Train Ride

DEPARTURE DAY!

Outer Journey:

Well the day has come for departure.  After class, I had enough time for last minute checks…which of course I forgot my travel pillow.  Mental note, stop by the store to pick one up on the way to Champaign.  I went to Holly’s apartment after class, she finished packing then we stopped by the CVS in Peoria for any last minute items we needed (my travel pillow!). Holly, Kole, and I rode together to the train station. Our estimated time of driving was 90 minutes, but luckily it did not seem like it at all.  We spent our time talking about our trip, things we want to do, and sharing a can of mixed nuts. 

Arrival at the train station was incredibly simple.  After we took Neil exit, we turned onto University and then it took us right to the train station.  We arrived earlier than we had expected, so we stopped by 7 Saints and grabbed us something to eat, that way we would hopefully be held over until the next morning on the train ride.  We got an appetizer sampler to split, this included fried green beans (one of my favorites), onion rings, and the biggest cheese curds I have ever seen…seriously they were huge!  After we finished eating it was time to head back to the train station and unload our luggage.  Holly and I decided to leave Kole with the luggage, and go and park the car so we had someone to walk back with.

Surprisingly, the wait at the train station didn’t take as long as I expected.  The time seemed to go by pretty quickly, this is probably do to hooking my computer up with my hotspot and catching up on some of my shows. Next thing I know we are getting called to board, “Methodist Church to the front of the left side”.  It was a good laugh for all of us to be called a church versus a college.

Boarding the train, was a different experience than I have had before.  I have been on Amtrak in the past, but it was not a double decker train. We had to walk up this very narrow, spiral staircase.  Walking in line with all my other classmates all I could think was, “and the ants going marching on”.  Once up the chairs and to our designated block of chairs, I was impressed by the space between each set of chairs.

The train I had previously rode on the seats were closer together.  I sit down and across the aisle Kim reclines her chair and kicks up a foot rest.  SCORE! I had no idea there was a foot rest, I had assumed the chair reclined partially. But, my excitement didn’t last long as my foot rest would only stay elevated midway, if I put it any higher it would fall.  *Note to self, on the way home to check foot rest first!*

Sleeping on the train…more like resting my eyes (as my mom would say).  At first I thought the trains rocking may be soothing or almost therapeutic…HA! I was completely wrong on that assumption.  Anytime I would get semi comfortable, or fall asleep, the train would jerk, waking me up instantly.

After finally getting a little bit of sleep, I made my way to the observation cart.  This cart was pretty interesting as the windows are larger which allows for you to see in every direction.  In the observation cart there were tables and booths and couch like areas. 

After a quick class session on the bus, it was to the diner cart to grab a quick bite to eat to stay fueled for the day ahead.  I got a Turkey (or maybe it was ham) and bacon flatbread.  I was surprised how good it tasted for it being "train food".  The bread wasn't hard as I had expected it to be.

Inner Journey:

After class ended, I had the panic of missing something or losing something behind.  I live an hour from school in the opposite direction of where the train station is.  I knew if I forgot something I had to assess if it was worth spending money on it, or to go without.  Luckily, the only thing I could figure out that I forgot was my travel pillow…Phew! Simple purchase, complete!  I still can’t shake the feeling the I forgot something, of importance.  Of course I won’t figure that out until I go through my suitcase when we arrive at the hotel.  However, this is not an unusual feeling for me to have when traveling.  Outside of the anxious feeling that I forgot something, I am completely excited for the upcoming trip…and absolutely dreading the 17+ hour train ride, but at least we get to sleep through the night…at least hopefully!

Riding along with Holly and Kole to the train station was relaxing.  It helped eased my anxiousness if I forgot something, and the dread I had toward the train ride and really helped my excitement build for the trip as a whole.  We arrived a bit early which allowed us to grab some food and gave us enough time at the station to check our bags and decompress and prepare for our long journey. 

Boarding the train, was easy as they allowed for “Methodist Church Group” to go ahead of others so that we could sit in the same vicinity as each other.  It didn’t take long to nestle into our seats, I put my broken foot rest up as far as it would go and put my travel pillow around my neck and covered up, closed my eyes and waited to sleep.  And waited.  Okay, so sleep was going to happen immediately, I connect my mobile hotspot to my computer so I can watch another episode of Teen Wolf.  As I was watching my eyes were getting heavier and heavier, so at the end of the episode I decided it was time to sleep.

It was not an ideal situation or my best sleep.  I am a lighter sleeper in places I am unfamiliar.  Usually on vacations I am up by 6am partly because I am somewhere unfamiliar and the other part because I can’t wait to explore the area.  I was extremely restless, waking at every jerk of the train and every movement of the people around me.  This was increasingly frustrating, especially as I look around and it appears that everyone else has found a way to sleep.  This continued from about midnight to 5am when I decided to waste some time on my computer.  About 8am I decided to give sleeping one more shot.  IT WORKED! I slept from 8am to about 10am. I was thrilled, my body felt like new…okay maybe not that far.  My body felt less dead.

After waking I decided to go to the observation cart, my time in there we spent traveling Mississippi. This was slightly devastating to me looking out the windows.  The state appears run down, the woodlands full of debris.  Many houses are one story houses, and many appear to be abandoned.  The observation cart allowed me to see another world than I am use to out there.  One thing that happened that I was not prepared for was the slight motion sickness that I was getting from all the moving land passing by the windows at such a high speed.