Email
PrintChicago By Train
My grandmother used to tell me the story about the time when, as a young girl, she intended to take the train from her tiny Wisconsin hometown to visit her sister in the big city of Chicago — but got on the wrong train by mistake.
I could just imagine her as a teenager in the 1920s, all decked out in her Sunday best, filled with excitement and more than a little trepidation about her first solo journey from her small, insulated community into the big, bad world — and the panic she must have felt when she found herself heading somewhere strange and foreign, knowing that nobody would be at the station to greet her.
She used to smile when she told me about her savior that day, a woman she met on the train who took my teenaged Gram home with her, let her spend the night, and made sure she got on the right train the next morning. That, of course, was back in the day when a young girl with only a few dollars in her purse couldn’t simply plunk down a credit card for a night at a hotel. No, to borrow a phrase more associated with a streetcar, Gram really did need to depend on the kindness of strangers that day, and was forever grateful she found one.
In this day and age in the U.S., especially for those of us who live in the Midwest, the train isn’t something we often consider when making travel plans. I’ve always thought of train travel as an old-fashioned notion, something my grandmother did before cars or airplanes could easily and conveniently take her where she wanted to go, or something people in Europe did because, well, it’s old fashioned and lovely there.
Recently, though, the train chugged its way into my consciousness. I was planning a trip to Chicago to visit one of my closest friends, so I hopped online and checked airfares, which weren’t horrible… but I procrastinated about booking and found the fares had almost doubled in a week’s time. So that was out. I thought about simply driving — which is the usual way I get to Chicago — but I cast a dark glance from the gas pump to my SUV and back again, and didn’t like the looks of that, either. And then a novel thought hit me: why not check out Amtrak?
Sure enough, there was a train running daily from St. Paul to Chicago. And the price blew me away — $144 round trip. I couldn’t drive there and back for that. The train ride was about as long as a car trip, so taking Amtrak wouldn’t save me any time, but I could just sit back and relax, read a book or better yet, write one, instead of driving the whole way. So, I decided to roll the dice and booked a ticket, not knowing what I might find when I climbed aboard.
What I found was an oddly delightful mix of nostalgia and neo. The “neo” was the train itself. It was clean and new, had seats with such a vast amount of legroom they included a foot rest you could deploy and stretch your legs as though you were sitting in a recliner, and best of all for me, the WiFi and electrical outlets where I could plug in my computer. Also, I liked the fact I could meander from car to car. I checked out the observation car with its domed ceiling and windows all around, the dining car serving meals, and the bar car where passengers could get snacks and drinks to either enjoy there or take back to their seats.
The “nostalgia” was the gently clattering, swaying motion of the train as it chugged along, the stops at old-fashioned, small-town train stations that I imagined hadn’t changed much since my grandmother’s day. We traveled off the beaten track, along rivers and through forests. I saw eagles perched in trees, herons wading through marshes, deer nibbling in farm fields and even an enormous turtle enjoying the afternoon sun.
I saw the beauty of the Minnesota and Wisconsin landscape in ways that I had never before seen, even though I’ve lived here all of my life.
Before my trip, I wondered about the other passengers I’d encounter on the train. I was rather surprised to find that most of them weren’t there for the economy of the trip, as I was, but for the adventure of it. Many of my fellow passengers were young retirees, active, fit, and on the train simply because they had the time to see the country in a new way, at a relaxed pace. One couple I spoke with during lunch in the dining car had traveled all the way from southern California. He was a recently retired exec from Toyota, and they had spent many years in Japan. As a treat for their 40th wedding anniversary, they decided to refamiliarize themselves with the beauty of this country.
When we pulled into Chicago’s Union Station my friend Sarah was there to meet me, and the two of us had an absolutely fantastic time shopping on Michigan Avenue, eating in great restaurants, strolling on the lakeshore and laughing-until-we-dropped in the way only old friends can do.
But as much fun as I had at my destination, I think I enjoyed the journey even more.
.png){kind=small}
