I'd never been to the Martinsburg train station before, and it's just as creepy as you would expect it to be. Also, there is no one in the station to tell you that the train outside is, indeed, your train. So, assistant conductor lady is hanging out of the train going by (ten minutes early by my clock...the phone prompt said it would be four minutes late) yelling, "You going to Chicago?! I'm leaving!" I run in and ask the three other people sitting in the station if they, too, are going to Chicago and we jump up and run out there, getting reamed out my assistant conductor lady the entire time.
Well, Amtrak, if you weren't consistently late, you wouldn't catch me by surprise when you are early.
I made a dinner reservation in the dining car, and met a dance teacher and his nurse wife from D.C. and Jared from Minnesota. I ate a steak, some potatoes and some ice cream and had a really great conversation with my dining mates. The guy from D.C. considers himself an archaeologist of dance and his wife talked to Jared about nursing (he's a nursing student, currently). We ended up sitting there and chatting for over an hour. I had a seat companion, who managed to fall asleep with her legs up, gating me in, so using the restroom was an aerobic exercise. I slept poorly until she left in Waterloo, IN, when I stretched out and managed to sleep until around 8:30.
We arrived in Chicago, and I learned that Jared has a similar layover to my own, so we're currently sitting on our Macs in a Panera. The Sears Tower is right across the street.
It's 10:57 a.m. central time, and my train leaves at 1:45. Here's to an adventure in Chicago.
I'll be in Texas tomorrow afternoon, if all keeps up with this theme of on-time-ness.
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