Ridin' on The City of New Orleans

We had a great time on our very first train trip. It all went smoothly and I'm ready to share. Bear with me because between Bob
and I we made over 1300 pictures!

My brother, Richard is a huge train person. He has always loved them from the moment he was born. Growing up,the train track was literally right in front of our house. Mom said even when he was napping he would raise up (still asleep) and wave at the train as it went by. So this was the ultimate trip for Rich.


One good thing about a train, as opposed to an airplane, there are no
 inspections and they don't seem to mind how much
luggage you bring on board.

Our train arriving Jackson from New Orleans.

Here we are in our Roomettes. 

Richard didn't stop smiling the whole time.

 

In my picture you can see that the Roomette is just the size of a reclining chair. This folds down to become a bed and another bunk flips down from above. It is made for small, agile, very friendly people. 

Once on board, we made dinner reservations. All meals are included in the price of the roomette. After making our way through the passenger cars, we were pleasantly surprised at the dining car. Table cloths, a real menu and even wine. 

Shortly after we were served our salads, the train suddenly came to a halt and all the power went off. We sat a few minutes when one of the train workers came through the car with muddy gloves on. He said we had hit a five foot alligator which caused an air hose to disconnect! This was just north of Greenwood , Ms in the Delta. You can't make this stuff up!!

Then we were back on our way and finished our dinner of steak, baked potato and steamed veggies. Also there was dessert. 

After we returned to our car our attendant came and made our beds. Then we attempted to sleep. One negative about the sleeper cars is that they are either right behind the engine or are the last cars of the train. Ours was right behind the engine. I did not realize that they blow the horn so much. I guess there are so many crossroads that this is just constant. Also, Richard said that the engineer is required to do something every few minutes to be sure he stays awake. We definitely wouldn't want him to fall asleep but this assured us of not sleeping either! I think Rich and Barbara were able to get some sleep. 

Sunrise, near Effingham, Il.

Arriving Champagne, Il. Our first leg.

 

This was our first time to visit Charlie and Meg since they moved to Illinois. It was fun to have them show us the campus and all the sites. 

This was them in front of the YMCA on the campus. This is where  Meg works as Director of Communications.

It was a beautiful old building.

The English Dept where Charlie has his office and spends most of his time teaching and taking classes. 

 

Inside the Student Union. It also had an Apple Store!

The campus had many very, very old beautiful buildings.

Just being silly.

I have lots more to show you. So please bear with me!
 Thanks for visiting. Watch for more post of our trip!