After a snack in Union Station, I boarded the train for Chicago. There was an option to make reservations for dinner in the dining car. Seating was limited and community seating is used, providing an opportunity for you to meet new people. I opted to skip dinner in lieu of hanging out in the observation section with few beers (shocker!). This time the only decent offering was a Sierra Nevada IPA. I spent most of the early evening looking at the beautiful trees, which had started changing colors and reinstalling Xcode. I made the mistake of not checking for compatibility of Yosemite with older versions (which I use to support legacy apps). Without wi-fi on this segment, I was forced to consume 1.6 GB my precious data plan’s monthly allocation. Note: Xcode 4.6 still does not run on Yosemite.
The most interesting part of the trip after sunset was listening to a One Direction look-alike try to chat up a young lady traveling solo. All was going swimmingly until his dad came over and started making jokes. I closed out the evening with some light reading (Marcus Zarra’s Core Data). I didn’t get much actual coding done this day but still felt productive.
As the first overnight portion of my trip, the lingering question was “Did I make a mistake in not getting a sleeper?” While the coach seats are roomier than anything I encountered on planes or buses, the reclined position was not optimal for sleeping but I managed to make do. In the future, I’ll have to invest in a neck pillow. Having no idea how far we traveled, I awoke thinking we reached Cleveland but kept thinking “this looks too nice. Why do they call this the Mistake By the Lake?”. After checking my map, I realized we were in Pittsburgh and it was only midnight.
For breakfast, I opted for scrambled eggs and grits, a brave choice considering I was no longer in the South. My fears were unfounded though, as whoever is in the kitchen knows their hominy. Perfect balance between thick and thin and paired well with the eggs. I was seated with a nice couple from England and a young man from Chicago. It was a nice conversation, mostly swapping travel stories and sharing options for exploring Chicago prior to my next departure.
The Cocoa Nomad 