Wouldn't you know

Amtrak will not make a reservation with a connection of less than one hour. I presume that if you figured away around that and made separate reservations, you would just be out of luck if the first train was late and you missed the connection. In my past experience they have been very good about making it good if you missed one they guaranteed. So, Texas Eagle scheduled to arrive in Chicago at 1:52 pm. Empire Builder scheduled to leave at 2:15. No way will Amtrak guarantee that close so a layover in Chicago is required.

But hotels in downtown Chicago are expensive and I got the suggestion that I should go on to Milwaukee on the next available Hiawatha Service train and find a cheaper hotel there. Then I could catch the Empire Builder in Milwaukee the next day. Sure enough, four blocks from the Milwaukee station I found a Best Western for about half the price of what I could find near the Amtrak station in Chicago. Hiawatha Service has a train that leaves Chicago at 3:15 and another at 5:08 and again at 8:05. So I set it all up and planned to take some additional advice I got about Milwaukee and eat at Maders which was very convenient to the Best Western. Everything went fine. I got to Chicago on time and because I was arriving in a sleeper I had access to the First Class Lounge. The lady there told me to go to gate B at 2:45. I checked my email on their free wifi, got me a free glass of orange juice and read a little. Then I headed for gate B. When I got there the lady asked me if I was getting on the Milwaukee train or the Empire Builder. "What! The Empire Builder left an hour and a half ago." "No, they were running late, please wait over here for the Hiawatha." When I finally boarded the Hiawatha the Empire Builder was sitting on the other side of the same platform and was still there when we left. Wouldn't you know!

Breakfast in St. Louis

I was up at 6am. We were a little early into St. Louis and it was raining. Thinking I couldn't explore in the rain, I went to breakfast. I was surprised to find Tamales on the menu. The tamale was meaty and tasty and along with scrambled eggs, hash browns and some salsa was pretty darn good. By the time I finished breakfast the rain had stopped and I had plenty of time to explore. The new depot is a bit north of the old Amshack and set way back from the tracks. It's reached by going up either an escalator or and elevator and crossing above the tracks to the main building. There was a nice waiting area, small food service area, a very small retail area closed at 7:30 in the morning and a Greyhound bus station. A short walk away was the Metro station. Overall, a GREAT improvement from the previous version.