As I was traveling to the train
station, I was frozen. I didn’t pack my winter coat as I thought that I
wouldn’t need it so I am hoping that I would not need it while I am in New
Orleans. Eryn’s sister Blayne gave us a ride to the train station and on the
way there, we stopped at Moes South West Grill in Bloomington. For dinner, I
decided to order a new dish and it was called Band Camp. It consisted of your
choice of rice, vegetables, and toppings. I had brown rice with salsa,
guacamole, tomatoes, red onions, cheese, and sour cream. My only problem with
it was the girl put way too much sour cream on it so I didn’t enjoy it as much
as I thought I would. My meal also came with chips and salsa so I tried their spicy
salsa and it was very good. After dinner, we continued to the train station.
When we got there, we decided to take a picture outside the train station with
both of our giant suit cases and our carry-on bags. For this trip, I thought I
would just bring a small duffle bag and pack light but that ended up not
happening but at least now I have everything that I need and more outfit
choices in case the weather is crazy. The wait at the train station was very
long. I was so excited to board on the train that the two hours felt like two
days. There were not as many people waiting to board the train besides our
group as I thought there would be. Even though the wait was long, there were
many pleasant conversations taking place. I should have packed playing cards because
everyone wanted them but that didn’t even cross my mind. While we were waiting
to board, we all had to put tags on our bag with our name and phone number.
After everyone had arrived and filled out the tags, we were called into a long
hallway and we all had to be on the left-hand side. A lady with brown, short,
curly hair was standing in the front and she had a couple of questions to ask
everyone. They were common ones like “do you have anything breakable in your
luggage” or “do you have any medications that you will need in your bag”. I thought it nice that she did go over that
just in case someone needed an item last minute before we departed. When we
were finally called to board the train, our group went last so that we could
all be in one cart together. A gentleman was walking by and he was in his
Amtrak uniform and I was surprised to see that they still wear the big
conductor hats. I really like those and thought that they were a good asset to
their work uniform. We had to stand in the brisk cold weather again until the
train was ready for us. The seating was chaos because I think we were supposed
to have a train car reserved for our group but that is not what happened. After
everyone was settled, the seating arrangements ended up working out well.
Last night, I didn’t sleep well but
it wasn’t terrible either. I just felt the need to reposition myself constantly
but I did get a couple of hours of sleep. I am sure that tonight at the hotel,
I will be out. I am hoping that it doesn’t take me long to get adjusted to new
surroundings. This morning, I learned that the train has a snack cart and they
have a menu where you can order a meal from. I ordered a breakfast that came
with fresh strawberries, a cinnamon roll, and a strawberry Greek yogurt. I also
had two cups of coffee and the coffee on the train brewed well. The cinnamon
roll had lots of cinnamon on it and I really enjoyed that as well. I had also
never seen the observation cart on the train either. As we were walking through
it, I felt that it was hard to keep my balance. Colleen said to walk like a
duck and bend your knees a little bit to have better balance and that did work.
While on this trip, I have never seen the state of Mississippi but from what I
have observed out the window, it doesn’t seem to have much. I saw some areas
that looked very swampy. There was also a couple of towns that looked abandoned
but there were cars driving through it. Right now, we are stopped due to a
freak train but it just passed us. I am writing this in the observation cart
because I liked the view in here but it is very packed with many people. They
all seem to be busy working on things as well so I guess they had the same idea
that I had. As far as the people on the train, I have not seen anything out of
the ordinary yet. Every other time I have been on the train, someone has been
kicked off due to being drunk or being obnoxious. I am glad that this hasn’t
happened yet because that always frustrating. For lunch today, I am planning on
eating the snacks that I brought and saving lots of room for dinner. I packed
homemade Chex mix, peanut butter crackers and granola bars. I still feel full
since I had a big breakfast but if I am still hungry after I have some snacks,
then I will go scope out the snack cart and find something to eat. I forgot to
pack my bananas so I am hoping that the hotel breakfast has them. As we are
traveling through Mississippi, we just saw a place called “Yazoo Doughnuts” and
I am sure that they are probably very good here. A lot of the gas stations also
are advertising fried chicken. I would like to try true southern fried chicken
because I have never had it before. As of now, we have five more hours on the
train and then we will be in New Orleans!
No comments:
Post a Comment