What a month it has been. Right after we moved in to our new house we had an earthquake. Then a few days later a hurricane. Of course there were several tornadoes that came along with the hurricane. Two weeks later we went on vacation to visit my daughter and her family and my middle son. We had a nice visit. The kids did a lot of fun things together. We went to the zoo. We went to a windmill. We went to Ms. Effie’s Country Flower Garden. We had a family reunion. We went to dinner at my brother’s house. It was a wonderful trip. But like all good trips, it had to come to and end. I was so regretting getting up at 5:00 in the morning to drive for an hour and a half to catch our train. All week I tried to convince my daughter that she should drive us to Chicago instead of to Galesburg. I was dreading the seven hour layover in Chicago. By driving there we wouldn’t have to get up early and we wouldn’t have a long layover. But she just wasn’t in to driving for six hours.

So up we were at 5 in the morning. We made it to the train in plenty of time. The trip started out pretty uneventful. Then all at once it felt like someone had slammed on the brakes. A few seconds later we felt a huge crash and then debris was flying everywhere around the train. We could smell smoke, a lot of it. But they weren't evacuating the train. Soon they announced that we had hit a trailer full of telephone poles that was trying to cross the tracks. They said we would have to sit there while they cleared the debris and checked out the train. They said it would be fifteen or twenty minutes and then we would be on our way. About an hour later they announced that a telephone pole had went through the engine that controls the air brakes for the train. They said someone was coming to fix the brakes. Then they said that another train was coming to tow us in to Chicago. We waited and waited. Eventually we started to see buses pulling up not far from the train. After four hours of sitting on the train they came through and told us that they had to fix the brakes enough to get us up to a train crossing that was a few hundred yards down the tracks. After another fifteen minutes or so, the train started to slowly inch it’s way up the tracks. And I do mean slowly. I could have walked faster and everyone knows I can’t walk at all.

We finally got up to the crossing and they took everyone off the train. Those of us who were going to Chicago got on one bus. Those who were going to places between Kewanee and Chicago got on another bus. There was a third bus for those who wanted to go back to Galesburg. So as I sit here writing this I am on a bus to Chicago. I’m sure this won’t get posted to my blog until sometime Thursday. But I wanted to share our wonderful experience. We have in the last month survived an earthquake, a hurricane, a few tornadoes, and now a train crash. What a month it has been.

Here's a link to the news article about it.

http://www.wqad.com/news/wqad-amtrak-crash-neponset-091311,0,1968433.story

When I get home and can publish this post I will add a few pictures from our trip.

Three of my grandbabies and my son at the zoo.
The beautiful Mississippi River
At the Park
A beautiful windmill. We bought a bag of cornmeal that was ground at this very windmill.
Family Portrait Grandaughter Kennedy, Me, Son Dakota, Son-In-Law Grant, Graddaughter Ciencia, Grandson Damien, Sister-In-Law Yon Hi, and Brother Glenn.
The teacup tree at Miss Effie's Country Flowers and Garden Stuffs.
The bed in the woods at Ms. Effie's.
Angel Cat