West to Portland

Thanks to my experience on the last train, I was pretty confident I would be able to navigate this train. I was on train 27/7 the Empire Builder. This train must have been one of the originals. It was pretty old compared to the train earlier in the day, but still not bad. The facilities were a bit older, and the train cars were not shiny and new, but none of it really detracted from this adventure. We were headed northwest from Chicago through Wisconsin and Minnesota. We continued west through North Dakota and Montana hugging the Canadian border. Once we reached Idaho, we headed southwest to Oregon through Washington State, ultimately stopping on Portland.

There were a lot of Amish on this train. The kids were running back and forth between train cars, I was sitting close to one of the doors, so it became an issue after hearing the doors open and close for hours. In addition, children under 12 were supposed to be accompanied by an adult, but they were often alone. Another rule to keep your shoes on was broken on several occasions. In addition, they brought a sick child with a fever on board potentially putting all passengers at risk. The train attendant came around spraying disinfectant, but I am not sure if it was helpful at all. Another passenger I was standing next to started yelling at one of the Amish adults. The passenger was quite rude and I didn't agree with how he was speaking to another person. I spoke to the Amish man when we were outside and explained how I was feeling. I also told him I was sorry he was spoken to so disrespectfully. When the fresh air break was finished and we were back on board, the children seemed to settle down.

I talked to another Amish couple and they quickly claimed they were not part of the Amish of Minneapolis! They were headed west to do some sightseeing. With every question I asked, the wife would look at the husband for possible approval before answering. We had a meaningful chat and I wished them well. I finally fell asleep, but when I woke, there was an Amish woman asleep in the aisle seat beside me. I couldn't get out of my seat, and hoped she would wake up at some point. After an hour, I had to wake her so I could use the restroom! I felt really bad even though she didn't seem to mind. Before I knew it, the large Amish group departed, and the train car would have few passengers for the remainder of this segment.

KayKay was the train attendant and she stayed fairly busy taking care of her assigned cars. At one point during the trip, I started getting congested, but was not exactly sure what was causing this reaction. Could it be the a/c that they seem to always run on high? Or could it be from some of the food, even though it didn't seem to bother me the prior day. The only other thing it could be air quality and dust. I noticed the vent was quite dirty, so I decided to clean it when I didn't see KayKay for sometime. It really made a huge difference, coincidence or not, it looked a lot better!

I didn't have a seatmate for the majority of my time on this segment of my trip. During the fresh air breaks, I met a few people and learned a bit about them each. A man named Mark was really sweet, and noticed I missed a break. At the start of the next breaks, he would come up to my seat to see if I was headed outside. He was an engineer for the railroad around thirty years. Not the engineer that ran the train, but in the engineering field. He helped build eleven water treatment plants due to legislation put in place in the seventies. Prior to then, trains would just dump their waste onto the ground which would seep into the earth and into waterways. It was always really interesting and enjoyable chatting with him during our short breaks.

I met a woman travelling alone to Whitefish, MT. just sightseeing. She was a married grandmother and nurse from Ohio. She explained that she has taken quite a few of these trips and at each of her stops she would walk around town to various places of interest. She had a real positive vibe and a bubbly personality. Another woman I met was Candy. Sadly, she has lived a troubled life with drugs, run-ins with the law, and poor relationship choices. I found her crying in the vestibule, so I stayed with her. She really needed someone to talk to and a hug. She was able to calm down and think a bit more rationally. She decided to leave the train at an earlier stop for her safety. God bless her.

We were lucky enough to see Glacier National Park before sundown. I went to the crowded observation car for this scenic part of the trip at the urging of the conductor. A woman sitting alone motioned for me to sit down on the other side of her table. I turned and saw a man looking around, so I motioned for him to sit beside me. My two new friends were Jackie and Randy. Jackie was from Minnesota, but was born and raised in Chicago. When she got married and was ready to raise a family, they moved to Minnesota for a better life. Randy was also from Minnesota and going to Idaho to visit his brother for a week. They would drive back with a pit stop for his nephew's graduation. He really looked forward to this visit. His brother has lived in northern Idaho for over 40 years and absolutely loves it. Randy has only one regret, he has yet to see a grizzly bear during his visits! After enjoying this small scenic tour, I went back to my seat.

This leg of my trip was nearly 48 hours. I really enjoyed the interactions with the other passengers and the crew. I spoke with Nikki, one of the conductors. She told me about her job and some of the duties she had to carry out. As if she already knew me, she gave me a Jr Conductor pin when I gave her one of my blog cards! It truly is one of the highlights of my trip! We would get to Portland, and things would start to go downhill.

To Be Continued... Portland to Sacramento