Where the the Bob makes the Windy City and is suitably impressed!
So, the trip had led me to the “second city!” It’s nice to know that some things don’t change in the universe. Like traffic, it’s awful, like construction- it’s all over the place and mostly interfering with traffic, pedestrians who care not about whether the light is green, or yellow of even if there is a light at all. And taxi drivers who are all suicidal and you pay for it too! I had intended to look around Union station but the crowd was bent on getting off the train, getting in the depot and then having to cross a busy street to get to the cab stand. So I just toughed it out and went with the flow! Union station will not be trifled with. Nor will the people who are hell bent in getting out of there and to their next destination! And for some reason it’s in the middle of some construction project that has been under way for years and has years to complete. It was the same in Milwaukee, were the passengers were discharged into a blank concrete wall where a tattered hand printed sign pointed them in the right direction.
The down side of this is I will be going back again tomorrow- and this time I will be dealing with the roiling masses as I am just a coach passenger this time. No special deals, no special lounge area with snacks and free coffee, no this time I will be in the trenches and pushing and shoving like my life depended on it and may! There will be no nice SCA to show me the correct path, help me with my luggage- just a lot of the unwashed masses trying to get on the train and get the heck out of “Dodge!” I suppose it couldn’t be too bad since it’s only two hours. ( of course the train was late today! But it did give 10 minutes to spare to when the bus leaves for Moline!)
What a readjustment this evening, for most of the last several days I have been having meals communally with a lot of nice people and there have been lively conversations, but tonight I had supper alone, I was not alone in a sense there were other folks in the room just not talking to me. Gave me time for reflection and meditation. Just not a lot as I was too busy shoving food in my pie -hole! The place was packed with slightly wet ( thunderstorm in progress and I guess it’s pretty wet out there on the mean streets!) people who were interested in booze and food and it didn’t matter in which order they dosed themselves. So here I am in my room finishing up another blog before bed. It is an adventuresome life for us travelers, full of romance, danger and excitement but in very small doses, some times so small as to be unnoticeable. “Rounded with a little sleep!”
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