It was a Wednesday night in Kissimmee, Fla. I found myself waiting for a Northbound Amtrak train. I was on the way to Burlington, Iowa. I used to live in Waterloo, and Denver, Iowa. I was taking a vacation to see relatives back in Iowa. When Amtrak arrived I boarded the train. I had a meal earlier that afternoon. I also packed snacks for the trip. We were on CSX tracks. We occasionally saw freight trains.
I was riding in a coach and also went on an observation cart. It was a three day journey. We were on the way to Washington, D.C. to change trains there. The next afternoon we arrived in Washington D.C. I decided to take a walk. I had on a white Iowa Hawkeyes T-shirt. I was walking by the engine. The engineer saw my Hawkeyes shirt and he looked down the train and asked me to come up to the cab. Of course I said yes! It was a newer, expensive engine. It had a lot of dials on the dash and control handles. I was amazed. For five minutes I stood staring at the dash of the engine.
We were laying over for a short break to refuel engines. That was highlight of the trip. Minutes later I got off the engine. No one had seen me up there. We were on a train to Chicago, Ill. Where I caught a passenger train to Burlington Iowa. I had to get a ride to Waterloo, Iowa in Burling- ton. I think Saturday morning I arrived in Burlington, Iowa. This all happened in the Summer of 2010. If I never wore that Hawkeye shirt I wouldn’t have gotten to see the inside of the cab.