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| Mural Painted on Side of Building in Mattoon, IL |
Day 2 - Road Trip to Carbondale, Illinois, to Ride Amtrak's Saluki/Illini Illinois Trains - Fun enjoyable day riding the train from Carbondale to Mattoon today. After a good night of sleep after watching most of the New Orleans Saints overtime victory over the Dallas Cowboys, I was up early and at the Carbondale Amtrak Station by 7 AM for the 7:30 AM departure. Got to see the train back into the station from the "Y" where its parks overnight. The "Y'' is a track spur where the train pulls in and then backs out to via a "Y" set of tracks to turn the train around. The ride to Mattoon went quickly and in just over two hours we arrived in Mattoon a few minutes late at 10 AM.
In Mattoon, I walked from the station about a block to the Downtown Diner for a breakfast of eggs, bacon, hash browns and toast. Yes, it was very good. After eating breakfast I took a short photo tour of the area right around the Mattoon Amtrak Station. I was particularly impressed by a mural painted on the side of one of the downtown buildings. That's the mural in the photo above. If you look closely, you will see Abraham Lincoln.
The train back to Carbondale was about 40 minutes late so we departed Mattoon about 11:45 AM and arrived back in Carbondale at 2:20 PM. I came back to the Hampton Inn for a short rest time and then ate supper at McAllister's followed by a little shopping at Walmart. Now, after I finish this update I'll be heading to bed to read a little and then get a good night's sleep as tomorrow(Tuesday) will be a fun day but very long. Train departs again at 7:30 AM for Chicago. Scheduled arrival time is 1 PM in Chicago. After a quick 3 hours in Chicago, the return train departs at 4:05 PM and scheduled arrival back in Carbondale is 9:45 PM. So no blog update tomorrow. Since I will be driving home to Nashville/Franklin Wednesday, I'll update my photo galleries and post a final blog update Thursday or Friday.
Here are just a few selected photos from today:
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| All Aboard in Carbondale |
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| Boarding my Coach Car in Carbondale |
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| After I Got Off In Mattoon, others were boarding |
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| Bench for Train Waiting in Mattoon |
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| Indoor Waiting Room in Mattoon |
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| Downtown Diner in Mattoon, IL |
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| Waiting for my food in the Downtown Diner |
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| Doesn't this look good? Eggs over medium, bacon, hash browns, and toast |
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| Trains section of the building side wall mural |
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| Mattoon, IL Amtrak Station |
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| My Train from Chicago Arriving to take me back to Carbondale |
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| Quick boarding in Mattoon, IL |
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| Back on the train bound for Carbondale |
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| Some of the Fall colors I viewed from the train |
I hope you are enjoying keeping up with me. Just thought you would like to know that if you "reply" to the email you receive, the reply address is "reagan.frazier@gmail.com". So feel free to reply since I enjoy hearing from you.
