I spent my last two years of college taking the train downtown from the Route 59 stop. My mom would drop me off, usually after I'd get off of work at 4:00 p.m., or for a super early 7:00 a.m. train on a Saturday, and I was always sucking the life out of every last minute to have my mom drive at NASCAR speed down the winding, industrial park roads that lead to the Route 59 train station.
Not much has changed.
7:30 a.m. We were planning to get on an early train on Saturday morning. This will give us all day to do all of the super fun things I had on my itinerary for the day, starting with getting to the Sears Tower Skydeck just before opening.
COUGH HACK COUGH. I turn off the alarm clock and declare we will take the 11:28 a.m. train instead. I'm still sick and doing the self-guided architectural tour I had planned was no longer an attractive idea. We plan to leave the house at 10:50 a.m.
10:45 a.m. I'm still doing my hair, discover I am out of hairspray, and proceed to have an embarrassing hissy fit over this.
10:50 a.m. I yell to my husband, "we're taking the 2:28 train now!" He walks the dog.
I manage to style my hair with a mini bottle of some crappy, sticky, cheap hairspray that I found in our linen closet, take a deep breath, and take my sweet time putting on my make-up since I have tons of time now.
12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. I sigh loudly a few times because I'm bored. I declare that I'm ready to go when he is, and maybe we should hang out at Starbucks for awhile.
1:30 p.m. Arrive at Starbucks on Route 59 at 95th Street, a good 20 minutes from the station. Order chocolate chai. We both complain about work. I'm a chronic time-checker, but for some reason I didn't have the urge to do it. Meanwhile, my husband is texting friends and checking his fantasy football line-up, on his phone, which has a clock...
2:10 p.m. My husband announces the time. I grab my shit and flee to the car.
2:20 p.m. We have 8 minutes and everyone is out shopping today among the congested, construction laden, Route 59/Aurora Avenue corridor.
2:25 p.m. My husband drives recklessly through the Best Buy parking lot, cruises across the Meijer lot and onto Liberty Street.
2:27 p.m. We pull into the mostly empty parking lot and park.
2:28 p.m. Train pulls into the station. We have ZERO time to pay for parking. I jump out of the car and, without looking behind me, start running for the train. My husband follows. I figured that he runs faster than me, so he's totally going to bypass me.
We got on the train, got a few dirty looks from the conductor, and after about 5 minutes I could breathe normally again. We took the risk of not paying for parking knowing that a ticket would be about the same as if we had paid for parking downtown. Worth the risk.
Sometime after 11:00 p.m., we pull back into the Route 59 station from downtown and cross our fingers that there isn't a ticket on the car.
Walking past the pay boxes, I see a sign that states,
"FREE PARKING AFTER 5:00 P.M. AND ON WEEKENDS."
Lessons to be learned at Route 59:
*You CAN make it here when in a rush
*Plenty of parking on the weekends
*Parking is extremely limited on weekday mornings, with something like a 5-year waiting list for a parking pass
*Seats are always available on inbound trains, since this is the second stop on the route. read more