My Engagement on Empire Builder

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rtabern

rtabern

Conductor
Joined
Nov 15, 2006
Messages
1,606
Location
Northwest Wisconsin
On Sunday, January 1, 2012, I got engaged to my girlfriend (now fiancee) in the diner aboard Amtrak's Empire Builder as it was passing through my hometown of Northbrook, IL.

We met back in college (1998-99) and dated for a year... including living together in an apartment directly across from the Walnut Ridge, AR depot. We ended up going our seperate ways... with me moving to Indiana in 2001 and then Wisconsin in 2003 to follow my career in journalism... and she got married to someone else and had 2 kids.

Her husband died early last year... and we started talking again. E-mails turned into 3-4 hour phone calls... and finally a lot of trips between Wisconsin and Arkansas on the Texas Eagle, City of New Orleans, and Illini/Saluki.

I knew I wanted to propose on the Empire Builder because that's my "home train"... lived along its route for the first 18 years of my life... and also for the last 9 years. I coordinated things with 4 friends who worked for Amtrak -- and pulled it off perfectly. Kandace and her kids thought we were aboard to be interviewed for my new book "Outside the Rails: A Rail Route Guide from Chicago to St. Paul, MN"... but that wasn't the case!! :)

Enjoy! No wedding date set yet -- we're still trying to figure out how to incorporate trains in to the wedding reception.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_7DQUYESQc
 
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:hi: Congrats Rob! Glad she understands your Love of Trains! We'll be able to add you to the list of AUers who took their Honeymoon on the Rails! :wub:
 
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Congratulations! that was very sweet. :rolleyes:
 
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That's fantastic!!! Congratulations
biggrin.gif
 
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My heartiest congratulations from Eric. ( greatcats ) Writing you from Hawaii. You may have read that I took the Empire Builder in November, one of my best Amtrak trips ever.
 
Congrats, Robert! :)

And thanks to the other Robert for helping to set things up and playing a role too! Amtrak may have to consider him for their next commercial now. :lol:
 
Shawn Ryu said:
Congrats! Is she a big train fanatic too? :giggle:
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She never really did the "train thing" until we got back together... guess I can't blame her since the closest Amtrak station is 40 miles away (either WNR or PBF) and the trains come through at horrible hours.

However, we did a trip on #421 from Chicago to Palm Springs, CA (3 nights in a bedroom) on #421 a couple of months ago and she loved it. She also took #21/22 and #390/393 several times between Arkansas and IL to visit me in the past few months and loved it vs. driving boring I-57 and Chicago. We took her kids on the Great Dome #10031 from CHI-JOL on 1/1 and they want to ride it to Michigan next weekend.

And, I get to keep all my train posters up (advantage of owning my condo... LOL)
 
Jim G. said:
Congratulations...Wishing you many years of happiness.
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Way to go Robert!

I too proposed to my wife on a train. "Hid" the ring in her dessert, she obviously found it, and jumped up, ran out of the PV we were in, and ran through the train telling everyone. I sat there alone in the PV, and finished her dessert.

Later on, we got married on the train too. It was not Amtrak, but a dinner train, called The EnterTRAINment Line, that ran for years on the Maryland Midland shortline.

Was that "Trog" in the diner with you?

Once again, Congratulations!
 
Robert, the scientist and I met you on your Tehachapi run last year [we got off CS for CZ, so missed the loop]. You really added to our enjoyment of that trip, and we learned so much from you. So in our considered opinions, your new lady is a very lucky lady! Congratualions and best wishes for some very happy training together!
 

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