30 January

After a late night (or should that be early morning?) I woke while we were pulled up at a station. After seeing no signs but plenty of advertisement (how many people read changing signs at 3 in the morning?) and light flakes of snow, I realised we were in Cleveland, OH. This was reinforced when we started moving a few minutes later and the sign “Cleveland Stadium” was obvious on the front of the stadium (which I had been seeing the side of for the previous fifteen minutes).
It was then a matter of dozing through the rest of the night. My instinct for supervising those around me when they may be vulnerable stops me from doing anything but dozing when there are more than a few in the carriage. The train stopped not long after 6 and at 6:20 I went down to have breakfast. During the meal I got chatting with a fellow from Denver, just returning from a family reunion with his daughter, his wife and her present husband. He was saying they get on well together now, but couldn’t while married. He also used to have dogs and quarter horses (which he used for hunting, but in common with many, age and responsibilities means he ate too much with little exercise and now is too heavy for the horses). After I got back it was light and to the right of the train (I would hazard north, but with no familiar landmarks visible, not even the sun, I couldn’t be sure) was a frozen lake. It looked bleak and not even the seagulls would land on it. At about 8 a crane went by on the other track.
Apparently we were stopped for two reasons – some cars had gone into the water and recovery of them blocked the line and we had to wait for the paying customer to pass (the freight train). Later there was debris from a train accident on the line. At 9:20 we were still waiting for the line to clear. It doesn’t matter much to me, but there are many who want to make connections today to trains to the west coast. The crane went back by at 9:30. Finally we moved off at 10:10. Good business for all the food cars.
I had little chats with various other people in the car – a fellow from New York who now lives in Denver and a tourist from Britain. We lamented the too-wide choice given to buyers of mobile telephones but accepted the better pricing and facilities. I also continued to speak with Bart and with the family going out to California to visit.
By this time we were scheduled to be into Chicago over five hours late. There wasn’t much we could do, but the conductor held out hope that the other trains would wait. As long-distance trains, they had more opportunity to make up time heading west than we could on a busy rail corridor (and at times we had a freight train on each side of us).
It seems funny unless you have done the travelling in this way, but strong, though sometimes ephemeral, friendships are forged while travelling together. Nodding to each other passing becomes a word or two and soon it becomes a sentence and then conversation is on. The scenery out the window was constant for a long time, large unfenced fields with houses close together on the roads. I thought the absence of fences peculiar and the size of the farms too small. My guru Bart came ot the rescue, informing me that the houses were now just tenanted and the fields were owned and farmed by large corporations. There had previously been hedgerows separating the fields, but they had been removed so the corporations could farm more efficiently. That removed the habitat for many native animals and so now there was no real diversity of species and few if any native animals. Also, coming near Chicago there seemed to be many and vibrant heavy industries, but even these are apparently a mere shadow of what was in the past. The problem of offshore manufacturing and supply is common to Australia and the US (and I remember seeing on Broadway yesterday a delivery of boxes identical to what I see normally in Australia, with the “Made in China” common but the delivery address different).
We travelled along the south shore of Lake Michigan before turning north to enter the city. Arriving at Union Station, I waited to let the others off first, as I wasn’t really in a hurry (as it was getting towards 3, all I really wanted to do was settle into my hotel and orient myself in the city. I had in my possession a half-day tour of the city put together by Bart, as he now knew quite well the sorts of things that interest me. He had even started and finished me at the hotel. Our friendships came to an hiatus (they may or may not continue or develop, as we all go our separate ways) but we all wished each other the best for the next leg of our travels (and the lady in front of me passed on a book to the couple opposite her – it’s a very good way of reading many books but ever only carrying one, and most can be sure the book will be read and then passed on again). Most were able to catch their connecting trains as they had been held. Union Station in Chicago was very busy – busier than NewYork.
For the second time I took a cab to my hotel. Although it was just within walking distance, lugging the suitcase while toting the backpack and carrying paperwork is not worth a few dollars. I was lucky enough to get a taxi at the entrance to the station immediately he had dropped another fare (but the Amtrak assistant inside thought I wanted to go to Texas, rather than get a taxi – I didn’t realise MY accent was so broad). It was very cold and he wasn’t getting out, so he flipped the boot (whoops, TRUNK) and I had to put my luggage in. I wonder if he realised his chance of getting a tip evaporated there and then. It only took five minutes to get to the Essex Inn at 800 South Michigan and I had to get the suitcase out again. To add insult to injury, he picked my accent as English!!!
Check-in at the hotel was quick and painless. The only problem I can see with booking through Travelocity or similar is that you’re never sure whether you are getting the best available rate. So far mine seem to have been okay, especially considering locations.
I went out for a walk and to get a meal. I walked a fair way and realised that the weather report in the lift of 11° was Fahrenheit, not Celsius. Snow still littered the sidewalk at 4 p.m. and after ten blocks I was freezing. When I saw a Chicago Police car with “To serve and protect” on the side, I expected to see Jake and Elroy just ahead of them in the Bluesmobile.
Back at the hotel I had a bath to thaw out (and perhaps to make up for the fact that I had been on the train all night) and I read the local maps and tourist material. What I will do is visit the observatories to see the whole of Chicago and much of Lake Michigan at once and also to orient myself before I step out on the “Bart” tour. I must visit the plaza where the Blues Brothers last scene was filmed (I could never forgive myself if I didn’t see it as it will be so close).
Now as I go through blogging and editing photos to post, laying back in my warm room on my comfortable queensize bed, I will lower my head and have a minute’s silence for all those who have to, or have just, returned to work (oops, I apologize for using that four-letter word).
An early night and then an early start will see me traversing much of Chicago tomorrow and leaving only a little for the morning after, for on that day I head off west on the Californian Zephyr to travel through Denver, Salt Lake City and the Rockies before landing on the west coast at San Francisco. For that trip I splurged and will be in a sleeper.