Have you ever been on an Amtrak train?  If you're anything like me, it is something you have always been interested in doing, but have never quite found a reason to do it.  The idea of riding on a passenger train has always fascinated people, I believe.  Riding across the deserts, hills and plains of America at fast speeds, all the while partaking in the beauty of new places is intriguing. 

Well, I had the interesting experience of riding one of these trains last week.  Andy and I wanted to go down to Fort Worth, Texas to purchase a new truck.  We looked into airplane tickets, but they were too expensive.  Driving ourselves was going to be expensive as well, so we decided to take the Amtrak down to Texas and the plan was to drive our newly purchased truck back home.

First we had to drop off the boys in Iowa with Grandparents.  Then we caught the train in Burlington, IA.  Our excitement for the trip was barely dwindled when our train was an hour late.  We were told that we should be thankful it was only an hour late because the day before it was three hours late.  We should have taken the late train as a sign of how things were going to be for the rest of the trip, but we kept positive. 

We rode 45 minutes East to get off in Galesburg, Illinois.  After a 4 hour layover in bustling Galesburg, ILL, we got on the shuttle van with 7 other strangers for a two hour excursion to Springfield, ILL.  Andy and I snagged the front bench in the van so that we could see out of the windshield--we both get car sick pretty easy.  This leg of the journey turned out to be my most favorite.  The driver of the van and the man in the passenger seat were both sports enthusiasts and one just happened to work for the Atlanta Falcons!  We all enjoyed some great football conversations!  At the conclusion of this ride, Andy told me I was good at "talking sports."--A great compliment, I would say!

When we arrived in Springfield, ILL we had another layover to wait for the great "Texas Eagle" train to take us on a 20-hour journey to Fort Worth, Texas.  By this time it was time for supper and we were getting hungry and tired.  Thankfully the train was just 30 minutes late, and we got our seats on the lower level of the train.  This turned out to be a blessing because all of the activity took place on the upper level, so that would mean "better" sleeping conditions for us. 

After a supper of nothing healthy, we settled into our seats amongst our new neighbors: a man with sleep apnea (who warned us that he doesn't wake up happy), a man who illegally smoked in the restroom and had a colorful vocabulary, a man who liked to sing along to his ipod, and two tired moms with their three tired children.  On top of that, the air conditioner was broken in our car.  All the makings of a very interesting ride!  The best part of the night was seeing St. Louis all lit up at night!  That was truly beautiful with the arch and the skyline.

Over the course of the night, we got maybe 4 total hours of sleep.  Our chairs reclined minimally and we found out that our neighbor did have sleep apnea, which meant loud snoring.  In the morning we decided to try to catch the sunrise from the viewing car upstairs.  We did get a good view of the sunrise, but a not-so-great view of everything else.  With the exception of the St. Louis skyline the night before, the scenery from the train left a little to be desired.  We had ideas of seeing great scenery and city sights, but the views of the city were what you would see around the railroad tracks--not usually the best part of the city.  Oh well, it was still fun to see the sights which included animals, trees, cemeteries, buildings, etc.

We learned that during the time we spent on the train, some of our fellow passengers had been accused of stealing food, getting in fights with other passengers, smoking in restrooms, possessing drugs, and other non-reputable activities.  Oh goodness!  God kept us safe though and we came out not missing anything but a pair of shoes.

We finally arrived in Fort Worth to get a look at our new truck.  We were thankful that we ended up purchasing the truck so that we could ride home together in the truck and not have to turn around and board the northern-bound "Texas Eagle."  What a good night's sleep we had at our hotel in Oklahoma City that night after showers and a good meal!

So, the next time you think it would be fun to ride an Amtrak train somewhere, remember this cautionary tale!  haha!  Just kidding.  I think had we not had the overnight experience, I would have enjoyed it a lot more.  There were some good parts about it all: cheaper than airplane rides, no TSA hassles, got to meet new people, no time behind the wheel for Andy, got to ride home together instead of two separate cars, we got to spend time together and we got a lot of new interesting stories!