Carroll Avenue Station

I’ve never had a chance to see the facility but this is just a typical park and ride station. After my 2 hour ride from Chicago I’m always excited to hear the conductor say «Carroll Avenue».
It’s a plain Jane aka boring place but what more could you ask for for a station to have? Wait maybe vending machines, washroom, possibly indoor waiting station open later. That’s just me though.

The Carroll Avenue Station on the South Shore Line is the quintessential small-​town train stop. I would call it a station, and it technically is, but you hardly realize it when you’re here.
Everything about the station makes you think it’s 1936. There’s the tiny building filled with uncomfortable chairs. There’s the ticket agent who’s neither friendly nor rude. There are the tearful reunions at the tracks.
OK, I made that last one up, but tearful reunions in the muddy parking lot doesn’t sound right. One time when I was visiting South Bend, the train schedule worked out (or didn’t work out) so that I wouldn’t be able to get all the way to South Bend in time to spend time with my dear friend Jen W. So she very generously offered to meet me in Michigan City. This was when Indiana still didn’t have Daylight Saving Time (and it was confusing because the state has two time zones, and one of them does change), and because my friend lived in Granger, she got here an hour early.
Our reunion was grand, and teary on her end. We were so engrossed in our conversation that we didn’t realize she had made a wrong turn on the way back to South Bend.
I really like this station, especially because it reminds me of Jen W. and our Michiana misadventures. OK, they weren’t misadventures, but alliteration is fun when you’re in the Midwest.
Oh, and for you geography buffs, Michigan City, Indiana, is not in the region known as Michiana. How ridiculous is that? About as ridiculous as East Chicago being in Indiana, I would say.