DC to Chicago

Tuesday afternoon (about 4pm) we left DC's Union Station on our way to Chicago, arriving about 8:30am on Wednesday, March 18 at Chicago's Union Station.

As we were waiting for other customers to board our train, I saw a couple who came with their bicycles (only the woman is in the picture). They were in our coach car, so I think they traveled all the way to Chicago. I heard them speaking, I think, Portuguese.

Much of our westward journey was along the Potomac River

At Martinsburg, WV, the old train station is an interesting round building.

 It seems that it may be open for tours at times: https://www.themartinsburgroundhouse.com/

There was an "Observation Car" just in front of our coach class car -- nice big windows and ceiling windows - seats looking out on the view.

We sat there for a while until it got too dark to be able to easily see out. Behind Carl, still within this car, there were also dinette type facilities. This was on the second floor of the train car. On the first floor was the "Cafe" where customers could purchase food and beverage.

Since we had stopped in the lounge in D.C., we had gotten refills on our water and some snacks. We had brought snacks from our RV, so we didn't purchase anything on the train. Normally we would not have qualified to visit the lounge in DC as we were not in sleeping car accommodations on the DC to Chicago leg, but they said that since we had sleeping car reservations for the Chicago to Dallas leg, and since the lounge was not crowded, they let us visit.

I knew that the train had both a Cafe and a Dining car. I also knew that we would have food provided for us when we were in the sleeper car accommodation. What I did not know was that we could not access the Dining car unless we were in the sleeper car... so only the Cafe was available to us for snacks and drinks.

A view of our coach class seats - the seats on the train from Richmond to DC seemed to be more comfortable, but we weren't in them as long. These seats became VERY hard as the hours went on and we tried to sleep in them!!! They did have a part that came up and made a flat surface out from the seat, and then a foot rest came out from the seat in front, and the back reclined (more than coach seats on an airplane) but... it was *not* comfortable for sleeping. We figure that we each got about 5.5 hours of sleep...

The coach seats (and the observation car seats) are on the second floor - so when we first got onto the train, we had to go up these very narrow very steep stairs...

I was carrying my carry-on and trying to go up the stairs and saying, "Oh my goodness..." thinking, "can people really get up these steps?"

Then the steps turned the corner and more steps up... I was still saying, "Oh my goodness, oh my goodness..."

This is a view looking down the steps from the seating level. The restrooms were on the first floor, so... we made a few trips down the steps during the journey!

The front of the train that we came in on - in Union Station in Chicago

Since we had visited the lounge in DC and knew that we were "entitled" to visit it before our trip with sleeper car reservations, we found the "Metropolitan Lounge" in Chicago's Union Station. They had limited food services due to Covid-19, but we got coffee (Carl) and water (Patti) and a nice place to sit and wait.

Carl found out that there were showers available in the rest rooms. We knew that the sleeping car accommodations would include shower facilities, but I (Patti) decided that I would prefer taking a shower in a non-moving vehicle...

The shower was *very* nice. The lounge provided towel and washcloth and body wash, shampoo, and conditioner in the shower.

Carl's youngest son, Steve, lives in Chicago, not too far from the train station, so Carl contacted him to see if it might be possible to meet up with him. He said that there were no restaurants open, so invited us over to their apartment for lunch. As it turned out, Carl's older son, Scott, had the events that would have kept him in the northeast suburbs get cancelled, so he contacted Carl in the morning on Wednesday and suggested that he would also join us for lunch. He offered to pick us up at the train station and take us to Steve and Shay's apartment.

Grand waiting room in Chicago's Union Station

We had a great lunch of pizza and salad from Lou Malnati's!

It was rainy, but we got to see a view of the city skyline from the rooftop of Steve and Shay's building.

With Scott in the penthouse lounge...

With Steve and Shay in their kitchen...

With Steve and Scott in Steve and Shay's kitchen.

I was glad to get to meet Scott and Steve and Shay. We were so grateful to have the opportunity to visit with family, even though we were only in Chicago for about 5 hours! Many thanks to Steve and Shay for hosting us!!!

Scott drove us back to Union Station (many thanks, Scott!!!) and we went back to the Metropolitan Lounge to await being called for our train.

Some of the stops on our "Texas Eagle" route

So, now we're in our sleeper car accommodations, traveling through Illinois as we are on our way to Dallas. Carl has tried out the upper berth to "close his eyes for a few minutes" and pronounced it very comfortable. We're both looking forward to a better night's sleep than last night!