The following post was mostly written on the train there and back, with some updates after I uploaded the photos and had some time to add them in.

So, after I made it onto the Empire Builder ( in spite of my best efforts), the actual trip to Williston went fairly smoothly.

Now, as I wrote in the original post, I booked a coach trip in both directions ( Read more... )

My trip to an oil boom town in North Dakota started off on a pretty nerve-wrecking note.

I feel like, at this point, “in spite of my best efforts, I managed to make my Amtrak train” has become a running joke. For every time I made it onto the station with plenty of time to spare, there are two times when I caught it pretty close, either because I ( Read more... )

This coming Friday, April 12, I will take Amtrak to Williston, North Dakota. The plan is basically to make it a weekend trip. If there are no delays (which is always a big if with Amtrak), the Empire Builder will arrive at Williston the following day, a little before noon. I’ll then catch the Chicago-bound Empire Builder at 7:21 PM, and it will ( Read more... )

My sister was in town last Saturday, with Nadya, Kira and Nadya’s best-friend-since-practically-birth, Dawn, in tow. They were there for a children’s concert my mom got tickets for months in advance. Well, Anna and the older girls were. Kira is still 1 years old, so it fell to my mom to watch her during the concert ( Read more... )

Due to, as my people would like to say, an unfortunate convergence of circumstances, my family isn’t really doing Christmas this year. My mom, Vlad and my grandma will get together for more of a Russian New Year thing next Sunday… And I suppose I’ll have to figure out how to get presents to Anna, John and Nadya later.

Anyway, for my birthday, my ( Read more... )

The Hiawatha Amtrak route occupies an interesting niche in Midwestern public transit. It's the only Amtrak route that runs several times a day. It connects Chicago and Milwaukee, providing a reasonably quick, convenient connection between the two downtowns. But even with two tracks for its entire length, the route can only handle so many trains at ( Read more... )

While reading this morning's Politico Illinois newsletter... There were a lot of interesting parts in there, but I wanted to focus on this one.

Riding Amtrak to Springfield last night: Anne Caprara, chief of staff to J.B. Pritzker; Joe Duffy, president of JMD Public Strategies; Jasmine Hooks, who’s directing operations for the governor; Democratic ( Read more... )

As I've written before, the way Amtrak's Pere Marquette route is currently set up is kind of limiting. A train travels from Grand Rapids, Michigan to Chicago in the morning (stopping at several cities in western Michigan along the way) and heads back toward Grand Rapids in the evening. Which is great if you're in Michigan, but if you are in Chicago ( Read more... )

Last Thursday, I was able to catch a screening of In Transit - the last film by acclaimed documentary filmmaker Albert Maysles. It follows the many passengers on board one of North America's most iconic trains - the Seattle/Portland to Chicago Empire Builder. A woman and her children heading to a reunion with her estranged family, a man heading to ( Read more... )

On Monday, August 21, much of the United States will see at least a partial eclipse. In Illinois, the only place where you'll be able to see a total eclipse is in the southern Illinois city of Carbondale and some of the surrounding area.

Amtrak has two state-sponsored trains - Saluki and Illini running between Chicago and Carbondale during the day ( Read more... )