Sept. 9, 2009

 

The train arrived in Chicago in the late afternoon and I went straight to the hotel.  Fortunately there was no hurry in it, no time limit when I had to be there.  But I was eager to get there and get settled in.  There was a light rain falling. 

A few weeks later, while discussing my trip with friends at church, they asked me why I didn't go out do something that evening, and the next morning before my train left.  It was late in the afternoon, I was tired, I wanted a shower, Chicago is a strange city where I feared getting lost.  I also didn't want to deal with the rain, which was mild, but could get worse if I'm out and about.  In the morning, I was concerned about getting to the station on time.  I'm not a morning person.  I'm also not that organized by nature.  I don't know my way around Chicago.  Going somewhere other than the train station could lead to a mad rush to catch the train, and a very bad risk of missing the train.  The train station is big, and finding your way around there can be tricky.  I needed to be at the Union Station train station a couple hours early anyway. 

I looked out the window at the rainy scene.  But the scenary doesn't change out a hotel window like it does out a train window, so I got bored quickly.  Then I went to the TV and checked out which channels were available.  Is Daystar on this hotel TV?  I was disappointed to discover that it wasn't.  I watched what was on and spent an evening playing on my computer. 
I didn't even want to go out to eat.  So I called for room service to bring me dinner.

The decision not to go anywhere but the hotel and the train station turned out to be wisdom.  I figured that it would take longer than planned the next day.  I was right.  The taxi driver didn't know which train station to take me to.  He said there was more than one train station in Chicago.  We figured out which one was the correct one, the Union station.   

Then I had to find which entrance had the elevator.  There were escalators everywhere, but the signs said not to take your suitcases and other luggage on the escalator.  But every time I asked someone where the elevator was, they pointed me to the escalator.  It was getting very frustrating. 

One man opened the door for me, which was nice of him.  But when I said I needed the elevator, he pointed me to the escalator.  "No, that doesn't help," I squealed.  He walked away. 'Oh no,' I thought.  'I probably sounded aggressive or something.'  I felt bad because that wasn't my intention(although I was frustrated at not being able to find the elevator).   Lord forgive me.  Then I saw a woman in a wheelchair.  She was a Godsend.  I knew she couldn't use an escalator.  If I just watch her, she would lead me to the elevator.  She did.   But it was a small elevator, and there wasn't enough room in it for her chair and all my luggage too.  So I let her go on it and waited for the elevator to come back.   

I decided to have brunch at the train station.  As a first class passenger, I get my meals all paid for on the train.  But with the Texas Eagle leaving at 1:45 pm, I knew they wouldn't be serving lunch on the train.  So it was important to have brunch at the station, to save time, and to eat something before dinner. 

With the help of a luggage cart driver named Moses, I made it to the Texas Eagle train on time.  For a while Moses left me with his cart while he went to get some more people.  The Union station is so big, with so many people rushing around.  I saw two Amish men close by, but everything was so crowded, they might as well have been far away in the distance.  I'm sympathetic towards the Amish because they're pacifist.  But they never looked my way, so I couldn't smile at them.  I didn't have a camera with me.  If I did, I'd have to hide it.  The Amish get mad at tourists with cameras, thinking the person might take their picture without their permission.  I read that in an Anthropology book years ago.  The two Amish men walked off into the distance and out of sight.

 

Moses came back with a couple other women, and we went to the trains. Therefore I got to the Texas Eagle train on time.  Thank God for that.  One less thing to worry about.  I eagerly got myself and my belongings on the train.   

I was really on my way to Texas now.  More looking out of the window as we leave Chicago behind.  This would be my last night on the train, before reaching my destination the next afternoon.  I slept well that night, despite startling awake whenever the train shook too much.  I just went back to sleep.  I know that I slept, because I missed some stops during the night.  I woke up when the train stopped in Little Rock Arkansas, at about 3 am.  I looked out the window and saw a sign on the station that said "Little Rock" in big letters.  Then I went beck to sleep. 

When I next woke up, it was daylight outside.  The next place the train stopped was Longview, Texas.  Wow, I was in Texas.  The first thing I noticed about Texas: the old yarn about everything being bigger in Texas just isn't true.  Everything is the same size in Texas as it is everywhere else.  Looking out the train window, I saw that the trees, buildings, cars, vans, trucks, and people were all the same size.  I saw a few houses that were smaller than most houses.  I can tell you, after my Texas trip, there's as many short people in Texas as there are anywhere else.  Sure they've got some tall people, but so does everywhere else I've been.  The train I was riding on hadn't grown any bigger (not that I expected it too).  Of course, the sky is always big, no matter where they are.   I was glad to be in Texas though, partly because I'd never been there before.  It's cool to know you're somewhere you've never been before. 

That afternoon, I arrived in Fort Worth, Texas.  It was hot when I got off the air conditioned train.  I commented on the heat, and someone said, "Welcome to Texas," in a tone that said the heat was to be expected.  OK, I was warned about this before I came.  It was about 2 pm and the Omni hotel, where I had my reservation, has a 3 pm check-in time.  So I was not in any hurry when I got off the train and went to pick up my checked baggage. 

Partly because of the heat, I decided to go straight to the hotel, and wait in the lobby for the check-in time to start.  I could always read a book to keep me busy in the mean time.  At the hotel, they didn't care that I got there early.  They just checked me in anyway.  I settled in to my hotel room.  Then I decided to go for a walk in the neighborhood, especially the Water Gardens across the street.  The Water Gardens are a group of pools and water falls.  In a city as hot as Fort Worth Texas, it should be a major swimming and wading place to cool off, right?  Wrong.  There are signs everywhere forbidding swimming, wading, or going into the water at all.  This did not impress me, since the weather was hot.  The Water Gardens were nice to look at, but I would have appreciated it a lot more if I could have cooled my feet in it.  I later learned there was a safety reason for keeping people out of the water.  The drain suction is too strong, and can hurt people badly, even kill them.  Well, why don't they adjust the suction so that it won't be so dangerous anymore?  Has anybody thought of that? 

I decided to go back to my hotel room and take a nap.  The next day I would rent a car and check out the Fort Worth zoo.