Got home last night

I really like traveling Amtrak. Such helpful courteous people work there.

Travelers who have not reserved a first floor seat have to sit upstairs which is something of a hassle. The stairway is so steep and narrow, and it's not so easy carrying even hand luggage up there.

Photo below of upstairs seating:

Couldn't find a photo of downstairs seating.

Downstair seats are sort of like first class. You have to reserve them. Many fewer people sit downstairs.

Yesterday wasn't the first time that there were extra seats downstairs, and the nice lady conductor offered me one. I took it. Got two seats actually. Plenty of room for my backpack, laptop, and, today, a huge shopping bag of boxes of giant cookies from Chinatown for people in my apartment building and also about twenty bamboo plants that I'll get pots and glass beads or stones for and give some and keep some.

It seems so weird to have been in the big city and now to be home in a very small town in the midwest.

I think I'm ready to go somewhere.