It's been a long time since I've done this

Since I rode the L late at night. Well it's never been later than 7PM or maybe even 7:30. I like to keep it rare if I can you never know what'll happen if you do it long enough. Though it should be OK if you're doing this during rush hour which by that point is slowly winding down anyway.

It was made much nicer because it rained tonight with an unusual thunderstorm during the month of January. It was strange to find lightning streaks in the sky during the winter, it's not even March or April yet so it's very unusual. Just think we had our cold snap last week and by the end of the past weekend all the snow that had covered the ground had melted.

I took a ride all the way from Evanston back to the south side. I rode the Evanston Express for the first time (or I should call it the CTA Purple Line). Almost like I was on a Metra train and I got lucky enough to catch an express train. It was an express making no stops between Howard and Belmont. That was certainly the coolest part of the trip because I'd get irritated at having to make all stops on the Red Line between Howard and Belmont.

This is one way I have figured it. From Howard to Belmont on the Purple Line express it's express. After Belmont the Purple Line express is more or less a local or all-stops train. The Red Line is local between Howard and Belmont but is basically an express between Belmont and Fullerton. You know I have to admire how they configured the north side L, they certainly had some forsight in what they were doing.

Anyway I saw lightning and bright white lights emanating from the train's third rail. Something you'd have trouble catching during a bright sunshining day but it can be seen during the day. This was an interesting night hopefully nights like this will be rare.