My Adventures in Mass Transit

by Justin

While spending a week in Chicago for work, we utilized something we do not have in Dallas (or Texas for that matter) a great network of trains for mass transit. From our hotel at Midway airport we took the trains twice, once to Wrigley Field the other to downtown. While the ease and cheapness of the train was great, there are some interesting times to be had on the train.

Our first train ride to Wrigley was a nice crowded affair. We are riding the Orange line into downtown and know we need to get off at Lake to transfer to the Red line to get to Wrigley. So doing what every good tourist does we watch our handy-jim-dandy map and listen to the on-train announcements to ensure we get off at the correct stop for transfer. We know where we are suppose to get off right? Lake! So we come to a stop and the train announces Library & Lake stop. We are confused, but it says Lake so we jump off. We search and search to no avail. We finally ask a worker for the transit authority and he, with NO enthusiasm explains that there is in fact TWO stops for Lake and we need the other one. The thing is that the handy-jim-dandy map doesn’t tell you this important fact. No fear after a twenty minute stop on the red line, we make it to Wrigley in the middle of the second inning, just in time for a rain delay…perfect.

My second train story is one of those Joan Osborne moments. You know the “What if God was one of us? Just a stranger on the bus, trying to make his way home” song. We are sitting on the train headed home from have some mighty tasty brew from a place downtown called Jake M’s when a man sits in front of us. He all of the sudden looks up and says “I don’t want to love you anymore” and gets of the train. We all look around and realize that he is not exactly playing with a full deck of cards. He gets off at the next stop and we think we have just experienced our funkiness for the evening, WRONG.

The same stop this guy gets off a new crazy gets on. This guy strikes up a conversation with us wanting us to go to a block party in three weeks. We try to explain that we are only in town for business and we won’t be here, but he insists we attend. He tries hard to convince us that we need to be there because it is going to be like the ‘Left Behind’ series and we don’t want to miss it. He pulls out a crinkled up piece of paper and shows it to us and indeed it is a ‘Left Behind’ themed block party. He goes on to stress that we should not bring any alcoholic drinks, as all beverages will be provided. He promises that the ‘spirit’ will control us and we will dance all night with their beverages. We were a little scared what those beverages might be. The first thought is like those cult guys who tried to hitch a ride on the comet a few years back with Kool-aid. He finally gets off and we are freaked out.

That’s my experiences with Chicago and mass transit. My thoughts go to those of you who have to put up with this randomness everyday. At least I only have to put up with idiots in their cars! Next week I am off to Jacksonville, Florida. I will give you a beach update soon!