The Train Experience...

Our first train is from Tomah to Chicago...
HOWEVER, our train decides to hit a car!
YES! You read it right...our train clips either the front or back of a car.
I'm not sure which.
It occurs right outside of Milwaukee, in a town called Brookdale, or that's the name I recall.
So here we sit stuck at a complete stop for over an hour and a half...Me with Age by my side passed out! What a bore. The train finally starts leaving again at about 5 o' clock and we are suppose to be catching the 5:45 train in Chicago...which mind you is 90 minutes away!
We start thinking, oh man, what are we going to do?
Not that we are worried, just frustrated that things aren't going the way they are suppose to.
So we rush off the train in Chicago at around 6:40 and run to the next train that leaves at 7:05 and find out we can't check our baggage...so we have to haul it on yet another train.
With Age carrying a large suitcase, a small suitcase, a luggage bag, a laptop bag, and a backpack! What a site...
We get on the train...watch a movie, and prepare for the next 19 hours ahead of us.
This man was snoring the entire night...and his snoring sounds like farting, along with another guy talking on the phone until 1 a.m.
Let me tell you, not a very ideal place to get some z's.
Finally we fall asleep, but into a very restless sleep.
And wake up to the beautiful sites of these mountains, a river, and small quaint villages along side the tracks.
The scenic car seemed appealing then, where we meet a lady with her son.
She turns out to be the president of the Blind Children of Michigan, and she is taking her very intelligent adopted blind son to visit the senators in D.C.
She tells us her story, of how she put herself in foster car at age 15 because her mom was an alcholic and how she is now a foster mom to babies.
And has taken in 181 babies in 4 years, adopting 2 of them.
I sit there thinking how nice it is to meet such a caring person.
Then lunchtime...And let me tell you, you need talent to eat on a train...
We also had to sit with a stranger...she was nice, kind of cooky!
And the food was decent, but very expensive...We eavesdrop in on the conversation of some foreigners. Only able to make out bits and pieces of some Spanish. They are from Argentina and Brazil, some bored teenagers who came to the U.S. for some adventure.
During lunch, I notice all these broken down buses, rundown campers, some shelters, and such that you could tell people lived in. They weren't inhabited at the time...but it looked like they were planning to return. I'm picturing a bunch of gypsies living in these "shacks" alongside the river...what a life!
Then before we know it, we arrive in D.C., it still feels like Saturday night.
Our train to Aberdeen wasn't suppose to arrive until 8:30 so we catch an earlier train at 5:20.
Kind of disappointed now, that we made that choice, I would have liked to see D.C. but i'll get my chance...It's only an hour away from Perryville.
It was interesting people watching in the train station...just watching people and how different we midwesterners are from the rest of the country.
The train ride is a short hour, with a weird man and a BOX...
Getting off at the Aberdeen train station was odd, a man approaches us and asks us for a ride.
I look at Age, in shock, thinking what if he's a creep?
We say in unison, "We were going to just call a taxi."
This very rich looking man says, "I just dropped off my daughter and this is not a good neighborhood, I'll take you."
Age and I look at each other and decide with our eyes, that he looks trustable...we'll take the chance and skip out on the cab.
Little did we know that he has no idea where he is going...so he drops us off at a Holiday Inn where this energetic Lobby Attendent decides she wants to drive us to where we are going..."I need some cigarette money!" She says...
It's a 15 minute drive to Perryville, But Shari, the lobby attendent, is a hoot! She is cracking jokes left and right and telling us about her kids.
We arrive at the Ramada Inn....FINALLY a shower and a bed! RELIEF!
Strangers, I guess you just have to use your best judgement...I mean you can't close everyone in the world out...It's refreshing to know that people will go out of their way to help you, just when you need it!