Diamond Jubilee: across Illinois

July 2021

The journey to Chicago from St Louis takes about five hours by train. It was my first "big flat" crossing of the trip. I had seen half of the scenery before on the train from Normal, but I didn't get a window seat (as the train did not originate in Normal). On the trip to Chicago, I made sure to secure a view.

On the plus side, while Amtrak in the Northeast almost purposely seems to run through industrial blight and lovely views from the train are few and far between (to the point that I rarely look out the train window), crossing Illinois meant passing through endless farm fields. The day of my journey the sky was blue and the wildflowers were blooming. The scene was pastoral to be sure.

However,

Like traveling in the Netherlands (another location of unending flatness), there was almost no variation except for small towns we passed along the way - and there were not many. Only when we hit the sprawl of Chicago did we transit town centers and, by that time, the outside scenery was mostly built up.

Luckily, I only experienced a few hours of the Illinois countryside. I found it refreshing after all the urban-scapes I had visited. Spending several DAYS passing through such terrain (like the trains headed West) - I am not sure I would enjoy it as much. I recalled my trans-Canada trip as being extremely tedious as we crossed "the middle".

Unfortunately, the sunny weather was coming to an end (I had a very long run of it - since the start of the trip). I arrived to a very rainy, cold, and overcast Chicago.