Wednesday April 20 (Chicago to East Lansing)

I only managed but four hours sleep so did not feel very refreshed, lol! I caught the shuttle back to the airport and then travelled into the city via the CTA Blue Line. It only costs $5 so compares very favourably to shuttle rides. I left the train a couple of stations before the one closest to Union Station as it has escalators and an elevator rather than just steps which are no good with luggage in tow. I walked up to the Willis Tower and into the Starbucks located on the ground floor. I spent a couple of hours there, using their WiFi and enjoying some lunch as well as a couple of coffees. Then it was tie to go over to Union station ready for the train that would take me to East Lansing.

The Adams Street bridge was closed off to all traffic except foot traffic and so I asked a policeman what was happening. All the bridges over the canal are showing their age so, one by one, they are being torn down and rebuilt. It will take about a year for the current bridge to be completed, then they will move to the next bridge along the canal. This process will be repeated until all the bridges have been rebuilt.

I had used one of my four upgrade vouchers to obtain a business class seat and this meant more space plus AmtrakConnect so I could surf while I was travelling! We were held up on the first leg of the trip and were advised to let people know we would be half an hour late arriving at our destination! However, we made up a lot of time and were only about ten minutes late at East Lansing, phew. Rick met me and it was off to Okemos and one of my US homes!!