Training Day
Buffalo, NY - 10:37am
The windows partition on my laptop has crapped out. Corrupted registry. I don't have the media on-hand to fix it right now, so I've booted into Linux. Unfortunately, I don't have the drivers set up to run the Sprint data card, so I'm depending on Ernest's cellular network card wireless router, which I can't really pick up from a car away. At the moment I'm assuming that I'm offline until Boston.
We arrived in Chicago at about 1630 Sunday. Ernest and I both had issues sleeping in the 'roomette' the previous night, so our first order of business was going to the Amtrak ticket desk and upgrading to the deluxe sleeper.
Afterwards we checked our luggage in the First Class Lounge in Union Station and headed out on the town.
We went looking for a Walgreens so E could fill a perscription and I could find some NyQuil. Lucky for us there was one just a block away. Unlucky for us it was closed on Sunday.
We asked around and discovered that there was a 24 hour Walgreens in Greektown about 6 blocks away, but as we were standing on the corner looking up at the Sears Tower, we decided to hop up to the top and have a look around.
Afterwards we hailed a cab, dropped off E's script, and headed over to Gino's East - supposedly the Gold Standard for Chicago Deep Dish Pizza.
I'm not a food critic, so my description probably wouldn't do it justice... suffice to say that it was well worth the trip. I was particularly fond of the 'Meat Mountain Mouth Monsterous Meham Mouth Explosion'* pizza, which I washed down with an ice cold Shiner Bock.
That being said, and I'd probably be shot for saying this back in Chicago, I think I prefer the deep dish from Chicago St. pizza across the street from work in McKinney, TX. I'm planning on calling the owner later today to let him know that I prefer his pizza over the admittedly very good and deservedly world-famous Gino's East. I reckon he'll get a kick out of hearing it.
After picking up some goods at the drug store we taxi'd back to the train station and boarded.
I spoke to Jess for a while and uploaded some photos before sinking into a NyQuil induced haze and sleeping very soundly for the next 9 hours. For those of you thinking about taking a long train ride... I highly recommend the upgrade from the standard to deluxe sleeper. The air in the room was nice and cold and I was rocked to sleep like a baby.
Next stop of consequence: Albany, NY. I think I'll nap until then.
*It's not actually called that, but it should be.
P.S.: As I was writing this the leftover pizza box fell from its nest above the sink and hit me in the ass. I don't know if it's a sign from the pizza gods or the train gods, but I took the hint and am eating it now. After looking around carefully to make sure nothing dangerous could fall on my skull, I'm going to have to stand behind what I said earlier... Gino's East makes me hungry for my little Chicago pizzaria in Texas.
The windows partition on my laptop has crapped out. Corrupted registry. I don't have the media on-hand to fix it right now, so I've booted into Linux. Unfortunately, I don't have the drivers set up to run the Sprint data card, so I'm depending on Ernest's cellular network card wireless router, which I can't really pick up from a car away. At the moment I'm assuming that I'm offline until Boston.
We arrived in Chicago at about 1630 Sunday. Ernest and I both had issues sleeping in the 'roomette' the previous night, so our first order of business was going to the Amtrak ticket desk and upgrading to the deluxe sleeper.
Afterwards we checked our luggage in the First Class Lounge in Union Station and headed out on the town.
We went looking for a Walgreens so E could fill a perscription and I could find some NyQuil. Lucky for us there was one just a block away. Unlucky for us it was closed on Sunday.
We asked around and discovered that there was a 24 hour Walgreens in Greektown about 6 blocks away, but as we were standing on the corner looking up at the Sears Tower, we decided to hop up to the top and have a look around.
Afterwards we hailed a cab, dropped off E's script, and headed over to Gino's East - supposedly the Gold Standard for Chicago Deep Dish Pizza.
I'm not a food critic, so my description probably wouldn't do it justice... suffice to say that it was well worth the trip. I was particularly fond of the 'Meat Mountain Mouth Monsterous Meham Mouth Explosion'* pizza, which I washed down with an ice cold Shiner Bock.
That being said, and I'd probably be shot for saying this back in Chicago, I think I prefer the deep dish from Chicago St. pizza across the street from work in McKinney, TX. I'm planning on calling the owner later today to let him know that I prefer his pizza over the admittedly very good and deservedly world-famous Gino's East. I reckon he'll get a kick out of hearing it.
After picking up some goods at the drug store we taxi'd back to the train station and boarded.
I spoke to Jess for a while and uploaded some photos before sinking into a NyQuil induced haze and sleeping very soundly for the next 9 hours. For those of you thinking about taking a long train ride... I highly recommend the upgrade from the standard to deluxe sleeper. The air in the room was nice and cold and I was rocked to sleep like a baby.
Next stop of consequence: Albany, NY. I think I'll nap until then.
*It's not actually called that, but it should be.
P.S.: As I was writing this the leftover pizza box fell from its nest above the sink and hit me in the ass. I don't know if it's a sign from the pizza gods or the train gods, but I took the hint and am eating it now. After looking around carefully to make sure nothing dangerous could fall on my skull, I'm going to have to stand behind what I said earlier... Gino's East makes me hungry for my little Chicago pizzaria in Texas.