by Pa Rock
Railroad Warrior
Greetings from Chicago, Illinois, one of America's true cultural hubs - and further greetings from the historic Drake Hotel in the heart of downtown Chicago, the hotel where Marilyn and Joltin' Joe spent at least part of their honeymoon and reportedly carved their initials on the oak bar in the hotel's primary watering hole. (I am going to find that bit of history before I check out!)
I have been out and about throughout the morning and early afternoon, and have a brief respite before heading out again.
My niece, Heidi, who picked me up at Chicago's Union Station last night when the Amtrak from Kansas City finally arrived a little past nine and carted me to the hotel - along with a warm take-out supper and snacks for the hotel room, came by this morning and took me to breakfast with her husband Jason, who had just returned this morning from an international business trip. After a big breakfast in a neighborhood cafe, we stopped by their house where I caught up with my grandnieces, Lauren and Ruby, whom I had not seen in too many years. They will both be sophomores this fall, Ruby in high school and Lauren in college. Tempus fugit!
Later Heidi took me on a personal tour of Chicago where we saw the famous shoreline and beaches of Lake Michigan, the Chicago skyline from several vantage points, the Nature Conservatory at Garfield Park - which is an amazing greenhouse exhibit of walking trails and running streams through several large rooms of various plant habitats - and a "must see" for visitors to this city. We also drove by the United Center where the Democratic Party will convene the week after next, Soldier Field, the University of Chicago where Heidi did her medical residency, and even got to see the Obama Library which is very unique, immense and tall, and still under construction. This evening we are catching up with my son, Tim, who flew in today. We will all be going out for some famous Chicago pizza!
Tim's story, "The Brass Teapot," which was turned into a feature film - a project that he helped work on, has now been turned into a stage musical - another project that he had assisted with, and will be workshopped tomorrow night at the Steppenwolf Theatre not too far from the Drake Hotel, and Pa Rock and Heidi, along with her family will all be there enjoying the show.
More on all of that in the next couple of days. I will be here until Sunday.
Meanwhile, Ranger Bob served me up a bucket of cold comeuppance yesterday wanting to know more about the sad lady in Kansas City's Union Station.
Mea culpa.
I actually had a few more encounters with her during our journey to Chicago, but was unable to write about them at the time because we were both in the back car of a overly-long Amtrak train, and the well-advertised free wifi did not seem to extend back to our car, which was rocking so much anyway as to impair typing and, at times, even walking.
When I finally got into the boarding line at Kansas City, about half-an-hour before the train was due to depart, I found myself standing directly behind the odd-acting woman. By that time she was experiencing some nervous ticks such as shaking her feet - one foot at a time, suddenly running her hands through her hair, and shaking her arms and hands. She was also still muttering to herself, but no longer crying and moaning. My intention was to ignore her as much as possible, but she suddenly turned to me, and in a very clear and normal voice said, "May I leave my bag here to save my place in line. I need to go to the gift shop and by souvenirs for my parents." The line was stretching far out the door by then, and I readily agreed to watch her small suitcase and backpack. She was gone for about ten minutes and returned with a small bag. Without prompting, she said, "I bought a puzzle for my mother and a shirt for my dad." I smiled and told her that sounded nice.
We were both directed into the last car. I was up near the front, and she was further back. She made several trips past where I was at over the course of the afternoon and evening, and always came back with a food box from the snack bar. We had no more conversations.
"And that," as Paul Harvey used to say, is "the rest of the story."
Extraneous Notes:
The train that I rode yesterday was Amtrak's Southwestern Chief. It originates in Los Angeles and terminates in Chicago on basically the same route that Gene Wilder, Jill Clayburgh, and Richard Pryor took in the 1976 movie, "The Silver Streak." The Chief was over four hours late getting to Kansas City due to various delays between Los Angeles and KC, and the crew, which seems to be based in Chicago, appeared anxious, at first, to make up lost time. For awhile we bounced merrily along at a high rate of speed, and I kept thinking about one of the movie's more famous lines: "The Silver Streak is a runaway!" By the time we arrived, I almost wished it had crashed into the Grand Hall like the Silver Streak did in the movie - it would have saved me a helluva lot of walking!
One of our delays was as we were leaving Ft. Madison, Iowa, preparing to cross a very wide section of the Mississippi River into Illinois. Trains cross there on a special railroad bridge that also swings open to allow river barge traffic thru. When we got there a barge had just come through and the middle section of the bridge was open - sitting perpendicular to the rest of the bridge - and it took quite a while to get it closed again.
Chicago has an Air and Boat Show this weekend, and for the past thirty minutes or so the famed "Blue Angels" have been buzzing by in clear view of my seventh story window - and the free show comes with a soundtrack - a loud one!
More later from the town that Mrs. O'Leary's cow once burned down!
Bad cow!
1 comment:
Thanks for the update. For a while I thought she might have been my ex-wife but this lady sounds almost normal in comparison. I should be ashamed of myself for saying that, but I'm not. Sounds like you're on a fun trip.
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