After railfanning a bit, Train #49 arrived into Elkhart at 10:32am making only a brief 2 minute stop. The consist for today's train is at the bottom of this page. I had coach #25083, a refurbished coach. The coach was about 2/3 full. I took a seat and the conductor took my ticket and we were off at 10:34am, running 2 hours and 24 minutes late. A quick conversation with the coach attendant told me that we lost so much time due to Train #447 from Boston (the old Boston Section, now a separate stub train) was late almost 2 hours. I knew we’d only keep losing more time as we would be following a significant amount of Freight traffic. I grabbed a Diet Pepsi from the café car just before it closed, it must have been the most expensive Diet Pepsi I ever bought at $1.75! We then had a 10mph speed restriction due to a broken rail which was being repaired when we were in the area. We then were given the all clear for awhile until we got another restricting signal, likely because we’re following so much freight traffic. I then set up shop in the Café Car to continue writing this travelogue while chatting briefly with the conductor and another passenger while showing my web site to them. The passenger said he recognized my site from some previous web surfing. We arrived at our next stop in South Bend at 10:59am and left at 11:00am now 2 hours and 26 minutes late. More restrictions came as we only cruised at around 40mph most of the way past South Bend. As I was writing my travelogue, I took notice that my cell phone kept switching between the Eastern and Central time zones every few minutes as it was picking up 2 different towers in 2 different time zones, weird! Between South Bend and Chicago, we encountered yet more freight traffic and just took things slow and easy. We passed the Hammond-Whiting, IN station but this train no longer stops there. I plotted our course on my GPS as we were inching ever closer to Chicago. After passing the High Car Detector in Chicago we switched to Amtrak's station services Radio Frequency (AAR Channel #13 - 160.305Mhz) and meandered our way slowly through the Amtrak/Metra coach yards while our coach attendant came by and collected the little pillows from everyone's seats as well as garbage as this all gets tossed out once the train arrives into Chicago. At 11:47am, we arrived 2 hours and 17 minutes late. I dragged my bags into the station, found a locker, and stored my luggage as my goal for today was to visit the John Hancock Observatory and carrying 2 suitcases all day really wasn't my best option. After storing the luggage (cost me $12.00!), I had lunch at McDonald's inside Union Station (I haven't had a McRib Sandwich in years and they just happened to have them there!). I was then given directions by a couple members of Amtrak Passenger Services on how to get to the John Hancock Building. I then caught CTA Bus #151 which runs up Michigan Avenue and will drop you off right in front of the John Hancock Building. On the ground floor of the building is a plaza with a Cheesecake Factory Restaurant along with several other shops. Be sure to click in the table at the bottom of this page, to see Chicago from above, WAY ABOVE the ground!!!