11:27am
Right now I’m sitting on the lower level of the observation car of the Southwest Chief. There’s no one down here except me and the snack attendant who is busy putting supplies away.
We just left Ft. Madison, Iowa and are still running on time.
I’ve been talking quite a bit to the guy sitting next to me back at my assigned seat. Didn’t take long for us to both clock each other as being gay. He seems like a pretty decent person and it’s always nice to find someone to talk to. That’s the best part of taking a train, people are always so friendly. Maybe its just because we all know we are going to be on here for a while and we might as well enjoy it. Anyway, should be in Chicago in about 3 1/2 hours. We may even get there early, that’s certainly never happened before.
Oh, and I didn’t mention that one of the car attendants is a hottie! 
Good scenery always helps the time pass! lol
8:00pm
Ok, so I got a better look at the hottie car attendant and I changed my mind. Not so hot.
I’m at the hotel now waiting for R to show up. His flight should be landing any time now so I imagine he will be here in an hour or so. The train trip went very well. We were on time to early the entire trip until the final hour. Freight delays and braking problems killed the early arrival but we still managed to get in just a couple minutes late.
Right before we pulled into Chicago Union Station, the electricity went out in our car. That wasn’t problem while we were out in the sun, but Union Station here is underground so as we pulled in the car went completely black! We practically had to feel our way to the stairs to go down as there were no emergency lights on. Several of us had our cell phones out using them as flashlights. Was kinda funny and then of course as the last (including myself) couple of people were finally getting off, the lights came back on. Never a dull trip on Amtrak.
