Day two: travelling to Chicago

Ah Denver. Denver that could not feed me. Denver that did not even have an obvious supermarket near the central mall. Don't people live in Denver?

We did buy us each a pair of shoes. I had bought new inner soles for Nathan's shoes and he had worn them for four days before the top lining started rubbing off and giving him blisters. Fabulous! We hadn't even started our holiday!

So he got some nice sensible black lace up shoes and I got some weird non-runner walking shoes after trying on nearly every pair of women's (sensible) shoes in the shop.

Nathan developed a gut wobble and looked quite ill whilst we waited for the train. We waited waited waited. We eventually hopped on the train and discovered the joys of travelling on Amtrak.

The seats are larger than economy on the plane (not really that hard) - the chairs in front are so far away I had difficulty putting my feet on the foot rest unless I snuggled down a bit. Even 6'5" hubster was not cramped for room. They are wider too, but the metal bar in between the seat cushioning is a mongrel. I caught myself a few times on it. It is hard to cuss quietly at 1am when you feel like you've busted your leg. They tilt back and have leg rests that lift up (with a little persuasion) so that you feel like you've got a bit more seat and support. They are sleeper seats, not to be confused with the sleeper compartments that have almost real beds in them.

So we rode to Chicago. With respect, can I ask anyone who lives in Kansas or Iowa what on earth do they do for entertainment outside the cities? Nebraska seemed to have a little liveliness in its scenery but most of the Great Plains are exactly that - plain. I know November is not the best time of year for scenery but flat flat flat! Lots of harrowed black paddocks - the soil is amazing. Black or dark brown. Thousands of kilometres of it. Nothing like most Australian soils - here they are rich, fertile, ready for years of hard work. Plus it was grey allllllll day long and drizzled for some of it - I think we saw the sun for about 2 milliseconds. It was clear in Omaha at 5:30am and when I woke up again we were in Iowa and grey! I waited for the sun to rise for two hours and then realised it already had.

We crossed the Mississippi without even realising that it was not just any other river. Disappointing!

Eventually we saw signs of civilisation. Chicago loomed into view.

For some reason I warmed to Chicago even though it tried to kill me with cold. You would think that a singlet, a tshirt, a polo-neck top and a woollen jumper with a rain slicker over the top would be sufficiently warm (plus a scarf muffling me, a woollen hat, a cashmere mitten and a thrummed mitted) but NO! The wind whistled straight through me. I haven't been so cold for ages. Probably not since my sister and I went skiing and we got caught in a blizzard. We walked from Wholefoods (I can eat most of their roast chickens and I did! Hooray!) to Target in the south bank/side area across a bridge that was horridly cold on a night with a strong wind and a bit of drizzle to top it off. I was half frozen solid.

The Target was two storied and had a REALLY funky shopping trolley/cart lifter. We had to go up and down the escalators to check the thing out. It runs between the escalators - the trolley is pulled by a lever type thing whilst remaining horizontal on special runners. We thought it was the coolest thing out! (Except for outside which was realllly cool!)

We stayed at the Holiday Inn. My towel was not oh so fluffy, dangnabbit, and they didn't have any ashtrays to eat soup out of (bonus points to those who can pick the reference and will comment on it!), but they do have shampoo/etc that is scented with peppermint and something a little spicy/masculine but not offensive. Hooray! I took those little sample bottles cos I could use them! That is only the second time ever!