Two Hams on the Road

October 14, 2013

We're on the road again!  We left Lafayette on the 7:33 am train to Chicago.  You can imagine what time Steve had to pry me out of bed.  I had to change my planned attire from shorts to jeans, as it was 37 degrees out.  Since we're headed for Dallas, I had to plan for both fall and summer weather, but I wasn't ready for it to be that cold.

We both love train travel and enjoyed the early morning scenery.  Softened by a patchy ground fog and the pale light of dawn, the fields and trees showed off their autumn colors.  Soon the train was speeding north.  We had never seen the windmills north of Lafayette from the train, or this early in the morning.  The only way you could tell which ones were turning was by the shadow of the blade from the rising sun.

We are fairly familiar with the scenery north of Lafayette, as the train follows 43 N for quite awhile.  But you notice other things from the train.  In one small town (Chalmers?), there's a church that we usually see from the road.  But we'd never noticed that the real front of the church faced the railroad.  Maybe the railroad used to run down Main Street.

We saw quite a few houses decorated for Halloween, some quite elaborately.

Soon the train rocked me to sleep and I slept until we hit the Chicago suburbs.  We had some delays as we waited for freight trains to clear the tracks, but mostly the trip went smoothly.  We made it to Union Station, where we were going to catch the Metra to Schaumburg, where Natasha would pick us up.  Since we had just missed the 10:30 train, we took our time getting tickets and some lunch while we waited for the 11:30 train.

The trip to Schaumburg had some drama.  About two thirds of the way there, an announcement was made that we were having mechanical problems, which was why we were moving at a crawl.  A technician was on his way to meet the train and try to fix it, so we could stay on or get off at the next stop and try to find alternate transport.

Since we weren't in a hurry, we opted to stay on for at least one more stop.   Shortly after that, speed picked up and an announcement was made that the engineer had managed to fix the problem.  So we made it to Schaumburg and let Natasha know we were ready to be picked up.  We went to Natasha's house, where she had lunch and then Steve dropped her at her clinic.  Olga, Maria, Steve and I then went shopping, first to the Apple Store, so Steve could show me what he has picked out to replace this computer (which keeps dieing) and then on to Ikea.

We were checking on items for the fifth wheel.  We are now officially owners of a fifth wheel travel trailer which is currently in storage in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  As soon as our truck (Chevy 1 ton diesel with adjustable pedals, blue) comes in, we'll go pick it up.

But in the meantime, we're doing some dreaming.  Desk chairs, tables, lighting and a head board were all looked at.  But so far, we haven't bought anything for the fifth wheel.  (Steve has purchased some shorts and jeans.  He didn't have much of a casual wardrobe.)  It's coming fully furnished and we won't know what we need until we get into it.

The plan is to pick up the Uhaul truck in the morning and load the stuff Natasha and Mike need "immediately" into it.  A lot of that stuff is Maria's.  They have a two bedroom furnished apartment in Dallas at the moment and will wait to move the rest of the stuff until the condo sells or they find a house. 

After the truck is loaded, Steve, I and Salami (Natasha's dog) will head out, pulling Natasha's car.  We hope to get in several hours of driving before landing in a pet friendly hotel.

Natasha, Maria, Olga and Sonia (Olga's dog) will fly to Dallas on Thursday.   Hopefully, we'll arrive in Dallas on Thursday, too!

No pictures today.  Hopefully we'll have some tomorrow.