little late at 7:58A, and I go straight to the dinning car for breakfast.
| This time I am seated with a father and daughter who I'd recon was in 5th or 6th grade from Missoula, Montana and a man who's from Indiana and job is driving new UPS trucks to their destinations. He's not happy really to be on the train from his destination, Portland, but after his truck broke-down (and was fixed) in Cheyenne, WA on his way across he missed his non-changeable flight from Portland and now in order to at least make a little money off the trip he's taken. (He's a private contractor, and it's basically his track when he's taking it across). I decide to have the Amtrak pancakes, which are delicious. We mostly talk about traveling and one the most memorable things was when the guy form Missoula told me about the fact that its basically costs $500 to fly anywhere from Missoula (this is why Amtrak is such a lifeline for all these small towns that it goes through, it's their lifeline for getting anywhere) and that he was listening to an interview of someone from United Airlines who was talking about how they were planning to lower fares and compete with airlines like Southwest, the way "By raising fairs to small destinations like Missoula, Montana." Well now I know to remember to thank those in the middle of Montana who help to subsidize the really low airfares from New York. We fallow a river as we leave the metropolis of Minneapolis, it is the Mississippi, which goes in and out of view. I go into the lounge car where there is definitely a different cast of people then yesterday, with so many people using the train for intermediate travel to Chicago. I do the good old read/look out the window. The line here isn't directly along the Mississippi, but comes in and out of view. We stop in Red Wing, MN, which looks like a small town. |
|
|||
Next is Winoma, MN which is a quick fresh air stop (Ar. 10:18 Dp. 10:22). After leaving Winoma we have the secenic highlight of the third day, the crossing of the Mississippi, which takes about three minutes and requires us to cross three bridges. We are now in Wisconsin; we stop in La Cross, WA, and leave the Mississippi behind. We now head through America's Daryland, passing cornfields and pastures. We make stops in Tacoma, WI, and Wisconsin Dells, WI. I now head back to my coach, unfortunately not leaving anything to mark my seat (this is the last I sat in the Lounge Car, for being so crowded already with all the new passengers my seat is taken immediately). I go back and sit in my seat currently with no seat mate, but there is another seat check, for a stop that I'm unable to identify, but I know isn't the same as the one for the lady heading for Red Wing. The Conductor comes by and I ask him if there's someone sitting next to me, turns out they just forgot to remove the seat check. So I had a seat mate I never met.
| At 1:15 we stop in Columbus, WI which is the first and only place we have to stop twice due to a short platform, moving again at 1:17, and then we stop again until 1:20, for this stoppage time my window is right in the middle of a grade crossing, so I watch as the line of cars waiting to cross the crossing gets longer and longer. I get my last seat mate her, a mother who is traveling with what I think is her high school daughter and a friend of hers. They seem a little annoyed about being unable to sit together. |
|
|||
| At 2:15 we slowly enter downtown Milwaukee, passing Miller Park (home of the Brewers), and stop at Milwaukee, WI which is a very quick fresh air stop (Ar. 2:23 Dp. 2:25), only ten minutes late. The station is entirely enclosed by a curved glass station roof, here the line is on a viaduct. There is a long train of private railcars stopped at an opposite platform at this depot. We slowly leave the city of beer, passing over the Menomonee River and leaving this industrial downtown that looks like it has scene better days. We seem to be making are way at a snails pace down the Milwaukee District Line bypassing the new Milwaukee Airport Rail Station, WI, and Sturevant, WI (which has a small quite old looking station house). The line is rural farmland in places and in other is plaqued by the new housing developments that seem to come with suburban sprawl. We stop for a little while to let Northbound Hiawatha Train #335 by, and then continue down the line, we enter Metra trackage at Fox Chase and things take a turn for the worse. We seem unable to regain full speed at all, and once we do it seems very brief. We stop at the Glenview, IL suberbian station, and just run slowly, stopping here and their as we go through the bottleneck that leads into Chicago. Their seems to be nothing we can due to increase speed, and we inch our way into Union Station, as the skyline slowly gets bigger and bigger until were right under it. We finally arrive at 3:30P, amazingly (for Amtrak) only 35 minutes late. |
|
|||
I get off my train, and make my way up to the end of the platform and onto the concourse where my cousin is waiting to greet me, we make our way to the baggage claim. My bag comes out in about 5 minutes. I wanted to keep the CHI tags as souvenirs, but their taken from me immediately. We hike across the loop to the Millennium Park (formerly Randolph Street Station), of the Metra Electric Line, and take the 5:30 Hyde Park Local, its my first time in a gallery car, and we sit on the upper level, I put my backpack in the luggage rack that is right at my level. And covers the central isle on the lower level. We're in the front car because we are getting off at the tiny Ravenswood-47th Street Station. The conductor comes in and announces he's giving everyone a day off from ticket collection since it's Friday, "Good Bye, See you Monday" he says as he closes the doors to the front half of the car were sitting in. So my first Metra Ride is a free one for no apparent reason. (This apparently is never done).
My Time Spent in Chicago
I spend the weekend in Chicago with my relatives mostly exploring it, (On Friday night I manage to sleep for 15 hours, since I'm that deprived, a small price to pay for adventure). I go on a few little CTA trips, but have to small transit misadventures, first is when I'm planning to catch a train out of La Salle Street Station, and get a ride on a normal Metra diesel, but alas I'm unable to find the entrance to the station, watching as my train departs from the street, about 5 minutes later I find out the entrance is in a plaza ½ a block away. The next is when on Monday I'm on the Red Line going down the Van Buren Expressway planning to get off at Garfield, but the recording malfunctions when I'm at Garfield, announcing the stop before, 47th. I'm ready to get off but don't since all the station signs along this route are being replaced and I have no idea where I am. Two middle aged ladies say "That's not 47th, that's Garfield." and I get quite annoyed running a little bit late already. So I have to go down to 69th and double back. Chicago is a great city and I could definitely see living their as I explored the sites.
Continue onto 17-18 July: The Late Shore Limited #48, 3 hours late into Syracuse
|
·Introduction ·12 Jul: Cascades Train #506 ·12-14 Jul: #8 The Empire Builder 1|2|3 ·17-18 Jul: #48 The Late Shore Limited: 1|2 ·21 Jul: Empire Service Train #208 |
Home<TripLogs<Amtrak all the Way Accross the USA<12-14 July-Train #8-The Last day on the Empire Builder: Through Dairyland and only a half-hour late into Chicago
