Amtrak...quite the experience!

I'm am up in Grand Rapids, Michigan right now visiting my best friend Joy and her husband Pete! I'm here to do a photoshoot for one of her friends but it gave me an excuse to come and stay for a couple days too!:) I love it!
Anyways...I was planning on driving up...but I really don't like driving 4 hours by myself it's so lonely and I'd probably fall asleep from boredom! ha! Sooo I decided to have a new adventure...which I ALWAYS love..and take the Amtrak! Joy used to take it all the time before her and Pete got married so I figured I'd try it out!
Let me just say WOW first and get that over with...because the whole experience was just that. haha! The intrestingness..(is that a word?) started when I got off the Metra in Chicago and switch stations for the Amtrak...I walked outside with my bags and this homeless guy came up assuming that I was switching to the Amtrak because of my luggage decided that he would take me to the station! I was pretty freaked out and started walking the way I thought it was but he kept telling me to go down this other street with him...while I was walking we passed by one of his "friends" and he grunted something to him about where he was taking me and I got really scared and almost tried to run...with very little success because of my heavy camera gear and luggage! Finally I told him that I had to go some places before I went to the Amtrak so he thankfully left...as I was fast walking away I kept feeling something hit my leg...I assumed it was one of my bags just hanging low...after walking a little while I turned around to see what it was and found that it was my camera that had fallen out of my bag and was just hanging loosely by the strap and about to fall on the ground!! ahh!! Thank God I saw and and was able to grab it before it fell! Yikes!

Next...after being on the Amtrak train for awhile this guy in front of me starts walking around and talking to his buddy who was behind me then starts talking to me! He was a friendly guy around 18 who I later discovered had been traveling since he was 14 just wandering from place to place and was now going home from Oregon! We talked for awhile with his buddy too then went downstairs to the lounge to wait for our stop and they got out their instruments...a banjo, harmonica, and accordion! All this happening while the conductor is making his own music making bird noises at me! And saying "gorgeous gorgeous" in his thick accent! HA!! I felt like I stepped into and old western movie or something!!! HAHA! Check out the video here! I live in such a sheltered yuppie world that I forget that there is a whole other world out there! It's so fun to see!
What an HILARIOUS experience but isn't this what makes life rich???? I love it.