Mini Transportation Odyssey – Chicago and All That
by Larry Krieg

I have a six hour layover (officially 6:29, but we were 28 minutes late). That’s a long layover, partly because of temporarily having only one train west from Detroit. Normally, I would have taken Wolverine #353, which would get in about 3:30 PM and had only an hour and a half to wait.

But isn’t Chicago the long way around to get from Ann Arbor to Marquette? Well, yes! Remember those gaps I mentioned in the first part of this blog? Gaps in the middle of the Upper and Lower Peninsulas…To get to the western part of the UP, you can’t go from St. Ignace on an Amtrak ticket – but you can do it with Indian Trails tickets. That’s what I’m planning to do on the way back.

OK, so here’s the whole plan to get to Marquette:

6:57am lv Ann Arbor on Amtrak 351
10:39am ar Chicago
5:08pm lv Chicago on Amtrak 339
6:45pm ar Milwaukee
9:00pm lv Milwaukee on Amtrak Thruway 8539 = Indian Trails motor coach 1490
5:20am ar Marquette

But time in Chicago need never be wasted. The new Metropolitan Lounge is spacious and gracious; I only wish they wouldn’t play loud pop music throughout. Perhaps a “quiet car” concept could be applied to one of its many rooms?

And the Art Institute of Chicago beckoned…

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— More when I get to Marquette — Larry