Vacation To Michican, In Many Parts

Greetings, Gentle Readers!


Allow me to offer you my many apologies for disappearing over the last week, the intent was to post to this blog as I vacationed in southern Michigan but alas, I had very little internet access and so the plan had to change. Instead, I will now share it with you a bit at a time, over the next few days. So you can be sure there will always be something new here for a while, good news, eh? I will also post pictures and videos here that can't be seen anywhere else, yes, it's exclusive blog content for you, Gentle Readers, because you're that special. :)

All right, let's start on Monday Oct 18th, when I left Minnesota. I got up at oh-dark-thirty, quite literally, in order to get to the Amtrak station at 7am for a 7:50 departure. And at this point in the narrative I would like to mention that I think the travel industry is crazy. It doesn't matter where you go, if you don't drive yourself to get there, you are forced to get up early on the first day of your vacation (when most people want to sleep in) and spend the next few hours traveling. Personally, I think that we travelers ought to be given the option of traveling early or later in the day!!! I am nocturnal and this business of being forced out of my normal habits in order to get to where I'm going has always sucked large pointy rocks.

When I get to the train station I am greeted with the information that there was a freight train derailed in Montana (and for those of you who don't know, Montana is something like 20 driving hours away from Minnesota) and this means that my train to Chicago is going to be delayed. And not just any delay, oh no. A full 8 hours. It's not going to get to the Twin Cities until 1-2pm.

And I had yet another train to catch -- a connection to make in Chicago -- at 6:30pm.

Yeah. So obviously that wasn't going to work. Their solution? They provided a charter type bus for everybody who was going to Chicago so that we could make our Amtrak connections.

Yay for being able to get to Chicago, but damn, if I'd wanted to take the bus I would have gone on the Greyhound. Seriously? So I felt really gypped and instead of traveling on the lovely, civilized bus (with good food and entertainment options), I got stuck on a bus with airplane-sized seats for 8 hours with a stop at the Burger King in Wisconsin Dells for lunch. Gypped. And my guitar had to travel in the belly of a bus!!!! I worried the whole way that it would get hurt.

Luckily we arrived in Chicago on time and my guitar case had only minor damage to one of the latches, which the helpful Amtrak people fixed in about 10 seconds with a pair of pliers. This is why you buy the most durable, hardest case you can afford, ladies and gentlemen, you never know what your guitar might encounter while traveling. My guitar had gotten squished so bad in the cargo hold of the bus that the pressure actually *bent*, yes, BENT the 1/8" thick brass lock ring, over to one side. But my case kept my guitar from turning into matchsticks. Get a good case, Gentle Readers, so that you don't have to stare at $600 kindling the next time you travel. I was very lucky!

My only other adventure in Chicago was the fact that after I'd stashed most of my stuff in the lockers provided by Amtrak, I went upstairs in Union Station for some food and during the 30 minutes or so I was up there, I became the victim of a pickpocket. Luckily, none of my real stuff (credit card, driver's license, etc) was in my pockets, but they did get my train tickets. And here again, I am unhappy about this. Because even though I was the victim of a crime, Amtrak's policy is that I had to PURCHASE MY TICKETS OVER AGAIN in order to A) get to where I was going and B) get back home. There went ALL my extra/emergency money. Also my 'buy swag at the concert' money, by the way. That was depressing. And I am still really angry about this. Why should *I* have to buy my tickets over again when *I* am the victim here??? Amtrak should just issue replacements in this situation, especially since I reported this to the police at Union Station.

Anyhow, I eventually got to Kalamazoo, MI and met up with The Chief Fool, my best friend and lifebonded, after about 14 hours of travel. It was a very long, very exhausting, very anxious day.

Next up: We Go To Ann Arbor MI and find robot parts and cupcakes.