We slept well until about 5. That’s when our biological clocks (still set to London time) tried to wake us up. We kept hitting the snooze button until about 8:30.

Monday morning started with coffee and bagels. Bagels were scarce in Europe, and we missed them.

At the El station, Obbie had trouble finding the right change for the ticket machine and vented his frustrations at the poor innocent station attendant. She graciously accepted his apology and showed us how we can use one fare card for two fares. So we don’t need to turn a dollar into quarters after all.

On our way to Union station, Obbie was chatting about our trip with a pair of older ladies and we almost missed our transfer stop. It’s a good thing Rozie was paying attention.

We’re holding tickets for Saturday’s train from Chicago to La Crosse, but we missed that train due to our flight cancellation. Today is Monday, and Amtrak’s stated policy is to charge us $30 each for “changing our itinerary.”

At the ticket counter, Obbie told the agent that our plane was two days late. She graciously changed our tickets without charging us, and we moved on to our last holding corral.

Leaving the corral and approaching our train, we’re struck by how big it is. European trains have been our reality for two months, and they’ve all been compact and utilitarian, like a comfortable commuter train. In comparison, this Amtrak Superliner is huge, like a rolling cruise ship.

Of course the requirements of a train running thousands of miles over three days are different from nearly all European trains, which run routes of a few hundred miles and less than a half-day.

Most of the Amtrak system is designed for the mid- to up-scale leisure traveller, not for the ordinary folks who just want to get somewhere. It makes us wonder whether we could get more trains if we trade in the luxury for the utilitarian but comfortable trains buzzing around Europe.

Main line European trains run hourly. Main line American trains run daily. We think a lot of people would ride trains if they were as cheap and plentiful as they are overseas.

We’d been spoiled by Europe’s rail system, and as our Amtrak makes its way through the north side of Chicago we see the price we pay for lack of such a system: big parking lots everywhere, and highways choked with oversized cars and trucks.

As we cross into Wisconsin, the sites through our window became more and more familiar. We see the landmarks of Milwaukee, a grand Wisconsin lake, and the iconic barns and silos of Wisconsin dairy farms.

We treated ourselves to a dining car dinner and finished just in time for our arrival in La Crosse. Our friend Sherry was waiting to cart us the rest of the way home.

Faith greeted us at the door of our own house, which we found pretty much as we left it, clutter and all. We’ve been wearing the same clothes for two months, so we have to change into something else. Ariel, our bird, is glad to see us.

There’s nothing like coming home to familiar comforts and routines. The Packers were playing on Monday Night Football tonight. Ariel is watching the game from his favorite perch on Obbie’s shoulder. His green and gold feathers blend in nicely next to green and gold tie-dye.

We’re keeping the sound turned down to talk with our friends and exchange our tales from Europe for their tales of what we missed at home while we were gone.

So how does it feel to be home? Too many things are too much the same.

When we left, there were flags flying all over the place and the news was full of war. The local bickerings were about naming the local football stadium and whether the Doerflinger Building is up to code.

Two months later, flags are flying all over the place and the news is full of war. The local bickerings are about the naming of the local football stadium and whether the Doerflinger Building is up to code.

Hey, did we miss anything? Good.

It’s refreshing to note that dissent is still alive and well in America, even though it was hard to notice from overseas.

This concludes our travel journal for the purplearth 2001 european oddyzee. We appreciate the many messages of praise, kindness and encouragement we’ve received along the way; and we hope that more people are encouraged to embark on adventures of their own.

The rest of the world is not as scary as some people want us to think.