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... )

Filed under "this is something you don't see every day ( 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... )

When I was in Michigan City on July 3, I picked up a copy of the Michigan City News-Dispatch (RIP). And the headline on the top of the page had some startling news - five out of seven drivers tested positive for COVID-19, which forced it to cut back hours ( Read more... )

Back in 2016, I went on a trip to state of Indiana's northern border with the state of Michigan. For historic reasons, several Indiana counties closest to Chicago are in the Central time zone, while the rest of the state (and Michigan) are all in Eastern time zone. I wanted to see several towns northeast of the Michigan City, and there is always ( Read more... )

As a journalist, I get my article ideas from all kinds of places - press releases, newsletters, Facebook event listings, tweets, meeting agendas, even old-fashioned tips. But, every once in a while, I find out about something newsworthy simply because I happened to be at the right place and the right time.

( It carries rewards - but it is also a risk )

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... )

Though I have to point out that this bus stop is usually way busier than this on Fridays.

And that it would have been cuter without the transit study plug.

Two Pace employees recently got married and hopped onto Route 307 to get to the reception! Pace and RTA recently finished a Central Harlem Ave. Corridor Study, which lays the groundwork ( Read more... )