Departure

My instructor for this trip said it perfectly: "we not only left Peoria, we left our comfort zones".

Since I already touched on the bus trip, I will dedicate this blog to my train ride adventures. 

We arrived at the bus station in Champaign, Illinois around 9pm Monday night. The building was well lit, warm, with new appliances and decorated for Christmas. The entire atmosphere made me feel comfortable, relaxed, and relieved which was nice, especially after that freezing bus ride! Once we were all settled in, the great idea of ordering pizza came about. This made me pretty happy because, in all honesty, I'm nervous for the food on the trip. Yeah, I'm excited to taste authentic Cajun food, but then again, deep down inside, I know I am not going to like it. Therefore, when we ordered pizza, I made sure to enjoy it because I was not sure when I would have food I'm comfortable with again.

Finally 10:35pm rolled around and it was time to board our train. I was very excited because I had spent months wondering what this train was going to be like. At first I kept imagining the train from Harry Potter with that one older woman pushing around a cart and asking, "would you like anything from the trolley, dears?" with a thick British accent. But I realized that this expectation is probably not realistic. Then, I imagined what I would now compare to the observation car: two seats next to each other with a table in front with two other seats facing them. However, when I finally boarded the train I was pleasantly surprised. The seats were large, reclined, and had foot rests! Plus, having long legs, I was happy to see the ample leg room. When I sat down, I immediately reclined my chair and put my foot rest up, it was nice.

Then came time to sleep. As I have stated in a previous blog, I do not sleep well in unfamiliar or uncomfortable places. Therefore, I knew I would not be able to sleep very well on the train. However, once I got my pillow and blanket I was able to doze on and off throughout the night. Although, I did wake up every time the train stopped. So, as I write this, now Tuesday at 1pm, my eyes are heavy and dry. I am very much looking forward to plopping down onto the fluffy hotel bed and getting a good nights sleep. We are approximately 2 hours away from New Orleans and my imagination is going wild with what to expect!! 

I woke up this morning at 5:30am in Memphis, Tennessee