Sunny River Writings

Here’s one more train story too good to not share.

Several weeks ago my youngest son was heading to a wedding of a close friend. My son lives in New York City and the wedding was in Los Angeles. He chose to take the train for several reasons. First, the airlines were having issues with delayed and canceled flights. Second, gas is now the most expensive way to travel long distances. Third, he was intrigued by our train adventure back in March.

So on a Tuesday morning in May he headed out of Penn Station in Manhattan heading to Chicago. Arriving in Chicago at Union Station on Wednesday morning. After a short layover he transferred to the Southwest Chief train heading to Los Angeles.

Now the Southwest Chief travels on tracks that run right past our house. We see Amtrak heading south around 6:30pm ever evening. Knowing this I had the bright idea that we could see him as he passed. Instead my husband and I decided it would be more fun to go to the nearest train station and hope to see him there. I knew that the train made a stop at the Fort Madison station to let passengers off and take on new passengers. There would be about a 15 minute stop.

We headed to the station about a half hour early so we wouldn’t miss the train. Sure enough right on schedule Amtrak’s Southwest Chief pulled up to the station. My son hopped off. We exchanged hugs. He hopped back on. The train then continued on it’s journey to Los Angeles.

It was exciting to see him if only for a few minutes.

I still can’t believe that happened!