Part One:
This was my first time on the Texas Eagle, and I must say, I enjoyed it quite a bit. I've only ever been on one other long-distance train (the Southwest Chief to Albuquerque), so this trip felt a lot shorter, even though it was still an overnight trip.
The Michigan trains have been "meh" as far as on-time performance, and it was imperative I make that connection since this was a business trip, so I booked one of the extra Thanksgiving trains instead of my usual Wolverine. I left at 6:15 AM on Saturday instead of 9:30, which gave me a few hours of wiggle room just in case the bridge over the Calumet River got stuck (again), freight traffic was stupid in Indiana (again), or some other variety of delay. This meant I had to be up at 5:00 AM. My alarm usually goes off at 8:00, so I was more than a bit confused when it woke me up at 5:00.
Brent was so kind. He offered to drive me to the train station so I wouldn't have to haul my luggage in the cold. It's only a half-mile from our house, and he's more of a night owl than I am, but he wouldn't take "no" for an answer. He explained it would take five minutes to drop me off and then he could go back to sleep and sleep until the afternoon. So, we went over there, and I realized the station wouldn't be open until 8:30 (or so I thought). I got some breakfast at Ghetto McDonald's and stayed there until 5:50, at which point I realized they'd opened the station early on account of the extra train.
The train backed in (I think - or maybe it came all the way from Chicago) at 6:00, and they let us board right away. There were only eight or nine people getting on at KAL, and I'm not sure if we picked anyone up along the way. I have never been able to sleep in coach, but I managed to get a 10 to 15-minute nap by using a trick I read on the forum. I reclined the seats so the one next to me was slightly in front of mine and then leaned against that seat as a pillow. It was like sleeping in the car.
We got into Chicago a few minutes early. I checked into the lounge (first passenger!), and the lounge dragon printed paper tickets for me. I'm not sure why they do this. I like the E-tickets because I don't have to carry more stuff and they save paper. Anyway, the Red Cap wasn't in the luggage room, so I thought maybe I was just too early. I went to sit down, and then I saw him watching TV. He stood up right away and offered to check my bags before I could even ask.
It was pretty cold that day, but I didn't want to sit around the station for five hours, so I decided to suck it up and be a proper Midwestern girl. Everyone on the forum has raved about Lou Mitchell's over the years, and I figured this would be the one time I was there early enough to avoid the line.
I was right! When I walked in, the hostess gave me a donut hole and Milk Duds, and then she showed me to a seat at the counter. The diner was maybe half full. I had barely taken my coat off when the waitress brought me coffee and a plate with an orange slice. I ended up ordering a ham and cheese omelet with cinnamon-raisin toast. Had I known how huge the breakfast would be, I would have skipped the toast (it was good, though).
The omelet was a bit "fluffier" than I liked (I prefer my eggs medium/firm), so I mixed the potatoes in to make it sort of a skillet dish. That was much better. I could still only manage one piece of toast and about half of the omelet/potato mixture. I hate wasting food, but they give you so much. Next time, I'll get something a bit smaller.
When I paid at the register, the cashier offered me a piece of broken cookie. They had a dish with various sizes of various cookies, all broken up. She said they saw it in New York City and thought it was really cool, so they started doing it as a little treat. I had a smaller piece of a chocolate-coated sugar cookie. It was really good. You can tell all of their bakery items are fresh. The cookies were probably day-old, but I actually prefer that.
After I left Lou Mitchell's, I went back to the Great Hall to warm up a bit. They had it decorated for Christmas, and the speakers were playing these dirge-ish Christmas carols. I can't think of another way to describe them. The singer sounded morose, sort of a deep tenor, and everything was kind of slow. When you added in the strange echo caused by the acoustics in the hall, it was downright creepy (and awesome). I felt like I was in The Shining (the book, not the movie, which is totally NOT even a little bit based on the book, but I digress).
Once I finished that, I still had a ton of time to kill, so I took a bus to Barnes & Noble to see if they had a book I wanted. They didn't, but of course they had at least 1000 other books I wanted. There was an entire Chicago history section I would have snatched up in a heartbeat if I'd had enough money. I ended up buying the next book in a series I'm reading and then put my debit card away.
I took a picture of the Harold Washington Library (with the cool dragon-looking things) and ended up catching some kind of holiday trolley in the shot:
Then I noticed the L going by and figured I'd be remiss to not capture a train picture.
After that, I took a bus back to Union Station and hung out in the lounge for a couple hours, trying not to fall asleep the entire time. Ironically, the Wolverine I usually take was on-time, but I knew Murphy's Law would have made it late had I taken that train. I was sleepy, but it was worth it to have peace of mind.
The lounge was really full, to the point people had trouble finding a place to sit. Just as I started to get up to allow some people to sit down, they called our train.
This was my first time on the Texas Eagle, and I must say, I enjoyed it quite a bit. I've only ever been on one other long-distance train (the Southwest Chief to Albuquerque), so this trip felt a lot shorter, even though it was still an overnight trip.
The Michigan trains have been "meh" as far as on-time performance, and it was imperative I make that connection since this was a business trip, so I booked one of the extra Thanksgiving trains instead of my usual Wolverine. I left at 6:15 AM on Saturday instead of 9:30, which gave me a few hours of wiggle room just in case the bridge over the Calumet River got stuck (again), freight traffic was stupid in Indiana (again), or some other variety of delay. This meant I had to be up at 5:00 AM. My alarm usually goes off at 8:00, so I was more than a bit confused when it woke me up at 5:00.
Brent was so kind. He offered to drive me to the train station so I wouldn't have to haul my luggage in the cold. It's only a half-mile from our house, and he's more of a night owl than I am, but he wouldn't take "no" for an answer. He explained it would take five minutes to drop me off and then he could go back to sleep and sleep until the afternoon. So, we went over there, and I realized the station wouldn't be open until 8:30 (or so I thought). I got some breakfast at Ghetto McDonald's and stayed there until 5:50, at which point I realized they'd opened the station early on account of the extra train.
The train backed in (I think - or maybe it came all the way from Chicago) at 6:00, and they let us board right away. There were only eight or nine people getting on at KAL, and I'm not sure if we picked anyone up along the way. I have never been able to sleep in coach, but I managed to get a 10 to 15-minute nap by using a trick I read on the forum. I reclined the seats so the one next to me was slightly in front of mine and then leaned against that seat as a pillow. It was like sleeping in the car.
We got into Chicago a few minutes early. I checked into the lounge (first passenger!), and the lounge dragon printed paper tickets for me. I'm not sure why they do this. I like the E-tickets because I don't have to carry more stuff and they save paper. Anyway, the Red Cap wasn't in the luggage room, so I thought maybe I was just too early. I went to sit down, and then I saw him watching TV. He stood up right away and offered to check my bags before I could even ask.
It was pretty cold that day, but I didn't want to sit around the station for five hours, so I decided to suck it up and be a proper Midwestern girl. Everyone on the forum has raved about Lou Mitchell's over the years, and I figured this would be the one time I was there early enough to avoid the line.
I was right! When I walked in, the hostess gave me a donut hole and Milk Duds, and then she showed me to a seat at the counter. The diner was maybe half full. I had barely taken my coat off when the waitress brought me coffee and a plate with an orange slice. I ended up ordering a ham and cheese omelet with cinnamon-raisin toast. Had I known how huge the breakfast would be, I would have skipped the toast (it was good, though).
The omelet was a bit "fluffier" than I liked (I prefer my eggs medium/firm), so I mixed the potatoes in to make it sort of a skillet dish. That was much better. I could still only manage one piece of toast and about half of the omelet/potato mixture. I hate wasting food, but they give you so much. Next time, I'll get something a bit smaller.
When I paid at the register, the cashier offered me a piece of broken cookie. They had a dish with various sizes of various cookies, all broken up. She said they saw it in New York City and thought it was really cool, so they started doing it as a little treat. I had a smaller piece of a chocolate-coated sugar cookie. It was really good. You can tell all of their bakery items are fresh. The cookies were probably day-old, but I actually prefer that.
After I left Lou Mitchell's, I went back to the Great Hall to warm up a bit. They had it decorated for Christmas, and the speakers were playing these dirge-ish Christmas carols. I can't think of another way to describe them. The singer sounded morose, sort of a deep tenor, and everything was kind of slow. When you added in the strange echo caused by the acoustics in the hall, it was downright creepy (and awesome). I felt like I was in The Shining (the book, not the movie, which is totally NOT even a little bit based on the book, but I digress).
Once I finished that, I still had a ton of time to kill, so I took a bus to Barnes & Noble to see if they had a book I wanted. They didn't, but of course they had at least 1000 other books I wanted. There was an entire Chicago history section I would have snatched up in a heartbeat if I'd had enough money. I ended up buying the next book in a series I'm reading and then put my debit card away.
I took a picture of the Harold Washington Library (with the cool dragon-looking things) and ended up catching some kind of holiday trolley in the shot:
Then I noticed the L going by and figured I'd be remiss to not capture a train picture.
After that, I took a bus back to Union Station and hung out in the lounge for a couple hours, trying not to fall asleep the entire time. Ironically, the Wolverine I usually take was on-time, but I knew Murphy's Law would have made it late had I taken that train. I was sleepy, but it was worth it to have peace of mind.
The lounge was really full, to the point people had trouble finding a place to sit. Just as I started to get up to allow some people to sit down, they called our train.
Last edited by a moderator: