More fun than you can shake a stick at! We arrived in Chicago in plenty of time, but my inattentiveness to where the depot was gave us a fine tour of the loop of Chicago. Thank goodness for the patience of my brother-in-law, Pete, since we circled the immediate neighborhood of the depot several times while I figured out where we were. ( Some co-pilot I am!) Anyway we made it in plenty of time and I found the new and improved Metropolitan Lounge with very little trouble and I was able to negotiate the stairs to the main hall of the depot with out falling on my face! I gather the new lounge is much better than the old and while I was there they had a wine and cheese tasting. I was not all that excited as I had not had lunch and wine on an empty stomach is not a good idea. My idea of a snack pack paid off and I had some nuts and crackers and that will suffice until dinner. The place was packed! But there were several trains that left at almost the same time. Again, the usual line up, those who needed help, people with children, military personal with orders and anyone over the age of 62 ( pretty much the whole place as far as I could see. )
Since the last two cars are the ones that will be dumped in San Antonio and then added to the Sunset Limited, the walk to the train was abrevated. Of course the first thing I want to know is where in the consist is the dining car and we have lucked out as its only one coach car away from the sleeper.
The most important thing on this trip is to keep the electronics charged and ready for what ever they will be needed for. So the first thing out the bag was the cords and the charging unit. Phone, Wi-Fi hot spot, and the I-phone are all in charge mode.
On the way down state and from what I can see the corn looks pretty good and almost ready for picking as do the beans. As far as I can see this is corn and bean country and all the fields are planted horizon to horizon.
As we are moving along I just looked up and the fields are full of wind generators from edge of fields to the horizon and then are BIG! All are slowly turning in the wind like big ancient beings. They seem to facing in all directions.
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