I know that this topic is going to be awful mundane for a great many people, but I have personally never really taken public transportation. I know that many people have, and many people live in big cities, or have visited big cities, so for them this is almost ridiculous and sort of funny that I find this topic so interesting that I would actually take the time to discuss it.

I spent time on both trains, which you do not refer to as a subway in Chicago, and a few buses. It’s the train, and they also call it the “L”, because it is an “elevated” train. One of the things that I learned was that you can use the ticket you purchase for the trains on the buses. Jo and Will were actually shocked that I was not aware of this fact. I tend to find that people assume too much. Honestly, I paraphrased the line from a Family Guy episode when they looked at me shocked that I wasn’t aware, I said “we traded in our plane tickets for train tickets”.

I did not take any pictures while I was on the bus but I did manage to take some pictures on the train, even though I was asked not to by an employee of the CTA. I did anyway, because I like taking pictures. Will gave me a lecture about how I should do what they say, and how there are armed security who will be called on me, and how I will be in jail. I am aware that the whole security for public transportation has been ramped up because of terrorists or something, but I do not really care. I was on vacation and I wanted pictures of something that I found absolutely intriguing.

I took a picture of Jason and Will. I took a picture of Jo. I took a picture of Grand Station, because this is one of the stations that is actually sort of finished. Most of the stations have plywood and a really unfinished look about them. It is as though all the stations are a work in progress. I imagine that is something that they would take care of quite quickly if they were nominated to be the home to the Olympics.

The train was our main mode of transportation for the four days we were there. We mainly took the Red line everywhere, but I also think we took the Brown and Pink line. The Red line is basically the best way to get every where from where Will and Jason live and get into downtown. There are many other lines that we had no reason for getting on, because they would not have taken us anywhere we wanted to go.

I can tell you that trains are probably the best way to travel, because you do not have to do anything. They are also loud, boring, and I know now why many people had books and other things to distract themselves. If I were actually taking this form of transportation to work or classes at a University it would be great, because I would have this time to sort of decompress from my day and get some personal things done. I remember when I went to Kent State University and I had to take the bus around it was great, and this experience was sort of like that.

I really enjoyed my time with the public transportation system. We bought three day passes, which Jo promptly lost on the 2nd day. I guess he had the ticket tucked into his holder for his cellphone and he was using his cellphone. I originally put the ticket in my wallet, and put my wallet in my bag, but that was entirely way to slow when we needed to put our ticket into the machine and go through the turnstile. I ended up putting it in my pocket and I am glad that I did not lose it, because I do have a habit of losing things. I guess if I actually lived there I would get a more permanent plastic card.

One thing that Jo lucked out on was that our tickets stopped working on that 2nd day. No reason, they just came back “invalid” on buses and gave errors at the turnstiles to the train. I still got to ride, because the date that the ticket is good through is printed on the back, but I had to get an employee to let me through sometimes for that last day. Jo had to pay more to buy another ticket, but he did not have to deal with that inconvinience the last day. I was told that there is typically a problem with the tickets on the buses and the trains occasionally. Not the normal tickets that people who live there buy, but the 1 and 3 day pass tickets.

_______________________________________