Day 111 Empire Builder Amtrak to Chicago, IL

Today’s Stats: Train traveling 80 mph so feel like we flew from Mountain to Central Time Zone. The train moves pretty fast most of the time but we also stopped a lot to wait for freight train traffic. Passenger trains are supposed to have priority but we were delayed several times.

Because of COVID restrictions we were assigned reservations in the dining car to reduce crowding. This worked fine until dinner occurred in the middle of a time zone change and caused some confusion.

We passed through North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin. We saw some familiar cities from our bike rides along the Mississippi River in Minnesota and Wisconsin. We arrived in Union Station Chicago around 5 pm local time after spending about 46 hours on the train.

Bikes return safety also.

Interesting we had the same crew on the train for the entire ride. Our train arrived in Chicago at 5 pm and was due to make the return trip to Seattle at 2:20 the next day. Crew member explained they are based in Seattle and work 6 days on and 5 days off. I am sure it is nice to have 5 days off but they work really hard for the 6 days.

Love the trees of Midwest looks like lovely camping site on harbor with walkway and summer flowers in full bloom.

Lake Pepin, MN

Mississippi River.

Milwaukee.

Downtown Chicago Marina Towers in background so ICONIC Chicago.

Chicago’s beautiful River view.

Heading to dinner. The question is: When will we stop celebrating?

Chicago is a beautiful town.