Westward to Oregon on the Empire Builder
Wednesday, August 2nd, 2006July 23-25, 2006
My trip began at the Crawfordsville, IN train station, which consisted of an unmanned metal hut with about 10 chairs in it. I was boarding the Hoosier train bound for Chicago. I had picked up my tickets for this trip the day before at the Amtrak station in downtown Indianapolis. The train arrived at the station about 10 minutes late at 8:00 am. It could be heard clanging and blowing its horn in the distance for about 15 minutes prior to this. Upon boarding the training for the four-hour trip to Chicago, I quickly found a seat in the sparsely populated car. After the conductor came by and checked tickets, I settled into my seat. For the next four hours I watched out the window as the corn and soy fields of the Midwest slowly gave way to the suburban and then urban landscape of Chicago.
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cjun