When we left off I was just boarding the train and had found out the "chatty" lady was going the same place I was.
As luck would have it for once, she boarded the train before me and so I was able to choose a seat behind her, which was also the very last seat in the car – my favorite. No one walks past you, ever, and you can set your bags behind the seats in the space between your seat and the wall of the train car.
When I went to settle in I noticed a coat in the seat, all kinds of luggage on the floor and a full 24 can box of pop under my seat. Shortly before the train left the station an older man came to claim his seat next to me, he must have been outside smoking as Ottumwa is a smoker stop. I guess I should have sat next to the chatty lady.
The very front seat on the left side was empty and so he decided to move all of his stuff up there, and thankfully I was left with 2 seats all to myself, although I was questioning if I looked odd and that’s why he moved. There was a person who I thought was a younger looking woman across from me in Superman PJ bottoms and a hoodie sweatshirt with her hood pulled up working on her laptop.
There is a very quiet older woman sitting across the aisle from the chatty woman who I have now learned is actually 82 because she is talking the ear off of her, the poor dear. There is a very old gentleman sitting across from smoker guy in the very front.
Behind him is a very tiny older lady and across from her is another older lady who is sleeping. Each of us has a double seat to relax in now, so we are all good. If no one else boards in the lower level it will be wonderful.
I decided to take my nap and when I woke a couple hours later, the young woman across from me turned out to be a very nice young man in Superman PJ’s. I really need to get new glasses! He was on the train to Denver and back to write some dissertation for his college doctorate or something very collegy sounding.
He was from Chicago, had twin 7 year olds and his wife had thought it was a great idea for him to take the Amtrak to Denver and back so he could work in quiet on his paper. I can’t imagine having the money just to ride Amtrak somewhere and back to work on my writing! What a great idea though.
I was not able to get a lot of sleep that night as I was exposed to about six strains of colds. It turned out all of the other passengers in our car except me and Mr Chicago were coughing all night, although one may have been a smokers cough.
The train was now running two hours behind and when I finally arrived in Denver Brad and Willie were there waiting at the curb for me, so no breakfast at the station. Oh well.
I had a great time in Denver celebrating Willie’s 9th birthday although it is always bitter sweet for me wishing that Torri was there too. Saturday flew by as I had to get back on the train Sunday evening so was only in Denver a day and a half!
Sunday Brad and Willie dropped me off at the station a few hours before the train was to arrive and later in typical Amtrak fashion, it was a half an hour late.
Willie and I always have very heartfelt and tearful goodbyes but we are both working on it and getting a little better each time, both of us trying to be brave. We really miss being with each other as we lived together for so long, its always hard to be apart. He looks just like his mom, Torri, and has her kind gentle heart. I always miss him so much and wish I could see him more often, my whole family does.
When I boarded the train I took a seat to myself in the very front and hoped no one else was getting on the lower level. For the upper deck they were assigning seats out on the platform before we boarded as the train was packed full. They rarely assign seats and its never a good sign. At least they don’t usually do that in the lower cars, as there are only four rows of double seats, sixteen passengers is the limit.
A mom and her teenage son boarded our car and wanted to sit together as she explained to the conductor, so I said I would move so they could. I took a seat behind them where there was luggage and belongings strung all over the seats and floor. I didn’t touch any of their stuff and tried to settle in.
This HUGE woman approached me and I stood up and let her into the seat next to me. I am not a small person by any means but she was at least twice my size and spilled over onto a fourth of my seat. She was grumbling and complaining from the get go and was saying how much she disliked children. Oh great. There were three young kids and their mom in the back two seats, the mother and her teenage son who I later found had a mild autism, and another mother with a young disabled child across from us.
When I got on the conductors were arguing with a white bearded "hippie" dude who looked to be about ten years older than me, telling him he had to go sit upstairs or get off the train. He had been sitting in the seat across from me and the huge woman and the woman with the disabled child had been sitting in the seat in front of him. He finally gave in and took his bag with him and went upstairs with a conductor following him. The lady with the disabled child moved their belongings into his seat across from us so she’d have a tray to set up her laptop so her little boy could watch movies. He was not happy, had been crying and the large lady next to me kept complaining about all the children. I didn’t connect the two things at the time, but this will make more sense later.
Now there was a seat available in the very front, which no one likes those seats as they don’t have any type of tray that comes down in front of them and no foot rests, but I figured it would be worth it not to have the woman next to me complaining and crushing me all night, so I grabbed my two bags and moved into it. This put me across from the lady and her teenage son who I had given up my seat for.
Almost all of the tickets above each person say CHI which means they are heading for Chicago which means I will be with them all the way to Ottumwa. Lucky me.
It looks as though no more passengers are boarding the train and yet we continue to sit still in the station. Nothing is being announced either. The large woman is now complaining about children crying as the little guy behind me is still not a happy camper and his poor mom is doing her best. I feel sorry for her and wish I could be helpful. I hear a movie start behind me and he quiets down, the large woman does not.
She pulls out her cell phone and we all get to hear her very loud conversation with someone about not buying candy for the boys and the boys drink all the milk so some little girl (her granddaughter?) never gets any and then all the things she needs that person to go buy before she gets home. Then she loudly talks about her being a city bus driver in Chicago for years and I shudder to think that she had a job around other people. Its why I don’t ride buses.
We are now over an hour late leaving the station when suddenly two policemen appear on the platform…
End of Part 2
Stay tuned for the third and final chapter coming soon!
Until next time…
Toni