The Grand Train Trip- part the tenth

A friend who has been reading this stuff suggested that what has been missing in all these blogs is what it has taken to put legs under the current adventure. I have to admit that it is a long and involved story.  So, let’s start off with the statement that I have not been a fan of traveling all that much and vacations, although very refreshing and relaxing have never been very high on my list of things that I needed to do. As I mentioned in the last blog that when I did feel the need to travel it was usually by train. It has always been my idea of a vacation. I have done all the methods of travel, car, bus, boat, plane and although they get you there all have down sides which I will not go into here.

This brings us to this trip. Now most people who know me have heard my “bucket list” idea of circumnavigating the USA on Amtrak. I have mentioned it every so often and then a couple of years ago I came to the realization that, one, it was possible, and two, I had better do it while I was still physically able to.  For several years, since I had a computer and an Internet connection I have been looking at the Amtrak web site and running itenaries, time against cost and connections that might work. Finally two years ago when I could not work that much, I started to plan this process out.

The one thing that really started to bring the whole plan into focus was the potential of Amtrak coming to Moline. This would mean that a trip to Galesburg to catch a train would not be necessary and I could start and finish the various trips from home. Unfortunately, the plan had a bit of a flaw in that no one was sure when Amtrak would finally get funding to bring the trains to Moline and I was running out of time. I just could not wait any longer if I was going to get on with this trip or trips.  Looking back at the projected dates of completion of the rebuilding of the tracks and the actual beginning of the service, the dates have past without any action other than it being said that it was going to happen.     ( Next time- “The Big Plans”)