JustLisa

Todd and I rode the Amtrak train over to the Mississippi today. The plan was to ride over, take pics of the bald eagles on the river, stay the night then hang out in Burlington Sunday and ride the train back. The weather said sunny and 36 for both days when I booked this trip. Today was great but tomorrow....

FREEZING RAIN WILL CHANGE OVER TO ALL SNOW BETWEEN 600 AM AND 900 AM SUNDAY MORNING. TOTAL SNOWFALL OF 4 TO 8 INCHES IS EXPECTED BY SUNDAY EVENING... WITH LOCALLY HIGHER AMOUNTS POSSIBLE. A NORTHWEST WIND WILL INCREASE SUNDAY MORNING AND CONTINUE THROUGH THE EVENING HOURS. EXPECT SUSTAINED SPEEDS OF 25 TO 35 MPH...WITH GUSTS AROUND 50 MPH AT TIMES. THIS WILL CREATE SIGNIFICANT BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW...WITH WHITEOUT CONDITIONS AT TIMES...ESPECIALLY IN OPEN AREAS. IN ADDITION...THE COMBINATION OF ICE ACCRETION ON POWER LINES AND THE HIGH WINDS WILL LIKELY CAUSE POWER LINES TO BEGIN GALLOPING...POTENTIALLY EXACERBATING THE SITUATION WITH POWER OUTAGES.

I suppose the train will just go right on through all of this without issue but we still have to get home from the train station. bleh.

I have to say that I really liked the train. At first I thought it might make me sick. It rocks back and forth a whole lot and is really bumpy but after a bit, I adjusted. We walked through several cars to get to the snack bar. Crossing between cars is interesting. Seemed like we hit a rough spot in the track every time we were between cars.

I never get scared and it drives the kids crazy. They will try to sneak up on me or jump out at me and nothing shakes me up. That changed today. I had the GPS going on my phone so know our train was going 68mph. I heard the sound of a freight train coming the opposite direction and even when I am already on a train, the sound of a train excites me. So I did the usual "AAAAA!! Train!!!!!!" and leaned into the window so I could see it. Holy shit!! All of the sudden my window filled with the orange of the engines and it was so sudden and so close that I about had a heart attack. I jumped high enough to make up for every time the kids tried to scare me.

Faith came across Iowa via train last year. I want her to come back to Iowa via highway though. The snack bar attendant said in the big cities, the trains dont blow their horns as they go by and the affluent commuters live near the tracks in spectacular homes. In rural Iowa, the train blows the horn at every crossing and as it approaches and goes through every town. Because of that, the cheap, crappy houses are along the tracks. I told Todd I hated that Faith had to see that as her first impression of Iowa. It was pretty much disgusting at every town. Scrap yards and old trailers and pitiful little houses. The country side is pretty though. I want to take the train through the mountains some time.

Now we are tucked into the noisiest motel in the world. It's a beautiful room but right above the pool and I think every child under age 10 is booked on our hall. Hopefully they will quiet down soon.

Oh yeah, I won $30 in a nickel machine at the casino. I started with $20 and was down to like 40 cents when I hit a nickel machine called Love Struck. It paid me $51.40 and I quit. My mama didn't raise no dummy : )

And the bald eagles are sooo plentiful over here. Literally hundreds in the trees with dozens feeding on the river amongst the pelicans and other birds. Got some really great pics I'll post later. What a gorgeous bird.