rtabern
Conductor
On Sunday, January 1, 2012, I got engaged to my girlfriend (now fiancee) in the diner aboard Amtrak's Empire Builder as it was passing through my hometown of Northbrook, IL.
We met back in college (1998-99) and dated for a year... including living together in an apartment directly across from the Walnut Ridge, AR depot. We ended up going our seperate ways... with me moving to Indiana in 2001 and then Wisconsin in 2003 to follow my career in journalism... and she got married to someone else and had 2 kids.
Her husband died early last year... and we started talking again. E-mails turned into 3-4 hour phone calls... and finally a lot of trips between Wisconsin and Arkansas on the Texas Eagle, City of New Orleans, and Illini/Saluki.
I knew I wanted to propose on the Empire Builder because that's my "home train"... lived along its route for the first 18 years of my life... and also for the last 9 years. I coordinated things with 4 friends who worked for Amtrak -- and pulled it off perfectly. Kandace and her kids thought we were aboard to be interviewed for my new book "Outside the Rails: A Rail Route Guide from Chicago to St. Paul, MN"... but that wasn't the case!!
Enjoy! No wedding date set yet -- we're still trying to figure out how to incorporate trains in to the wedding reception.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_7DQUYESQc
We met back in college (1998-99) and dated for a year... including living together in an apartment directly across from the Walnut Ridge, AR depot. We ended up going our seperate ways... with me moving to Indiana in 2001 and then Wisconsin in 2003 to follow my career in journalism... and she got married to someone else and had 2 kids.
Her husband died early last year... and we started talking again. E-mails turned into 3-4 hour phone calls... and finally a lot of trips between Wisconsin and Arkansas on the Texas Eagle, City of New Orleans, and Illini/Saluki.
I knew I wanted to propose on the Empire Builder because that's my "home train"... lived along its route for the first 18 years of my life... and also for the last 9 years. I coordinated things with 4 friends who worked for Amtrak -- and pulled it off perfectly. Kandace and her kids thought we were aboard to be interviewed for my new book "Outside the Rails: A Rail Route Guide from Chicago to St. Paul, MN"... but that wasn't the case!!
Enjoy! No wedding date set yet -- we're still trying to figure out how to incorporate trains in to the wedding reception.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_7DQUYESQc
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