FRANKLIN, IL  I got a chance to borrow a computer from a local church here in Franklin, Illinois; thanks to Franklin Christian Church!  I wanted to check in today and tell you all a little tale of travel and adventure on the steel rails.

Our departure date from Union Station, Washington, DC was last Thursday, February 13.  That was an interesting day for travel, to say the least!  The area was hit with the biggest snowstorm in over a decade and everything shut down.  All three major airports were closed, the US Government was closed, along with schools, shopping and even the city buses.  That left only Metro Rail in operation… so we grabbed our bags and headed out on foot to the Metro station about a half a mile away.  We trudged through snow, ice, slush and standing water to get there, but upon arrival it was obvious that this was no ordinary day.  The station, usually crowded was deserted as was the train.

All along the route, station after station was deserted; it had the feel of a science fiction movie, really, for some of these stations are crowded in the middle of the night… but entirely empty in mid afternoon.  At the Reagan National Airport Station, the only signs of life were the TV news crews in front of the main terminal shooting their news stories about the airport being closed.

Across the river in Washington, our Nation’s Capital was like a ghost town… until we arrived at Union Station.  Union Station in contrast was packed with people who had their flights cancelled, trying to get out.  All trains out of the city were fully booked for the first time in who knows how long, for Amtrak was the only way out of DC.

Our train was very nice, and we moved right onto the main line, but there was trouble ahead!  A 30 minute stop outside of Harper’s Ferry for a switch that was frozen shut, and then several miles west of Cumberland, MD in a remote mountain pass, we were stopped for 6 and a half hours while crews rescued a disabled freight train… we finally pulled out at about 3:30 a.m.

The next morning, the woman at the counter in the cafe car said that she had never woken up in Pittsburgh before, “It’s traumatizing!” was her description… and eventually, more than seven hours late, after 23 hours on the train, we arrived in Chicago, hours late for our connection to Lincoln, IL.

On the train, we met many who had gotten passage on the train after their flights had been cancelled.  The mood, in spite of the delays was good all around, for on Thursday, for those thousands of travellers who were stuck in Washington, the earliest they could be booked for a flight was Sunday…

We made it to Lincoln, met our family and went on to meet our new grandson… pictures of the little one when I get back home.  I hope that all of you have been blessed during these days as I have been, and I’m sure there will be much more to tell… some of which will be more than a mere travel log!

I thank God for each and every one of you, and the work that you are doing for His Kingdom here on WordPress; keep telling the old old story!

Don