Chi-town (August 08)

With my Nulwala guide (meaning plumber), I traipse about downtown Chicago. His sister lives a few blocks from Soldier Field, where I had wondered from my hotel. I had a goal of making it to the lakeshore before meeting my buddy. Conveniently, traffic incoming from Naperville sucked enough that I made it to the planetarium before Naeem caught up with me. It was good to have a native guide, but better yet to have someone who could city-hike. We didn't waste our time with public transit, other than the free tourist trolley. Naeem pointed out the significant buildings, including such great towers as those built to spite Trump's view of the lake. Other spots were significant due to their inclusion in the batman movies.

My favorite story was of the flooding of all the buildings on the Chicago River. Apparently, these buildings had tunnels to carry coal from the barges directly to the base of the buildings for heat. Eventually, the burners were no longer in use, and the tunnels were sealed. Unfortunately, the seals were not particularly strong. When construction workers broke through an outer tunnel, and the Chicago River flooded in, the walls sealing each building from the tunnels caved. Instant city disaster.

From downtown we haul ourselves past shopping crowds to Oak Street Beach. We chilled, ogled, and met another L&C'er Wendy Packard. Wendy walked with us down to the pier, and across to Millennium Park. The skygate or giant metal bean was particularly entertaining for me. Naeem was almost part of a fountain, the "faces of chicago", but his address was Naperville and ineligible.

We hitup happy hour in the financial district nearby. I love it when a buffet is the price of two drinks or free if you buy the two drinks. This buffet was designed to lock your stomach and let the alcohol hit you later: very greasy/oily/fatty. I loved it.

Between sleep, tour, beach, park, and happy hour, my 20 hours in Chicago were nearly up. I hustled but to make my train, which only left 30 minutes late. Next time I'm in Chicago, I'm bringing a bike.

Trains East

It is always a rush to get out of a house. I never think I am a procrastinator. This time I put most of my stuff into storage two weeks prior. I packed my bags two days before. Yet, I didn't pack everything into my carry-on backpack. More importantly, I expected to sell my bike beforehand. This time, it wasn't a rush to get out of the house. It was a rush to get my bike, bike to the train station, and get it packed without causing a problem. Conveniently, I got to chase my roommate carrying my luggage half-way across town on my bike. Then, as is usual with travel by public transit, I got to wait an hour until they put us on the train.

The Empire Builder is an interesting line. From the name, one would believe that this train is used to create the inland empire. To that end, the train drains the Northwest into the commodity city of Chicago. The reason I find this interesting, is the method Amtrak moves the Northwest. One train, by far the larger, leaves Seattle. A smaller train leaves Portland. A line between the two cities ferries passengers from in between. The Portland line, my line, follows the Columbia, only to curve off and head for Spokane. There it waits to meet the Seattle train. In the middle of the night, both separate parts of the Empire Builder join together before passing through Idaho, Montana, North Dakota and so forth to Chicago.

My Empire Builder was different. Certainly, we leisured up the Columbia. We joined in Spokane. We chugged the night through Idaho.

Have you ever heard of Libby, Montana? I have heard of Libby, Montana. The town shares a free newspaper (10 pages!) with Troy, Montana. It takes a few minutes to walk the main strip of Libby. One can make it a whole 15 minute walk by turning at the center of town and heading toward the grocery stores on either edge of town. I walked the main strip three times. I went to the grocery. Some other passengers got t-shirts. They read " I got derailed in Libby, Montana".

Just east of Libby at 4something in the morning, a freight train derailed. At 5 in the morning, we stopped in Libby. We waited for them to clear the derailed train, only to find the track had been ripped up. One trainride later, here I am in Shelby, sitting across from some Amish.

One has noticed I was writing and has brought out pen and paper for notes. I will do my best to give a play-by-play of the Amish interaction. They like the free gatorade Amtrak provided. Their "Dutch/Deutsch/German" sounds funny. That is all. The Amish don't make for exciting play-by-play.

The coffee and hot water machine broke. I also found out that the train is backward, which is not too uncommon, with the long haul carriage at the front. The former does not make for a happy train. The latter makes it slightly harder to load and unload extra cars.

Personages of note on this trip - S - the son of two anthropologists who smuggled desks into a town in Equador in exchange for Guinea Pigs and David, a Russian Jew from Texas in attending schul NY interested in the Military. S said that growing up in a variety of cultures where he couldn't communicate has made him more self-sufficient. He is playing the Piano.

The star of my new trip has been my iPhone, feeding my internet addiction on the go. Even still, I have not been able to access a volunteer group's voicemail with either it or my regular phone. I blame AT&T.

A group of 4 well dressed 30-50 something ladies got on in Minnesota. They have a Christian conference in Indiana, near Michigan. Apparently, Amtrak works well to get them to a shuttlebus in Chicago. They would have taken the train all the way there, but we are seven hours late. I talk to them about religion, but they seem a bit too creationist to have an open discussion. I fail to mention I'm Jewish. I give the girls sitting next to them my origami to play with.

Originally I planned on having 4 hours in Chicago. Courtesy of a late train, I get a free hotel and 20 hours in Chicago. I call my recent roommate Naeem.