I've been looking for the right spot to tell this story. It's a story that needs to be told to those who have been down on their luck. It's a story to those who need to find a way to just believe. But the hard part is where to begin the story.
I guess the story begins in Oshkosh Wisconsin. I was living on my own up in WI, being young and dumb moved up there from Ohio all for a girl who broke my heart and slept with my roomate. It was at that moment when I realized what I didn't have in WI. All I wanted to do was just go home, get out of the depression trap, and just run away from it all. I call my parents up and just cried out to my mom and she immediately bought me an Amtrak ticket.
Two days later it was time to catch the train home, My rommate was kind enough to drive me to the Milwakee intermodel station, where I cought the Hiawatha to CHI. The train ride there was relaxing, the farther away I got, the more I thought about my ex and why she did what she did. All I could do was just look out the window and the gentle countryside rolling by. Next think I know the train is passing by the outskirts of CHI and was just amazed to see Union Station when the train pulled in.
I've always seen in movies the interior and when I walked off the train, it felt just like that when I got to the main "lobby". Beautiful architecture, friendly, busy people, and I'm just standing in the middle of all the chaos, wondering what had brought me there. Wondering why of all the sadness in my life at the time something just felt right about being there.
The time finally rolled around for me to board the Capitol Limited all the way to home in Elyria Ohio. I climbed aboard and found a seat next to the window. It was getting hard to see outside the station for the train had been delayed an hour for an arriving train. However when they announced the delay, although I shrugged my shoulders in dissapointment, it was at that very moment the magic started to happen.
I'll never forget the man walking up the stairs joyfully and happy and to this day I will never know why he just looked at me randomly and said "Smile, and everybody smile because God loves you and he loves all of you". I have never been against the good Lord, but at that moment, for the very first time in my life I could feel him there with me.
The train finally got underway, the conductor came through and checked tickets, and afterwards I made my way up to the lounge car and found myself a seat there. It was nice to watch the sun set over the beautiful CHI skyline as the train pulled out of the city. I noticed music playing, songs I never heard before but the music was good so I figured I'd get up and find the source. There was a young man about in his late twenties on his Mac, and we got to talkin and turns out he's a pretty successful business man on his way to NYC who wanted to take the train just to get away from everything, get away from his boss, get away from crowds and just have a little fun. It was a little strange to me that someone with money would take a train, but for some reason he was right, there was just some way of relaxing by taking a train.
We talked for a good couple hours about life, what we've done, the girls we've been with and girls we were chasin just havin a good time. He then got up to go grab a drink in the level below and so I went and found a seat on the other side of the car to relax in. I wasn't there for more than 2 minutes when I heard a beautiful voice say "hey is this seat taken?" I turned my head and standing by me was a beautiful girl with her brunette hair shining from the light above, with an innocent smile on her face.
"Nah go ahead and have a seat, I enjoy a little company from time to time". We got to talkin and for some reason talking to her it was as if we had been best friends forever. She was traveling back to her home in NYC just running away as well from life. She had been traveling around with her boyfriend who left her out of nowhere for some girl he met in a bar. Whats even more incredible than that was how our lives were almost exactly the same, having dreams of playing music and making it "big", having dreams of traveling and how our childhood stories were also very much alike. We started talking about music a little more and what we liked and out of nowhere the door opens and a young man about mid twenties held up a guitar and said "any requests?"
He sat next to us and just started so play songs that everyone knew and everyone in the lounge car just started singing along. So many people just singing along, not worrying about life, not worrying about tomorrow, not worrying about the past, just singing along and having an amazing time. I was finally starting to feel free. I could feel the weight off my shoulders.
As it turns out he was heading home to D.C. running away from the twin cities where he was living with his gf who had cheated on him and left him in the dust. I'm not quite sure what it is but we were all meant to be on that train together, 3 total strangers traveling the train home for the same reasons, there's no other way ot put it other than God meant for it to happen, and I don't doubt that for a minute.
Things finally settled down as two AM rolled around. I looked out just in time to see the P42's pulling us as we went around a curve approaching TOL. I thought to myself "Two men up there driving this train safely. I wonder if they ever think of what goes on in the cars behind them. I wonder if they ever think twice about if they're just driving or if they really know what it means to move and bring people together" Just then a conductor came up to me as he was walking by and he said "You know moments like tonight here in the lounge car is the whole reason I became a conductor" and then just smiled and walked away.
I don't know what it is, but is it just me? or does something incredible really happen aboard...The Capitol Limited
I guess the story begins in Oshkosh Wisconsin. I was living on my own up in WI, being young and dumb moved up there from Ohio all for a girl who broke my heart and slept with my roomate. It was at that moment when I realized what I didn't have in WI. All I wanted to do was just go home, get out of the depression trap, and just run away from it all. I call my parents up and just cried out to my mom and she immediately bought me an Amtrak ticket.
Two days later it was time to catch the train home, My rommate was kind enough to drive me to the Milwakee intermodel station, where I cought the Hiawatha to CHI. The train ride there was relaxing, the farther away I got, the more I thought about my ex and why she did what she did. All I could do was just look out the window and the gentle countryside rolling by. Next think I know the train is passing by the outskirts of CHI and was just amazed to see Union Station when the train pulled in.
I've always seen in movies the interior and when I walked off the train, it felt just like that when I got to the main "lobby". Beautiful architecture, friendly, busy people, and I'm just standing in the middle of all the chaos, wondering what had brought me there. Wondering why of all the sadness in my life at the time something just felt right about being there.
The time finally rolled around for me to board the Capitol Limited all the way to home in Elyria Ohio. I climbed aboard and found a seat next to the window. It was getting hard to see outside the station for the train had been delayed an hour for an arriving train. However when they announced the delay, although I shrugged my shoulders in dissapointment, it was at that very moment the magic started to happen.
I'll never forget the man walking up the stairs joyfully and happy and to this day I will never know why he just looked at me randomly and said "Smile, and everybody smile because God loves you and he loves all of you". I have never been against the good Lord, but at that moment, for the very first time in my life I could feel him there with me.
The train finally got underway, the conductor came through and checked tickets, and afterwards I made my way up to the lounge car and found myself a seat there. It was nice to watch the sun set over the beautiful CHI skyline as the train pulled out of the city. I noticed music playing, songs I never heard before but the music was good so I figured I'd get up and find the source. There was a young man about in his late twenties on his Mac, and we got to talkin and turns out he's a pretty successful business man on his way to NYC who wanted to take the train just to get away from everything, get away from his boss, get away from crowds and just have a little fun. It was a little strange to me that someone with money would take a train, but for some reason he was right, there was just some way of relaxing by taking a train.
We talked for a good couple hours about life, what we've done, the girls we've been with and girls we were chasin just havin a good time. He then got up to go grab a drink in the level below and so I went and found a seat on the other side of the car to relax in. I wasn't there for more than 2 minutes when I heard a beautiful voice say "hey is this seat taken?" I turned my head and standing by me was a beautiful girl with her brunette hair shining from the light above, with an innocent smile on her face.
"Nah go ahead and have a seat, I enjoy a little company from time to time". We got to talkin and for some reason talking to her it was as if we had been best friends forever. She was traveling back to her home in NYC just running away as well from life. She had been traveling around with her boyfriend who left her out of nowhere for some girl he met in a bar. Whats even more incredible than that was how our lives were almost exactly the same, having dreams of playing music and making it "big", having dreams of traveling and how our childhood stories were also very much alike. We started talking about music a little more and what we liked and out of nowhere the door opens and a young man about mid twenties held up a guitar and said "any requests?"
He sat next to us and just started so play songs that everyone knew and everyone in the lounge car just started singing along. So many people just singing along, not worrying about life, not worrying about tomorrow, not worrying about the past, just singing along and having an amazing time. I was finally starting to feel free. I could feel the weight off my shoulders.
As it turns out he was heading home to D.C. running away from the twin cities where he was living with his gf who had cheated on him and left him in the dust. I'm not quite sure what it is but we were all meant to be on that train together, 3 total strangers traveling the train home for the same reasons, there's no other way ot put it other than God meant for it to happen, and I don't doubt that for a minute.
Things finally settled down as two AM rolled around. I looked out just in time to see the P42's pulling us as we went around a curve approaching TOL. I thought to myself "Two men up there driving this train safely. I wonder if they ever think of what goes on in the cars behind them. I wonder if they ever think twice about if they're just driving or if they really know what it means to move and bring people together" Just then a conductor came up to me as he was walking by and he said "You know moments like tonight here in the lounge car is the whole reason I became a conductor" and then just smiled and walked away.
I don't know what it is, but is it just me? or does something incredible really happen aboard...The Capitol Limited
