the trip home

 I took a few photos on my journey home on the train. Except for concern over the spreading Delta variant (I should be safe, given that I'm vaccinated and I wore a mask except when I was in my compartment with the door closed) and the food not being as good as it once was*, it was pretty uneventful. 

It does feel a bit more normal now; this is the second time I've been up to visit my mom since the big hiatus that was 2020. Coming home here again felt normal, and while I felt the typical rising homesickness as we drove through town to get to the train station, thinking about all the things I miss in Illinois : the incredibly large and nice grocery stores - there is both a fairly new Hy-Vee and a slightly less new Meijer's - and some of the familiar old places, and the cooler temperatures, and just the *familiarity* even though I have lived here longer now than I lived there, in fact, longer than I've lived *anywhere* at this point. 

But graduate school was, ironically, a happy time for me - I had relatively few responsibilities (living with my parents, I didn't have to worry about room and board and finding enough quarters for the washing machine and I had minimal housekeeping duties) and there was a big group of same-aged people around me, many of whom I was friendly with. Life seemed easier then. 

But anyway.It is good to be home now that I am home, and while I have some apprehensions of teaching on a campus that is now only "mask friendly" (long story behind that, won't go into it) rather than "mask required" during a time of rising caseloads, it will be nice to get back into a regular schedule.

***

I took some photos on the way back, mostly from the train

Along the way, outside of Lincoln, Illinois. The sky was clouding up but there wasn't rain. I don't know, I just like the image, it reminds me of some of the old European "farm scene" paintings.

In Lincoln proper - I tried to get the old (probably refurbished) sign on a building

You can see the "Gateway to the West" (more colloquially known as The Arch) from pretty far away

But first, we had to cross the Mississippi. I do not love this part; I have a lifelong slight fear of bridges over deep water - one of the reasons I didn't try to *drive* up to see my mom during pandemic times (which might have been safer than taking the train, if I had had somewhere safe to stay overnight) was the thought of crossing the Mississippi was too worrisome. I admit I did look closely at the various bridges (at Cape Girardeau, and Louisiana, Missouri, and a few other places) on Google Earth to see if any of them looked less uncomfortable but no. (If I had someone to drive with me, that would have removed both the "it's too long to drive in one day" and "I don't like crossing big rivers on high bridges" thing)

We usually take the Eads Bridge, which is also very old, but I suppose that since freights also use it, it's well enough kept up.

Looks like there was a game at the ballpark last night. Someday when things are better I'd like to go to baseball games again.

St. Louis is a refueling stop, and often they put another car on (or cut one off, on the trip up) so we can go out and walk around a bit. I did, but I stayed outside and kept my mask on. I was able to grab a few photos of the things around the station. 

Again, someday, when things are better, maybe I come up on the Eagle to St. Louis, and then arrange to take a later "Illinois Service" train, and spend part of the day walking around the area - apparently there's an aquarium right near the station

This is the station

And a hotel near it, with interesting murals. 

(*I don't know if it's pandemic stuff - reduced staff, needing food that can be eaten in train compartments - or merely cheaping out, but it's reduced to meals that are more like frozen dinners than the rather nice dinners they used to have - they used to have really good steak, and in the early days that I rode, there were occasionally gourmet things like lamb shanks. This is what was on offer:

Two things were crossed out - one of them the pasta and meatballs, which I had been told (before my previous trip) was the "only meal the Amtrak staff will eat." I had it for dinner both going up and coming back in May, and it was pretty good, had it coming up again. I was stuck on the train (late) for lunch coming up and they only had the enchiladas or the shrimp left, so I took the shrimp dish and frankly, it was awful. I picked the shrimp out (there were five) and ate the salad and roll but the sauce, I wouldn't have known it was lobster - i thought it was a poorly-made vodka sauce for pasta. 

Anyway, I momentarily despaired, and then decided, well, heck, I had planned before that the cod would be the "substitute" meal if I had to substitute, so I walked down to where the person was taking orders and asked for the cod. (The food was brought to our rooms)

I was actually pleasantly surprised - the cod really wasn't bad. Not gourmet but better than Long John Silver's.  And it didn't come swimming in sauce, which was mainly what I wanted to avoid. The marinara sauce on the pasta and meatballs was not bad, but all the others were "random" sauces that have all kinds stuff in them, and I don't really like stew dishes that well. 

The rice was too salty and of course I didn't eat the carrots (those are the orange disks) but it wasn't too bad. Still, I hope some day they go back to real food)