Tag: US Trip

It’s not the easiest of treks back from central Chicago on the BNSF railway line as there’s just one train in each direction every two hours at weekends. It’s not ideal. Although I was fortunate that I couldn’t buy a public transport pass at O’Hare when I got there as this service isn’t included. This is outside Western Avenue railway station and the skyline of Chicago is in the background.

A pigeon and it wasn’t clear what I could do to help it, if indeed anything. I should have saved some of my McDonald’s if I had known.

Buying tickets for this service in advance is impossible if you don’t have a US phone as for reasons unknown to me (and indeed the Chicago public transport authority who run the service) they’ve blocked access to the app to foreigners. At the same time, they’ve shifted the ticket purchase system for BNSF to the Ventra app which is blocked, including putting all of the special offers on it. Great planning as they also advertise these offers to visitors to the city from around the world. For those who haven’t been able to pay on-line, tickets for the BNSF line need to be purchased at the station itself if ticket facilities are available, but they weren’t here as this station was hardly packed with anything of use. Although there was a bin on each platform, so it could have been worse.

It wasn’t exactly packed with passengers either.

I liked the double decker train when it arrived though, although I’ve been on this some years ago so it wasn’t entirely new. Usually trains in the United States are operated by Amtrak, but this is one of the relatively few exceptions and it’s run by the same company who own the rail lines.

The Burlington reference is a throwback to the Burlington Northern Railroad and the line itself is named after the Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway.

I like double decker trains and I headed upstairs. The conductor walks through the middle on the lower section and does the ticketing for both levels from there. After reaching up to give me my change and ticket, the conductor wished me a pleasant time in Chicago, it was all rather convivial. My bag needs some repairs incidentally.

It’s shiny and quite lovely. I do like these great behemoth trains, they sound like a proper piece of engineering on rails to me. And there’s a big step to the platform to add just a little more excitement to proceedings, although I’d note that there are disabled access carriages as well across all rail services in Chicago.

And off it goes having set me down at Brookfield railway station. The line runs from Chicago Union station all the way to Aurora transportation centre, which is just to the west of Naperville.

Scott, Deb and I were refreshed with gossip, food and drink and so were planning to do something in the afternoon around Chicago. I had no specific ideas, but thought it might be rather lovely to go somewhere that I couldn’t usually reach with public transport. Then I saw that Waterfall Glen was well reviewed as a nature reserve, so I expected something like the above photo, which is Niagara Falls.

We were able to park for free in the large car park and so we set off, with me promising that this was genuinely a short walk and not 100 miles. Have I mentioned that I walked 100 miles?

I tried to make it look as though I had been walking through woodlands, although I obviously wasn’t as I imagine that this was packed with snakes ready to jump out at me. I’ve been watching TikTok videos of a snake catcher in Australia and I feel that I’m getting more ready to tackle any snake that surprises me, but I don’t feel ready yet to go hunting them.

This wasn’t quite the thundering tributary that I had been expecting.

Some trees. I don’t know what they are and this isn’t a nature blog anyway.

I might have uploaded this photo to Facebook to suggest that we had walked 6.5 miles which it’s fair to say would be a slight exaggeration.

I could almost heard the thundering waterfall now and I was pleased to have navigated us to the right spot. I was wondering whether there might be a cafe at this major tourist attraction.

I was sceptical that the waterfall was going to be quite as thundering as I had expected given that the river was mostly dried up.

Here’s the puddle that the waterfall was cascading down from.

I had expected more white water from the waterfall that was coming crashing down. There was no cafe.

And here is the waterfall. It’s not exactly Niagara Falls is it?

I did wonder whether it might be more appropriate to rename Waterfall Glen into Trickledown Glen.

The landscape after years of being bombarded by the trickle of water gently caressing the rock.

Here’s the information panel and I note that the creators of this site originally called it Rocky Glen. Yes, this is more bloody appropriate than Waterfall Glen. I didn’t say anything though, I wouldn’t want to upset the locals who might be proud of their collection of puddles.

Deb had heard good things about this chain, which I must admit that I hadn’t previously been aware of, despite them having over 600 locations across the United States. Note the recently tarmacked exterior, they’d been getting some complaints about trips and falls. One customer noted:

“That being said, it’s dangerous just to come here! There are Giant potholes EVERYWHERE. It’s litterally not safe for your car to come through the drive thru. And if the outside is this bad, it makes me question the integrity of the inside and it’s standards.”

I was a little disappointed to not actually see this showcase of potholes.

I’d note firstly that this was food for three of us, not just me. I had to look up the difference between a steakburger and a hamburger, with the latter being made up of minced beef rather than individual cuts of beef, although I’m unsure if there’s much differentiation here. Anyway, I really liked this, the beef was juicy and rich in flavour, the fries were thin and crispy and the Dr Pepper was bottomless. The prices were reasonable and there were plenty of special offers available, with the whole offering being better than McDonald’s in terms of quality and not much more expensive.

The environment was generally clean, although the floor was one of the stickiest that I had encountered which I think is down to the presence of lots of spilled drinks rather than some overly adhesive cleaning product. The service was friendly, with customers ordering via a self-service machine and then the staff member calls out the order number when it’s ready.

I’d definitely go back to this chain if I was in the United States and I see that they’re trying for an expansion into Europe. The real problem here is potentially their name. They don’t serve steaks, they’re a fast food burger restaurant, but that’s not what the company name suggests to a European market at least. They did open in Chester in the UK in 2016, but that restaurant closed after two years and I’m not sure that this concept is easily transferable. It also seems that the company have spent years battling their franchise holders, something which rather did for Quiznos, my favourite sub fast food chain.

I was pleased to try somewhere new though, a good choice from Deb ? This location is the one at 1520 Ogden Avenue, 60515.

For the evening meal, after our busy day chasing puddles on the waterfall trail, Scott and Deb chose Connie’s Family Restaurant which proved to be a very good choice. Established in 1944, it’s a well reviewed traditional American restaurant which is family owned and operated that is open relatively long hours, from 07.00 until 22.00 every day.

I can’t say that this is rare in the United States, but I did think that the menu was too large for the size of the restaurant. Although, having noted that, the food they served was excellent, but I do wonder whether they need such a breadth of dishes. I’m afraid that the name of the restaurant has escaped me, but when I was three (so just over 15 years ago….) I do know that I went to a restaurant chain in the United States and the whole stylistic element of this menu reminded me of that (I’d add that the menu must have come back with me from the United States, I don’t have an encyclopaedia memory of past menus). All very exciting.

As is common in these family restaurant style set-ups, there is a free soup provided to start with and also a heap of crackers and breads are carefully heaped up on the table. This is the United States, they can also pile up butter without people complaining that there’s not a clear calorie count available.

The bacon blue burger with, well, bacon and blue cheese, as well as the heap of fries and salad on the side. Incidentally, let me mention once again that the United States know what to do with bacon, it should be streaky, crispy with the fat nicely burnt. Delicious. Also, I liked the subtle gherkin at the back, this should be included with all burgers. Indeed, this burger meal is set out just as I would serve it, with the meat being cooked appropriately to medium. Note Scott’s heap of chicken in the background and they’re his vegetables, I would hardly ordered those.

The service was as expected in the United States, which was attentive, personable and welcoming. The surroundings were dated, but I think that’s part of the concept with a family restaurant, it’s about being homely rather than necessarily on-trend. Although the restaurant is located in a suburb of the enormous city that is Chicago, this still felt like a venue in a quiet backwater and retained its charm because of that.

I didn’t feel the need to go for a dessert, not least as the portion sizes of the starter and main had meant that unnecessary. But they were, of course, available in a cabinet near to the bar. I didn’t delve too deeply into the beer options here as I noticed the rather generic nature of the selection, with a limitless coke seeming more suitable in any event. I was also aware that the next morning I was embarking on a pilgrimage to the holy land of Goose Island.

A very good choice and if I was in the area again, I’d merrily return here.

One final breakfast at the Rodeway Inn and my plan for the day was to get to Chicago city centre before going back out to the airport for a flight to sunny Las Vegas.

Waving the hotel goodbye. I’d better add that I didn’t physically wave as the reception staff might have thought that I was a bit odd.

Back at Brookfield railway station and for reasons I’ve mentioned several times already, there was no way for me to buy a ticket in advance.

The train came sweeping in on time with its horns blaring. It’s very America, it’s just not the same getting on the train to Great Yarmouth. Partly because the trains in the United States actually operate, but I’d better not digress. It’s not clearly visible in the photo, but there’s a bin behind that rear bench and there was a squirrel in there merrily playing and cutting up the bag. The station staff didn’t seem entirely thrilled.

After safely boarding, I went for the top deck again.

I paid for my fare in cash, which I think was just over $5, and the conductor puts the ticket in the gap to show that I’ve made payment. It’s still a little strange trying to conduct financial affairs by peering over the barrier, but it adds to the experience I suppose.

The Chicago skyline, with the anti-sun coating on the window clearly visible.

It was about a 25 minute rail journey and the train arrived on time. The service was relatively busy, but there were always seats available upstairs and downstairs.

The large scale map on the wall of where Amtrak service in the United States and there are plenty of gaps, including many states with no rail service at all. It’s not ideal.

I’ve been to Chicago Union station many times before, but I’m still always slightly in wonder at its grandeur and beauty. 100 years ago this would have been how everyone travelled, before the convenience of domestic air flights and also before mass ownership of cars. The station itself is from 1925, replacing the smaller building which had served rail passengers since 1881. The word “union” is used because it was used by multiple rail companies, hence the number of Union Stations around the country.

Well that photo is slightly on the wonk, despite my best efforts at the time.

A bit better. All that space, it’s an architectural masterpiece and there’s plenty of seating. It’s fair to say there’s some wasted space here as well, but at least it doesn’t feel cramped.

It’s definitely the best way to arrive into Chicago. There are some other handy practical features to the station as well, such as the free toilets although I wouldn’t say that they’re the highlight of the proceedings there. Anyway, that meant I had a few hours to explore the city centre once again before getting back on the subway to go to the airport.