Blue Goose ~ Day 303

March 26, 2015 ~ Galesburg, IL to Kansas

Since Amtrak wasn't leaving until 1730, Emily, Deborah and I had coffee downstairs, drove to Green Oaks (a Knox College property 25 miles out on the prairie), went to lunch and then to Storey Lake with an eye out for birds. It was sunny but cool and breezy...a great early spring day.

DHC and Emily - Galesburg, IL

The train arrived on time; we both had too much luggage, and I didn't have my rolling suitcase which was in storage in Holland. This makes boarding and unboarding the train a bit clumsy but we managed.

I then had to find a piece of my luggage that went missing. When we boarded, the coach steward said she would bring it to me once we started moving. The deal is that the very narrow stairs into the upper level has two right-angled turns, and with a large crowd trying to board, there is pressure to hurry. Train stops are often only a couple of minutes. So some of the luggage is usually stored on shelves in the lower level. But when I went to retrieve mine (containing computer /camera, etc.), I couldn't find it. I finally asked the steward who peered into the recesses of the shelves with a little flashlight, looked into alternative areas and then remembered something: "Follow me..." We went upstairs to the back seat in the coach where a young nerdy-type guy was sitting working on a laptop. The lady had taken my bag to this guy who did, in fact, have it on the floor beside him. She said, “This isn't yours, right?” and he said, “No.” Yeah, I know, why didn't he say something when she set it down by him....C'est la vie.....

I immediately made dinner reservations for 7 o'clock because eating in the dining car on a train is often one of the more pleasant aspects of traveling Amtrak. 

Our dinner companions (and Amtrak always seats people randomly and guests have no choice) were Hugh and Nicole from Toronto, traveling to see her mother who lives out in the country near Lawrence, Kansas. We had an animated conversation about politics, families, our respective lives and why we all were on the train, etc. Hugh was to meet her family for the first time. Nicole was eager to “ride horses again with my high-school philosophy teacher.” As best as we could tell, she had started a graphic arts company, hired Hugh and they “fell in love.” We got a glimpse of their lives in Canada; both were articulate, telling us anecdotes about their personal history, their work and a bit of the darker side of social activism in Canada.

My dinner choice was a vegetarian lasagna with a generous side of thin green and yellow string beans; DHC had a small beef eye of round with a vegetable and dark gravy. Both were acceptable. The pleasure wasn't the cuisine but dining as we travelled in the last light of day through the Missouri countryside. We had crossed the Mississippi at Ft. Madison, Iowa, where DHC spotted a Bald Eagle, rather common up and down the grand rivers of the Midwest this time of year. 

DHC wanted to touch the ground in Kansas as she had never been in this state, so when the announcement came on that we were approaching Lawrence about 10:30, she went to “de-train” to do this. But she never returned. I was getting sleepy and went in search of two empty seats so we both would have more room during the night, found some, got settled with my blanket and pillow and realized she still hadn't come back from Kansas. Being a Hoogstrate, I played out the scenario of her standing bereft on the train platform as it moved on without her. Trains do not tolerate people who leave the train and don't have the wits to be aware of this possibility, and people do periodically get left behind. I didn't REALLY think she was witless but where was she? I went in search (checking the bathrooms downstairs with no success) but then spotted her dozing in the lower level area which are usually reserved for those not wishing to (or unable to) navigate the stairs. I figured she also had just found two empty seats for the night, went upstairs and slept intermittently, waking a dozen times to switch positions, trying unsuccessfully to get comfortable. Sleepers on Amtrak are costly. Traveling through the night on a train is romantic in the broad sense but requires a certain tolerance. The coaches have 70-100 people, and it is very quiet all night, which always amazes me. Since DHC was not forlorn and distressed in the Lawrence train station, I moved back to our assigned seats and spread out. 

The next morning, she said she had eventually come back to our seats where I was soundly sleeping, so she did, in fact, end up sleeping downstairs. She kept thinking the train was imminently GOING to stop at Lawrence and was waiting in the lower level seats wondering why I told her she better go down if she wanted the Kansas Experience. I think it had already stopped and moved on as she was going down the stairs. As I said, the train doesn't linger at most of the stations. 

My Amtrak experience has often been synonymous with traveling Hutterite families, and there were several on this trip also, including twins babies, probably about 1 year-old, and as precious and photogenic as humans can be. They were usually wearing the dark blue dresses and thin cotton starched white bonnets.