Diary 10 - 17^th February & Images
from journey and Chicago.

I went down to give him the money and returned to take care of my e-mail. I sent the photographs I'd taken to all who were promised.after doing some work on my Web pages I went back to sleep at half past five.

The phone rang at 0940. I picked up and found there was a woman asking to clean the room. I asked why I was being woken this way and she told me "I sorry. I no speak a lot English."

I showered dressed and made my way down to reception. It was the same clerk who had booked me in yesterday so I asked for my $20 deposit on the telephone to be returned. He handed me a $20 bill without a murmur. When I asked to see the manager I was told that there wasn't one on duty at the weekend but that he would do his best to deal with any complaint.
"Well that may be a problem" I said, "as part of my complaint is about yourself." He had been on duty when I had arrived at the hotel.
"That's okay. Tell me and I'll do my best to help." he offered.

I explained about the problem with the telephone and pointed out to him that he already knew I wanted to use it.
"You should have taken the deposit when I made my booking at the time I asked you last night."
"Yes you're right and I'm sorry that happened to you."
I reminded him that he had given me the same room as the people before me and that I'd had to make a second telephone call to ask them to bring me a key rather than me returning to reception. For good measure I finally pointed out that I'd been woken 20 minutes before my alarm call was due.

He apologised for all that happened and told me that under the circumstances he was prepared to refund the money that I had paid for my room. I picked up the $75, thanked him and asked where I could find a taxi to take me to the railway station. He very politely informed me that the hotel shuttle would be available in a few minutes and that I could travel on it at no charge.

On arrival at the station I got my ticket exchanged for a current document and went to the track to wait.
Well the California Zephyr train arrived and left on time but is not as good as the Coast Starlight. The menu is less extensive and the staff here are not quite so pleasant. The lunch was served on paper plates with plastic knives and forks, which I thought was a bit of a liberty for a restaurant. On the plus side one can go to the smoking car at any time and have a cigarette rather than stopping at stations for 'nicotine replenishment' breaks as I had gotten used to on the 'no smoking' trains.

At midday I went for lunch and asked for a chicken breast and salad on the side but was told that I could only have that if I took a Caesar salad without the cheese dressing. I agreed that this would do. The food arrived 40 minutes later which seemed an inordinate length of time to have waited. I ate my lunch which turned out to be the Caesar salad with all the cheese still in place and drank the small bottle of Chardonnay that I'd ordered.
When the bill arrived it appeared to be incorrect. I queried the amount and after some discussion the attendant decided not to charge me anything at all. Well a free lunch is a good thing so I shut up and went back to the smoking car.

We travelled through heavy snow up to 4 1/2 ft high in some areas. The train climbed slowly through the mountains to an attitude of 4500 feet.	The trees were so heavily laden with snow that their branches were pointing to the ground as though they had withered.	I wondered how the people living down there in the houseboats on the river were coping with this sort of winter.
The journey was very slow and visibility often very poor. By the time I reached Reno, a five hour journey, we were already three hours late.	I made inquiries about the cost of having a sleeping car as the train was already running one hour late due to the snow that we had passed through since leaving Sacramento. The price turned out to be $206, which includes food, soft drinks and coffee. This initially seemed quite expensive to me. However, Amtrak had paid for my hotel last night and with the refund I still had $80 left from that.	Breakfast, lunch and dinner would cost about $60 I had two days to cover. Soft drinks and coffees at $1 each, say $10 for the journey. So $206 - $150 = $56. For this I would have an electrical outlet for my laptop all the time, a shower whenever I needed it and a full-length flat bed to sleep on. I immediately went back to see the conductor and asked him to arrange for an upgrade.

I had been sitting next to a 24 year-old Spanish guy called Pedro. He had asked me how I managed to get my pictures onto the computer. I explained briefly to him and then during the course of the afternoon while he was sleeping I took a photograph of him and put it on my computer. When he awakened later I told him that is how you look when you're sleeping. He looks about six to eight years younger than he really is and told me how this can be really problematic when he is trying to chat up a girl.	It was in the smoking room that I met Rodney a very pleasant 20 year-old from California.. After a short conversation which led to shoes, he has an 'Imeldo Marco complex' and owns a few hundred pairs. He's on his way to college in Virginia where he'll study his music so he'll be here as far as Chicago. He complained of a crick in the neck after falling asleep on one of the seats so I offered him my top bunk for tonight if he wants it. We enjoyed some time together, mostly chatting in the smoking car.	Farther along the iron track and later on the journey I met Pete. He turned out not to be as talkative as Rodney and with a more serious view of life. Pete who is half each Portuguese and English has decided to try write a 'book'. He's a student who will also be on the train until it terminates at Chicago. Pete I found to be rather laid-back and easy going though always on the verge of and ready for some creative activity.
Duane, another interesting man who helped make the snowy journey north interesting.	This couple make the most of the reclining seats. For myself I will be comfortable in a sleeping car this night.	By the time I'd finished photographing Pete, Rodney had returned. He told me he too was in the mood to write. Here on the train he is writing the words for his next Rap. He writes the words whenever the idea comes into his head.

Having killed it we made our return through the station entrance but could not see Rodney anywhere. Pete looked at me and raised his shoulders and his hands indicating he didn't know and was as surprised as I. I guess we both assumed he must have gone back to the train and so we set off along the corridor. As we were passing the telephone it rang and Pete being quite close to it just picked it up. He let the phone hang free and said, "I think it's for Rodney." and headed quickly of toward the train. I went and picked up the telephone confirmed it was for Rodney. Apparently he'd had no reply to his telephone call and now they were calling him back. As I waited for the boys to return I chatted to the girl on the telephone line.

They returned, I thought how strangely things can link together. Just after we left Rodney we decided to go outside the front of the station rather than to go outside at the end our train platform. Had we not done so he would never have know that his friends returned his call.

Having established that my baggage was available to me was the main thing so I went to a bar in the station and looked around for someone that would be likely to give me information. I saw two take seats at a table nearby and I had an idea that they might be gay. I joined them and over a beer I explained the nature of my problem. They told me that there was the Steam-works sauna where, for $24 I could stay all night and leave my baggage in my locker. They also told me that it would cost about $11 to get there so I thought that was an excellent idea as I could stay all night and have sexual activity then catch the train tomorrow.

I'd had no luck in contacting any of my relatives who live in Chicago but thought it worthwhile to give my cousin Rudolpho one last ring and see if he was in as the earlier call picked up an answering machine. Fortunately on this occasion he was home but he said that I could not come and spend the night at his house. I asked him for his daughter Maxine's telephone number and he went to get it. Returning to the phone after what seemed to be any age he gave me the telephone number. I rang Maxine, she wasn't home but her husband Howard answered with a cheerful voice and told me to come round straight away.
I called a taxi and paid $42 when I arrived at Howard and Maxine's home. They lived very much farther from the centre of Chicago than I had expected. It was dusk when I arrived. Maxine had returned home and the both gave me a warm welcome.

After we spent some time getting to know each other as a we'd never met before, they suggested that we all go around to see my Aunt Rosa. Howard explained that Rosa would have a bed for me whereas they did not have any free space. I took all my baggage, put it into their vehicle and we drove round to see Rosa.
She was living with her grandson, Raymond, his girlfriend Trineta and daughter Deja. I was delighted to see my Aunt again and I spent a very comfortable might there. Unfortunately I discovered that I'd developed an infection in my ear. This woke me up some time in the night and as I couldn't sleep I took a couple of paracetamol painkillers which helped.

Rudolpho	Howard	Christian
Leah	Maxine	Raymond
Stephanie and my cusin Guy	Christian & Joseph, Maxine and Howard's boys	Dolph and wife Enid

I climbed out of bed, washed and dressed and we went into the centre of Chicago. Ray had to go to pay his house taxes. Whilst the paperwork was being prepared we went to have breakfast and whilst there I telephoned to Maxine who is a nurse. I asked her advice about Amoxycillin for my ear infection as otherwise I would have to spend $50 see a doctor. She told me that the antibiotic I have should do the job. I paid the $20 for breakfast and we went back to the tax office. Next we drove to pick up my baggage from the Union Station. I went in and explained to the manager, who was now on duty, the reasons why I didn't think I ought to pay any charges for my luggage. Unlike the woman yesterday he readily agreed with me. As soon as I loaded it into the truck I found my Amoxycillin and took one straightaway. We returned to the house in miserable wet weather.

In the afternoon Raymond and me went to take a drive round and he went to see his partner. The weather was of course completely cold with the temperature around 3 or 4°C. Whilst we had been gone Aunt Rosa had done all my washing and ironing for me. She is a wonderful lady.

In the evening Raymond suggested we go out to dinner and at 1700 we all left for the Colorado Steakhouse. He has a girlfriend who is 17 years of the age and behaves like a three-year-old. I have no time for her at all as she is the most incommunicative person that I have met in my travels and also the most vulgar. She sat at the dinner table, did not remove her big puffy jacket, spoke to no one and generally behaved like a spoiled child. She offered no explanation for her behaviour but did admit that she was in a bad mood. After eating her bowl of soup she rinsed her mouth with a blue liquid and then spat it into her empty soup bowl at the dinner table. I have never seen such disgusting behaviour before.

We came home after dinner and slept for a couple of hours before going to a Club. Raymond took the truck and we called in to pickup Howard on the way but he was fast asleep. Maxine answered the door and as Raymond had predicted she did not want to wake him up. So we went by ourselves and had a very good night at the club. There was karaoke and dancing and generally a very good atmosphere. Neither of us really wanted to leave when it closed at 0200

We entered store and went to the Customer service department I handed the item to the chap there. Another man walked by and looked at the box. "You can't take that the box has been opened." I heard him say as he passed on through to the back of the shop. It was at that moment that I realised I was likely to have some trouble in getting satisfaction here. However the flashcard was tested and found not to work properly. The assistant, Carl, who was dealing with it changed the batteries in the flashcard but it still did not work. In the end I decided I did not want the product at all and wanted a refund.

When I went to get a refund I was told they were only able to make an exchange. I told her they had nothing to exchange it for as the products were all performing in the same way. However, as usual I was persistent and insisted that he had already tried more than one of the flashcards and each had performed the same way. Then she talked about the box being open and that there would have to be a 15% handling charge as a result of that.
I pointed out that the box had been open when I bought the product. I pointed out that the other boxes were also open. I asked her how one was supposed to test the product without opening the box, but as I expected she had no sensible answer.

By now I was becoming a trifle frustrated at the stupid attitudes of the people I was dealing with and their ridiculous policies. Howard was standing back enjoying all this and he later told me that he had never seen anybody run people around the shop and be as tenacious and demanding as I had been.
I told him "When I go shopping I ask for what is reasonable and if they have it I expect to get what I want."
He said, "Boy, you surely know how to give the sales folk a hard time when things don't go right."
"That is largely because there is little excuse for them not making reasonable corrections and doing what I ask." I replied. "I almost always get what I want in the end and the only way they can really exercise power is to fuck about, cause as much inconvenience as they can and generally waste time."
Eventually I got a full refund and we left the store.

Howard dropped me off at the Steam-works at 2300 and I had an interesting night with a variety of guys. The facilities are much better than London 's Chariots Sauna. The rooms are private so one can lock one's clothes etc up while out in the steamrooms or saunas. There is a maze with wall holes, slings, beds and sex toys all available. A few steps lead to an open balcony-like area where guys lean on the top of the chest high wooden partitioning. Just below thier waist level there are holes cut. The chaps walking below find that the openings are then at head height which facilitates easy and comfortable satisfaction.

The beds in the cubicles are clean and comfortable with a supply of condoms and a monitor showing sex films in each small room. I was impressed by the efficiency cleanliness and general standards.

Saturday 17^th February.
I went to sleep at around 0415 and woke at 0930. I showered, dressed then made my way out of the building. When I asked directions to Calumet City I was told to take a train to Dan Ryan, the end of the line and catch a bus from there. I fact I needed two buses and it was 1330 by the time I got to Calumet City. I passed the correct stop, as the driver was not sure where I wanted to be. A very attractive and kind lady on the bus offered to telephone for me and as a result of her help Maxine picked me up and took me back to Raymond's.

I packed my bags and made ready, worked for a while doing my web pages on Laptop while I waited for Raymond to take me to the Union station at 1700 to catch the 1900 train to New York. Raymond dropped me off at the station at 1800. I took my baggage and went to pick up my tickets and found that my baggage was 10 pounds over-weight. I offered to remove an item but he said it was okay and that he would not charge me any extra on this occasion. I went to sit in the waiting room which was warm but the train was delayed and we didn't board until 2000, then it was 2045 by the time we left. I went to the dining car to have dinner as we pulled out of Chicago station and no sooner had I given my order and received the salad than the lights went off. The train stopped for some 15 minutes during which my dinner was served.