Monday 23 June – A longer-than-we-thought train journey

We're on the train; we've been travelling since yesterday lunchtime, and are due to arrive in Chicago, Illinois, at about 3.30 pm this afternoon. I say “about” as with Amtrak you never know! The train was an hour late leaving Albuquerque so it's bound to be late arriving at Chicago.

We've both slept fitfully on the train; the bunks are quite comfortable, but the movement of the train tends to make us drift in and out of sleep. In the morning, I'm actually able this time to work out how to use the shower on the train and it's quite a good one. I feel really refreshed! Reg stays in bed as long as possible before breakfast and says he'll shower afterwards – he's feeling really tired!

The scenery has changed dramatically overnight, and is starting to look a lot greener. We're out of the desert and into an area which has a lot more rain. In fact I see that it has been raining last night– the first rain we've seen since Charlottesville in May, which we well remember because we got caught in a thunderstorm on our bikes!

Our sleeper cabin is downstairs in the train, (most Amtrak trains are double-decker, as is this one). This is quite handy as the showers are located downstairs, and so are the luggage racks for big suitcases. That means our suitcases are almost right next to us, and I'm able to pop along and get some clean underwear out of my case.

We have to go upstairs to the dining car for breakfast. The meals have been excellent on Amtrak, and the service is good too, especially on this particular train. Meals come as part of the package if you're booked into a “sleeping car”. You have to wait at the end of the dining carriage to be seated – the tables are for 4 people, and you always share a table with 2 others if you are a couple, as space is limited.

Breakfast is a choice between a full American breakfast – scrambled eggs, though, not fried, as this could be difficult to do on a rocking train – pancakes, or continental breakfast. Reg and I choose continental, which is yoghurt, sliced grapefruit and sliced oranges, fruit juice, cereal (porridge for Reg), croissant with butter and jam, and tea or coffee. No wonder we are putting on weight on this trip (at least we're sure we are, but fortunately haven't had the opportunity to weigh ourselves).

I save the yoghurt and sliced orange for later. This waiter is particularly good as he comes around with jugs of fruit juice asking passengers if they would like some more – we haven't had that before. He wasn't happy earlier though when Reg popped along to the dining car to put our names down for the breakfast sitting, and wasn't wearing his shoes. Reg got a telling off because “your socks could get caught in the moving plates between the carriages – or you might just stumble with the movement of the train and hurt your foot.”

The waiter refused to put our names on the breakfast list and made Reg go back and get his shoes on first! R-e-g!! (Mind you, we both wandered about in our socks on previous train journeys, but here the dining car attendants are really strict)!  They do have a point actually – we always wear our shoes now, when moving between carriages.

Our waiter is actually ultra-polite, bless him. Every time I say thankyou, he replies quickly as a bullet, “You're wel-come” in a lilting voice. He's a sweetie really.

We feel we've got the tipping process on Amtrak trains sussed now, through watching other (American) passengers, some of whom don't tip at all (as the meals are included in the train journey for sleeper car passengers) and some of whom leave 2 or 3 dollars at each table sitting. We do the latter. Tipping at cafes and restaurants is a different matter; a minimum of 15% is expected. The service though is usually, but not always, much better than what you sometimes get in a restaurant or pub in the UK.

As the day wears on the train passes through countryside with green grass and field after field of corn – is this America's “corn belt”? We also pass through several towns with neat wooden houses; as you would expect, this area is much more highly populated than the desert regions. I'm not looking at the scenery much though, as I'm writing my sermon for my next church service on 10 August. This is so that it won't be on my mind when I come back to the UK. It's only a draft version but I'm very happy when by about 4.00 pm, I've finished it. The sermon is based on Matthew 14: 22 – 33, when, during a storm, the disciples see Jesus walking on the water, and they think they're seeing a ghost; but Jesus reassures them that it's him, and Peter is so happy to see Jesus that he walks on the water to meet his Lord – but then Peter starts sinking! And Jesus has to save him. I've been reading a book by John Ortberg based on this bible pasage - “If you want to walk on water, you've got to get out of the boat”. An absolutely brilliant book, which talks a lot about fear, which stops us doing things. A very motivational book, which takes into account that we are all flawed human beings, with our faults and limitations. I loved it.

When we eventually pull into Chicago station, the train is 4 hours late arriving, due to there being a fault in the train's computer system apparently, which meant it had to travel at a slower speed than usual. I don't know - the excuses Amtrak will come up with for being late!

We're dog tired and wearily pull/glide our suitcases, our 3 backpacks, and the briefcase bag with all the papers in it (the luggage is growing because of gifts we've bought, etc ….) along the platform. We gratefully grab a taxi and soon arrive at the Hostel International Chicago! It's an extremely modern building, and we're on the 6^th floor. We have a private double bedroom but shared bathroom. There's also a small shared kitchen with a fridge.

We can see the Chicago “L” train line (the nickname for “elevated train system”) which runs high up in the air, just across the road from us, plus we have a view of some of the buildings in “downtown” Chicago. Our hostel is right in the centre of the city; tomorrow we will go exploring!  (Reg says this last sentence is reminiscent of Enid Blyton!)