On my Way to #UNCO11

I woke up when we were somewhere in Missouri. I finally figured out how to struggle around and get dressed in about 1 sq ft of floor space! Then I scurried down to the diner for breakfast.

We rode along right beside the mighty Mississippi. It was high, but no longer flooding. They said the water was over the tracks last week, but we even saw some barge traffic on the river.

The old Union Station in St. Louis has been turned into shops and a hotel.

We go right past Busch Stadium and then we cross the Mississippi and get a great view of the arch.

There were lots of barges tied up, so I guess the river downstream is closed.

We seem to have been consistently 1 hour behind the whole trip. Every time we would make up 15 minutes, we would get stuffed on a siding to wait while a Union Pacific freight went by. But we really never lost any more time.

We got in to Joliet about an hour late, even though the internet was swearing we were on time, so I called my son to alert him.

When the train pulled in, there was Ray waiting for me. We picked up my checked bag and and put everything in the 1st Class lounge in checked baggage. Then we sat and visited a while and the went out to look at the Chicago River just outside the station.

It had turned really cold. I got yesterday’s sweatshirt out and wore both today’s and yesterday’s and I was still cold so we came back inside and sat in the lounge where there’s wi-fi, and I wrote this post.

We’ll go to supper in a bit and then I’ll board the Lakeshore Limited to arrive finally at #unco11 tomorrow.