So hi. Let me preface this article by saying that my friend Amy and I spent half of our spring break this year in a Chicago suburb visiting our friend Katie. All three of us thought it would be a good idea to take the train into the city to see the Willis Tower and the Bean (because, I mean, who doesn't love to take a mirror pic in the Bean?). While at the station in the morning, I noticed that this particular train goes all the way to Milwaukee (remember that, it's important) and I mentioned it to Katie and Amy, but they didn't seem to find it as interesting as I did. While the ride to Downtown went perfectly, it was coming back that was the problem.

Alright, so the actual ride back to Katie's suburb was fine, but the end was something else. So we get to our stop and the conductor comes on and was like “we are now arriving at our last stop.” So like normal people, we get up and start heading down the stairs because we were sitting on the top level of the train. But just as we get to the doors, THEY CLOSE ON US!! The man that got off just before us turns around to see the three of us trapped inside of the train and starts laughing at us! I start immediately begin to laugh as well because I’m weird and laugh in these kinds of situations, but Katie, who is on the phone with her aunt starts freaking out because, like I said, we were trapped inside of a train!

THEN the train starts moving and Katie, remembering that I said this train goes all the way to Milwaukee earlier that morning, screams “WE ARE GOING TO MILWAUKEE, WE HAVE TO JUMP OFF OF THE TRAIN!!!” But the side of the train that Katie was referencing to get off on had a puddle outside it. So not wanting get our shoes wet, I told her it would be better to get off on the other side of the train car that was next to train tracks with running trains on them. No. Obviously that idea was not better.

Katie starts pressing all of these buttons that are in front of the doors that say “open” on them but the doors won’t open. So Amy, who is also freaking out, reads the sign on the door that says “do not lean” and makes the decision to lean on the doors hoping they will open! That doesn't work either. The train suddenly stops and we notice a lever that says “emergency break” on it. We spent way too long trying to decide if our situation was an emergency because I mean, the train had stopped, we just needed the doors to open. We decided that it wasn't what a normal person would call an emergency.

Since the train had stopped though, all three of us are now running through all of these train cars to find someone to get us out! We spot a conductor through one of the door windows and Katie yells at Amy to open the door so we can get to him, but it’s locked! The conductor looks like he’s going to sit down, but he’s not! Amy fills us in by saying “HE’S NOT SITTING DOWN, HE’S PICKING UP GARBAGE!” and we all shout for joy because hopefully he’ll look at us! Amy tries to get his attention by waving and yelling “WE’RE GARBAGE, COME PICK US UP!!” Mind you, I’ve been laughing this entire time, but I completely lost it at this point!

Then we run back to the landing and Katie spots a phone that ~possibly~ goes to the conductor and yells at Amy again (because she knows I’m useless) to pick it up and try and talk to him, so Amy is talking into this phone that doesn’t actually connect to the conductor so she hangs up. Then we go running through the train cars again and an old lady comes up to us and goes “are we at the last stop?” and all of us, in a panic reply “NO, WE’RE GOING TO MILWAUKEE!!” And then, all of a sudden, the conductor shows up looking all perplexed and says, “What are you guys doing?” and Katie replies “We were going to get off at the last stop and right as we were about to step off the train the doors closed!!!” The conductor looks at all of us-- three teenage girls and an old lady-- like we’re crazy and says “Uh, we’re going back to the last stop right now…” We all shout for joy and we went back to our stop and everything was okay.

This all took place within ten minutes.

While most people spent their spring breaks on beaches hundreds of miles away from their homes to have fun, I found a thrill by accidentally almost taking a train (that didn't actually go) to Milwaukee. Next spring break, take an unexpected train trip, it'll give you a rush and a story to tell your family and friends.