Hey Porter! Hey Porter!
Day: 2
Would you tell me the time? How much longer will it be till we cross that Mason Dixon Line?
52 hours after leaving Toronto we arrived in Austin, Texas. When I write that it really does sound worse than it was. Our bus to Chicago went by fairly quickly, even though neither of us slept much. Before we knew it we were deposited on the cold dark streets of Chicago at 4:45am.
We waited around in Chicago’s beautiful Union station (one of the main rail hubs of the U.S.A.) for the city to come alive. After finding breakfast and visiting the Field Museum we boarded the Texas Eagle for the 30 hour journey to Austin, Texas.
The train was uneventful so I really don’t have much to write about it. It was a comfortable trip, we both had fantastic sleeps and even the food was good. We had tasty grilled catfish for dinner, veggie burgers for lunch, omelette and quiche for breakfast. The staff is very friendly and really makes the long trip enjoyable. We passed through some scenic sections and crossed the Mississippi at St. Louis and through Little Rock and Dallas. We even saw the coffee shop in Crawford, Texas where George and Laura take their coffee while hanging out at the ranch. I would recommend a long distance train trip to anyone who hasn’t done it, if you aren’t in a rush it sure beats flying.
We finally arrived in Austin at 10pm, delayed about 2 hours because of freight traffic on the rails. We had hoped to hit the town and catch some live bands, however we instead passed out quickly after arriving at the hostel. It was a long trip, yet a fantastic way to cross America.
Tags: Amtrak, Austin, Chicago, Texas, Train, U.S.A.
Michael Coroneos
Are the bats still in there?
Unfortunately most of the bats have migrated south to Mexico, so we didn’t see any. For those who don’t know, there are usually over 2 million bats under the Congress Street bridge in downtown Austin. The all fly out at dusk every night.
Stay tuned everyone, Austin update coming soon. We had a great day and night out in the “Live music capital of the world.”
Mike & Jordana…I will be checking in regularly with you guys and will update you with any critical TFC/ RPB info 🙂 Have a great time!!!!!!!