Sleepless Somewhere in the Heartland

11 August 2009

Today was kinda weird.

I logged off last night after Denver, going into the dark of Nebraska and points east, having lost the hour with which the Rockies had gifted me two weeks earlier. I don’t have a good track record when it comes to sleeping on moving vehicles, but on the way out I managed a good couple of hours of sleep without too much difficulty. This was not the case last night.

I don’t know if it was my seat partner, who seemed to take up a lot of mental space, even though she actually stayed completely in her seat the whole time, or if it was just me. I just know that I was the only person in the whole entire car by 10 p.m. with a light still on. (Contrast that with right now, on a different train, when at least half of the lights are still on at 10:15.) I felt so restless that I took my AcerBaby (the Acer Aspire I bought to use on this trip), along with a Subway ham sandwich, a double chocolate chip cookie and what was left of this morning’s coffee, and walked up to the lounge car.

Unlike just about every other train I’ve been on, the lounge / sightseer car was practically deserted when I got up there. There were about 4 people sleeping on the floor and sofa-like benches at one end. At the other end, nearest the dining car, the cafeteria style tables waited in ghostly silence. It felt like I was the only one awake on the entire train.

Of course this wasn’t literally true; the conductors and other train personnel were around, and every now and again one of them walked through the lounge. I sat there eating my food and looking at my mostly bad photos. Later one guy who also couldn’t sleep came to sit at a parallel table and shoot the breeze about his weekend driving trip from eastern Nebraska to Southeastern Montana, through the Black Hills and the Grasslands. Nevertheless it was surreal to be sitting there looking at the pics I’d taken earlier that week and just being too awake to even begin to sleep.

I counted off two towns before I started to feel drowsy enough to attempt sleep. Around 3 a.m. I wrapped myself in my coat, reclined my chair, and tried to drop off. Then I twisted and turned and fidgeted, and after some trial and error discovered that my seat was just broken enough to keep me from pulling the bottom all the way up. At 5 a.m. when a smoke break was called for Lincoln, Nebraska, I was alert enough to get up, go downstairs, and take a picture of a train car in the still-dark station.

Finally the lady in the seat across from me (waves at Alana) who was getting off in Omaha, the next stop, suggested that I move over to her seat. Perhaps if I could stretch out across the two seats I might be able to rest a bit. When she got off, I took her advice. It took me another hour to doze off, but after putting my mini-blanket over my head, I finally managed to take a few cat naps during the morning. However, all day I’ve been feeling drowsy and not even much interested in taking pics. I only snapped some pictures of the major rivers crossed, and a few others illustrating the remarkable greenness of the IA / IL grainbelt.

I did eventually get up, but it was more because the train ride was ending than because I was excited about getting up. Once we got into Chicago Union Station, I made certain to get a good meal and post a few things on the internet.

But I’m still sleepy. In fact, I think I’ll try to go to sleep right now. If it works for me, I may actually get a couple hours sleep tonight…..