the start of our trip

Day One or negative 1.5 (depending on how you look at it)

A day and a half early, the adventure to our next family vacation to St John, usvi began. With an early Thursday morning flight, and by early I mean the red eye, but instead of starting at the beginning of night it starts near the end, we had planned to stay in Chicago on Wednesday night. I was still blissfully ordering flip flops to be 2 day shipped when both facebook and the weather alerts started to draw my attention. And before I knew it ice storms and blizzard warnings were real and impending. I attempted to justify purchasing another set of tickets to get out of the Indy area and then catch the second leg of our flight in Florida. Spirit Airlines, turned down my kind offer of saving them the trouble of dealing with our family of 5 for half the flight and instead informed me that if I missed the first leg of my flight that all other legs would be cancelled- no exception. Continuing on with other options, we debated whether to leave immediately and drive in the already approaching sleet and freezing rain or wait until the blizzard was mostly past and attempt to drive at that point all while still hoping that our flight on Thursday wouldn’t be cancelled. Then when all options seemed to be futile, the thought of the train came to mind. The little train that could…or Amtrak. Besides riding the El train in Chicago, our kids have never had a train adventure. And, frankly, the El is much more closely related to the bus than an actual train, just in case you haven’t used it. So we booked tickets-cheap! Booked a priceline hotel-cheap again and threw our suitcases together before heading to bed for a few short hours before our 6 AM scheduled train departure. At 3:30 AM we called a cab company in Indy and requested to be picked up by 4:30 to make it downtown in the ice and sleet to the train station. By 4:45, it was apparent that no cab was coming so we headed to the train station on our own. We arrived without incident, left the car with plans to find someone to come get it, and boarded Amtrak.
Now as much as I was silently whining about the situation (good thing you couldn’t read my mind), the Amtrak turned out to be part of the great adventure of traveling! The attendants on the train were absolutely great with my kiddos. The Hoosier Line train, is a coach only passenger car train. No food service, no checking bags, just your train ride. The train does however frequently transport additional cars between cities. So just as the kids started to get antsy, they were invited on a tour of the other cars. The discovered the checker board tables in the suite cars. They found out the shower folds out in the private bathrooms in suites. The tried out the seat belts on the top fold down bunk beds. They went through the galley car and saw ovens, and cash registers. They tried out the seats in first class. And then, a while later, the attendant had prepared an unused dining car and set out complimentary snacks. We sat at a table together and ate cookies, crackers, cheese, dried fruits, juice, water and coffee. I pondered the green aspect of shared transportation and how perfect that start was to the eco camping we would soon be doing. The trip was so successful that it has me even thinking about a long trip headed west using trains in our future!
We arrived in Chicago, to an obvious lack of snowflakes, grabbed a bite to eat, and took the Blue Line Chicago train to Ohare. One more bus shuttle and we arrived at the Hyatt Regency—our home for hopefully only the next couple of days. St. John or bust, right! Oh, and if for some reason Indy’s ice turn to sun and balmy temperatures, you can always stop by my house and find those flip flops and beach items I paid to have expedited shipping thawing out of some ice mound of sleet on my front steps. Feel free to make good use of them.

Facebook Status Timeline:
Sun at 10:45pm This Winter Storm certainly has bad timing! Must get to Chicago and must depart airport at 5:45 am on Thursday. Should we leave Indy early and hang out in Chicago for a couple of days or hope the blizzard/ice/snow/rain is past time to drive up Wednesday Night?
Mon at 3:28pm paralyzed with indecision
Monday at 6:44pm Still her in Indy listening to the ice fall. My new idea is to take the Amtrak to Chicago and hope our flight goes out on Thursday! Anyone know how often Amtrak cancels routes due to the weather?
Tues 4:52 AM Amtrak it is. Train Station in Indy
Tues 4:59 am Vacation or bust—can’t drive or fly but the train moves on. Now my custom journals are missing a leg of the trip.
Tues 5:28 am For those that wonder about Indy roads…cab never made it to our house but the Volvo wagon drove just fine. Roads were this with frozen sleet and ice at 5am.
Tues 7:44 am Reading books on the train ride. So lucky to have ella entertaining Claire.
Tues 11:15 am Graham is hauling my suitcase thru the city. He just shooved/slid it down the long muddy stairs to the transit center. Muddy skid marks. Ugh.
Tues 11:33 am Guess where we are now. Switched to the blue line. No blizzard or even flurries here yet.
Tues 1:04pm Home sweet uhm..it’ll do. Hyatt at ORD. Kids are ordering an in room movie and eating snacks.
Tues 2:32 pm Chicago Blizzard just started. View from our hotel room balcony.
Tues 3:44 pm Traffic stopped now. This is my hotel room entertainment
Tues 7:50 pm Frightening blizzard conditions. Watching car after car get stuck on the exit ramp. We are cheering for each one as they dig out or move slightly. The plows are going by in squads of 8-10, but the roads are being blown shut almost immediately. Wish people would stay off the roads.
Tues 10:14 pm Thunder and lightning! The whole sky lights up with the snow. Hotel room chilly with the winds—thermostat set at 80F. Brrrrrr in Chicago.