Rest of Day 3

Well, by noon, we had let off some good friends that the family had made. They were on their way to the Mayo Clinic, I do with them good luck and hope that they will have a short stay. They good thing is that they girls have a way to keep in touch with each other. Once we hit, MN the view got better. I was hoping to see Fargo, ND becuase of a former co-worker, but we went through there at 2am in the morning, so I missed it. Minnesota was nice and there was some Flooding in WI, which I thought was a little too close to the train, There were fields and playground totally flooded. I was able to get off in Milwalkee, WI, but was not able to see anything becuase as soon as I got off, they were waving people to get back on. We did get a picture, but that was it.

We finally got to Chicago, around 4:30, we were about 1/2 hr late and we needed to get our luggage and take it on the next train. I kinda of felt like we were at the airport, waiting on luggage and trying to determine where our next connection is at. Chicago's station was very different from other stations that we went to. Chicago's station is level with the ground but most of the way enclosed. The effect make the area very loud. All of the other stations that we went to were very outside the train was not enclosed or covered very much. Chicago was interesting becuase it was not just Amtrak, but there Metro station also, it was a bit confusing. While waiting for our luggage, my daughter went to try and get a picture of Johnny Dep, He was supposed to be comming through the terminal, but we did not see him. The wait for the next train was really uncomfortable, The room that we at was 1/4 of the size of the Seattle terminal and there were doors for C,D,E and F terminals and it was jammed packed with people sitting and standing everywhere. Think of waiting for a SouthWest flight before they started doing the A,B and C lines then take the current way and have the lines move together at the same time.

The next train was an experience, we actually got to see how long the train actually was. The other stations, the train was next to the platform at a 90 degree angle, well in Chicago, it was at a 180 degree angle, so we actually walk to the train by going from back to front. Because we were the third stop, we had to walk to the front of the train. It was such a long walk that we lost a couple of people in the process and we keep going by conductors and they just said "keep going to the front". We must have been one of the last one's on, eventho we were not at the end of the line for getting through the ticket area, after just sitting down, the train was moving.

We arrived in Lafayette, IN, around 10:30-11:00 PM, the station was chaos. There were people everywhere. It was an annual feastival going on, "Taste of Tippicanoo?". There was a live stage and people all over the place. We had to take our luggage and carry it up stairs and over the train tracks and back down. It was great to see my in-laws and sleep in a comfortable bed, but first it was great to have a shower.