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| Me and My View From My Room in THE WIT HOTEL |
Flight Nashville to Chicago
Up early this morning in Nashville to drive to Nashville International Airport to check in with Southwest Airlines for my 11:30 AM flight to Chicago. Although I was number 40 to board I was lucky and found a front row window seat with empty middle seat and nice business lady sitting in my row on the aisle seat. Quick and smooth flight arrived Chicago's Midway Airport ahead of time and GO Express Shuttle delivered me to THE WIT Hotel by 2 PM. Interestingly, my checked bag got to Chicago before me on an earlier flight and was sitting in the baggage pick up area along with several other bags. Had to show my ID and baggage check to pick up my bag and was on my way.
This afternoon I took a good long walk around the Chicago Loop area and took some photos. Below are a few of those photos:
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| View of Chicago River from My THE WIT Hotel Room |
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| Michigan Avenue South |
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| Familiar Chicago Landmark |
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| More than Life Size Abe Lincoln and Unidentified Man |
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| Another View Angle |
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| Chicago River East to Lake Michigan |
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| Nighttime View From My Room |
No specific plans for my free day in Chicago Tuesday except to ride Amtrak's Hiawatha train to Milwaukee and back in the morning. Leave Chicago at 8:25AM and will be back by 12:30PM. May get some Chicago pizza.
My trip on the California Zephyr is looking like a possible thrill ride. The Sierra Nevada Mountains in California have been having several snow storms with record snowfall amounts in the "feet" and the rails over the mountains have been making it very difficult for both passenger and freight trains to go through. In fact the tracks have been closed to all traffic much of the daylight hours so the tracks can be cleared of snow. As a result the westbound Amtrak Zephyr's have been held in Reno, NV, for as much as 10 hours before allowing the train to proceed very slowly taking twice to three times longer to go over the mountains than scheduled. The record late time into Emeryville, CA, has been 14 hours arriving 6AM next morning instead of the normal 4PM. My goal is to look forward to the adventure and hang loose. I have my tablet e-reader loaded with lots of books to simply take it easy, relax, and enjoy the extra time on the train. Look forward to a couple Iphone updates of my progress or non-progress across this wonderful USA over the Rocky Mountains of Colorado and the Sierra Nevadas of California.
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I will not post all the travel plans as reported in my last update blog. I only want to update you on my June Amtrak Adventure. Instead of spending a night in Chicago at the end of my trip and flying home from Chicago, I have extended the trip to connect to Amtrak City of New Orleans from Chicago to New Orleans, stay a few days and fly home from New Orleans. Here is the updated travel plans:
June 4 - 20 Amtrak 2017 Summer Rail Adventure -- I'm returning to two of my favorite cities while riding four Amtrak trains on this trip. I will fly to New Orleans June 4 staying three nights at the Hyatt House Hotel downtown on the Loyola Streetcar line. Then I will depart New Orleans on Amtrak's Sunset Limited through Houston, TX; El Paso, TX; and Tucson, AZ, to Los Angeles where I will transfer to Amtrak's Coast Starlight through Oakland, CA; Klamath Falls, OR; and Eugene, OR, to Portland, OR, where I will spend four nights visiting this naturally beautiful city and surrounding area. In 1966, I spent three months in Oregon while in training to be an auditor for the now Federal Highway Administration during the building of the Interstate Highway System. Incidentally, that is how I ended up living my entire adult life in Nashville, TN, to which I was permanently assigned after completing my training. June 14 I will travel via Amtrak's Cascades train from Portland to Seattle, WA, to transfer to Amtrak's Empire Builder Seattle to Chicago via Spokane, WA; Whitefish, MT; Glacier Mountains National Park; Havre, MT; Minot, ND; and St Paul/Minneapolis, MN. Arriving Chicago I will connect to Amtrak's City of New Orleans departing at 8 PM June 16 and arrive in New Orleans June 17 for a three night stay before flying home from New Orleans to Nashville June 20.
You can click on any of the small photos in this blog to open a full size photo.
All my photos are available to view on Reagan's Photo Galleries website.
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