We made it to the train station in good time this morning. We had a slight change of plans. My mother-in-law, who has ridden the Amtrak several times, was supposed to drop us off at the train station in Lafayette, IN. The more I thought about this, the more I thought I had done a bad job of planning. First of all we had to leave at 5:30 AM in order to get to her house that is on the south side of Lafayette, then drive back to the north to wait for the train. We needed a good hearty breakfast as meals might be sketchy over the next few days, so that would make rising and shining earlier. Plus we would have to leave our car sitting on the street by her home all week. If there were a snow storm, who would dig our car out? Would we have to do it at 10:30 PM when we were scheduled to return to Lafayette? After no shower for two days, 42 hours in coach class seats, and sketchy meals? That would be sure to set off the grouchies for everyone involved. Instead, I asked my dad if he could pick us up at our house and drop us off at the train station. Mom and Dad are super early risers, have a car similar to ours that would hold all of our gear, and would save time for more sleep and breakfast in the morning.
Everything went smoothly, thanks to much pre-planning. Two days previously we cooked, organized, and packed. This morning we just had to pull it all together. Dad arrived at 6:10 AM to shuffle us down to the Lafayette station.
I think I perspired enough on the ride to fill a Coke bottle. In the dark the heat was blasting out of the dashboard. We keep our house on the cool side...well, downright cold...most days. Plus we had our coats and gear on. Dad can't hear, so after a few attempts to talk to him from the backseat, the kids and I gave up. He doesn't have a lot of mobility due to severe arthritis for the last 45 years, so the car wavered off and onto the interstate causing more perspiration. He did fondly tell us that when he was about Harrison's age, he went to Yellowstone with his mom and pop to see Old Faithful. He said it was a real treat because usually his mom and dad went on vacation without him. While his mom and pop were gone, he stayed with his Grandpa Strasburger in Oxford. He had a great time because by the first day, he would know all the other kids who lived on the street. It was a sweet bit of information that gave us a glimpse into his early life, and took our minds off of the ditch that kept leering up out of the dark at us. I did worry that he wouldn't make it home safely by himself and made a mental note to call home when we were well on our way to Chicago.
Dad got us to the Lafayette station 20 minutes early. I almost felt kind of bad leaving him. He seemed small and old. And it was dark. And he might get lost. And it was cold. And he looked like he wanted to hug us, which makes it awkward as my family has never ever shown a bit of affection in my 42 years. So I just touched his arm and said, "Thank you. Be careful going home." Or something like that. How does that happen that you are not paying attention to Life and all the sudden when you start paying attention, the roles are switched. You feel like the adult and the parents feel like the children.
There were a lot of homeless people and other poor souls waiting to take the bus. Although the station was warm, it smelled awful. Natalie, is very sensitive to smell and was practically choking and gagging. Mike made to find us a seat with the luggage, but I suggested finding where the train platform was because I was nervous about missing the train, and Natalie was gagging. It is tricky in Lafayette because you have to take an elevator up to a walkway, then down another elevator to the platform. Mike knew all of this in his "Knows everything by Osmosis"way. He even knew which track the train would be on.....isn't he amazing? He knows, though, that he must humor me or else I will be nervous the whole time. My profuse clamminess immediately left in the cold January air. The temperature was 13 degrees. My anxiety was probably our downfall as 20 minutes in that kind of cold actually hurt after a while! We probably shouldn't have kept the kids out in the cold for so long, but once we dragged all of our baggage to the platform, it was too far to drag it all back, then do it again when the train came. We were each carrying one bag, but they were heavy bags. Since showers were going to be rare, we packed very lightly. However, we took a lot of water bottles for the train, cramming them into our personal bags. Mike was carrying an extra bag that had snacks and food stuffs that I thought would be gone the first day, but we managed to hold onto it the whole trip. We never went hungry, but Mike had an extra bag to manhandle.
As cold as it was, I was glad that I had decided to bring gloves. Well, not exactly gloves, but socks that would double as mittens. The kids hooted with laughter that I chose to wear these socks on my hands. My best gloves are leather with rabbit fur lining. They cost $100 twenty years ago. I could never justify spending that much money on gloves ever again! I once lost one on the sidewalk outside the school where I was teaching. I spent a fretful night as they are irreplaceable to me. I found the stray glove the next morning on the sidewalk where I had dropped it. Lesson learned: Don't take gloves where they might fall out of the pockets of my coat. I knew we would be shoving our coats onto overhead counters and didn't want to lose my treasured, expensive gloves, but I wanted my hand coverings to match my cute scarf. What a dilemma! So I wore the Old Navy socks that match the scarf. Anyone would have to look very, very close to see that these weren't authentic mittens!As we waited for our train, about 25 people gradually joined us. One party with four crying toddlers assaulted our hearing until the train arrived approximately 5 minutes late. Mike motioned to me to be sure to sit away from them on the train. We decided Mike should board first because he was carrying the food bag in addition to his luggage. I would board next to keep a goodly space around the crushable food bag. As I was putting my foot on the step, one of the ladies with the four toddlers and 2 huge suitcases actually pushed me back off the step and got on behind Mike. Mike had already picked seats. Mike, who got on before rude lady, had two seats for us, but hadn't put any gear down. I tried to motion him back farther because pushy-lady ploppled her suitcases in the seats that Natalie and I were getting ready to slide into. The seats were filling quickly and there wasn't much room left. As it turned out Mike got a seat and I got one in front of him. Guess who was sitting right in front of us? Yep. The toddlers and the lady from hell. After a small amount of crying and fuss, it was OK for most of the ride. I remember our own desperate travel times at Disney World. Mike and I got good at quickly plucking babies from umbrella strollers as the bus was approaching, collapsing the stroller with one hand, and maneuvering to find a seat quickly. Traveling with small children brings out the tiger in all of us.
It was fun to see all of our local towns from a different perspective. Sometimes it was hard to recognize where we were even though we know this terrain like the back of our hand. Well, to tell you the truth, I don't know the back of my hand very well, but we know these towns! Mike waved to Dave Simon sitting at his desk in the Simon Construction Office in Battleground where Mike used to work. "Look at me! I take vacations now whenever I want!" he was thinking. We waved to our church in Reynolds, only one person at morning mass today. We were curious about the Rensselaer train platform. As we predicted, it seemed you could easily miss the train there. The train hardly stopped. OK to get off the train there, but maybe hard to get on. I thought about calling my dad to make sure he got home safely. Also, I was thinking that it would save a lot of time on the trip home to get off at Rensselaer instead of going all the way back to Lafayette then north to Wolcott again. I rang Dad at home as soon as I had cell service again. He had made it home safely. He still thought he was supposed to pick us up when we came home even though I told him Mike's mom would pick us up because it would be late at night. I took advantage and said, "Could you pick us up in Rensselaer?" I told him that I would call again when I knew if they would let us change our tickets from Lafayette to Rensselaer. I figured they would because we wanted to get off before our scheduled stop. Getting off at Rensselaer would save us about 2 hours getting home.
When the train slowed down, I decided to try out the RR facilities. Call me insane, but I was curious. After all, RR facilities would play a big part in how we rated rail travel. It took a bit for me to figure out how to lock the door. The entire time I was in the RR, I hoped the door was really locked. The faucet looked strange, so I thought I would try it first. I fiddled with the faucet until Niagara Falls came cascading down. I couldn't figure out how to turn it off....it did eventually stop on its own after completely drenching the front of me. Even though there were seat covers, I decided that I would just hang my bum out over the top.....it looked really gross......the toilet not my bum.....well, maybe my bum, too......As I was positioning over the hole to fire, the train started picking up speed. I was in the very last car of the train, so it really felt like the car was swinging side to side. I closed my eyes tight as my rear end, as well as the train's back end, swung from side to side. I quickly popped my eyes back open. Keep an eye on the door! It might not be locked! Mental note: Hold all serious bathroom business for the next two days until we get to a hotel.
Will we make it to the American Girl Store in Chicago?
http://janelleyelton.blogspot.com/2012/01/first-day-of-trip-part-two-chicago.html
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