To all trains (but mine is the Wolverine)

In the 5 years I've been living with the Beloved we've spent a total of 2 nights apart. One here, when he was away and last night, when I was. It was weird. I slept on the edge of the bed, leaving room for an imaginary him - and apparently he sprawled out so nasty it kept waking him up.

I gave up any thought of sleep at 5, knowing I'd have to leave the hotel around 6 to get to the trainstation anyway. So, on top of this being the first night I had been away by myself (and only had to suppress anxiety flaring up twice), I also got to do my first US cab ride, my first visit to Chicago's Union Station and my first train ride.
The fare rates in the cab said Blue Ribbon charges $50 for vomit clean-up, which I thought was pretty reasonable. The driver smelled like he'd been up all night; a heady, sweaty smell. I was hoping Union Station was close as I saw those 50 bucks looming. But he was nice enough to point out where they were filming a movie, though my response time was so slow I completely missed it.

I had been worried the station would be dead at 6.30am and I'd be an easy out-of-town/out-of-my-element prey that early, but my inner city girl was up and running 5 minutes after I'd gotten out of the car yesterday and even though I had no clue where to go I managed to look like I did. I'm pretty good at that :) But anyway; there were masses of people around and some of them asked me where they needed to go. Ha. Haha.

Because the price of a one way was really cheap I had upgraded myself to business class and I was very happy with that; boarding was before everyone else and the seats were super comfy. I could and would have slept if I hadn't been so busy taking (crappy) photos of the countryside. But there were deer and a crane and I enjoyed myself tremendously. I lost the hour that I had gained by crossing the state line yesterday and before I knew it there was Kalamazoo and the Beloved and I was back home :)

Runner up:
Pillars and benches (it's crooked, I know)