The weather forecast for Chicago called for rain most of the day. So no boat ride. The Chicago History Museum is closed on Mondays, so no museum. So the obvious choice is to go to top of the Sears Tower (now the Willis Tower, but nobody calls it that). It was once the tallest building in America, but now it’s not. So they added the TILT, where you stand at the window while it tilts out leaving you with nothing but 95 floors of air. Unfortunately, the TILT didn’t open till 3:00 and we had a train to catch, otherwise…well actually, no, never, not in a life time! Instead, we risked a coffee and a tea, as we watched the clouds rolling in to obscure the view.
By noon, we were back at the hotel for a quick lunch before heading to Union station for the next leg of our trip. For some reason, Amtrak likes to keep the track number of the departing train a secret until five minutes before the train leaves. We did find a mole that revealed the track number fifteen minutes early. All the sleeper cars have arbitrary numbers assigned to them. Ours was 330, but of course, that number was also a secret, and we walked right by it.
Although I knew the Superliner rooms were smaller than the Viewliner rooms. I wasn’t prepared for how much smaller. Also the Superliners were put into service in the late 1970’s, so the single plug in the room is for your razor only (it says so on the plug), there is no wifi, and the lighting predates LED’s.
The dining room has tables for four, so we share. Deb is determined to make conversation with our table mates. Dinner was with two Amish construction workers from Erie, PA. They excelled at one word responses. They eventually opened up, a little. Breakfast was with an amateur plein-aire painter from Iowa who vacationed alone because her husband liked Star Trek convention (not her thing).
We are currently running about an hour late
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