Well, the truth of the matter is that I couldn’t face my first Christmas as an orphan without seeing my sister, and she couldn’t come to Illinois, so off I went to Oregon.
Did I mention that I love trains? Forget about taking shoes off in an airport security line, I love to snuggle into an Amtrak sleeper car and listen to the clickety clack while I peek out the window at the U.S. of A.
So… expecting a relaxing 2-day ride on the Amtrak Empire Builder, I boarded on Sunday afternoon, December 14th, ready for fun.
The sleeper car attendant, Dan, was A Plus, Number One, Grade A the Best. (He told me to disguise his name if I had anything bad to say, but I don’t!) Wait till you read what happened on my way home, Dan!
Have you ever traveled across North Dakota in winter when it’s 30 to 50 BELOW zero? Well, I hadn’t, and the train didn’t seem to want to! First of all, it looked like Siberia outside! I kept thinking, they could film Dr. Zhivago here and no one would know the difference!
Things kept going wrong with ol’ Bessie the train, and we got further and further behind schedule.
THEN, a freight train derailed in Montana spilling grain here, there and everywhere and completely blocking the way for both eastbound and westbound trains.
We actually had to take a bus from the westbound train, around the mess, to the eastbound train. The eastbound passengers did the reverse.
That was an adventure I could have done without, because the bus was freezing cold. The thing that made it bearable was the silly joking between Mike (a first time train rider… poor guy) and me. Hey, Mike! How is your new life in Portland going?? Did you ever warm up?
We got onto our “new” train and continued west, but a storm was brewing, and I don’t mean snow.
By the time we got to Spokane, WA, we were so far behind schedule that the Amtrak powers that be decided to stop right there and try to save time by dumping us BACK on to busses for the rest of our trip!! NOT fun! More jokes with Mike, thank goodness, and some great scenery during the final hour to Portland kept me from becoming a very unpleasant soul.
Did I mention that Dan was great? He was, and he did his very best to make things as pleasant as he possibly could for me, Mike and our other sleeping car companion, Bob.
OK… I had a great 2 days with my sister and brother in law. We watched childhood home movies to cry to and silly comedy movies to laugh to. We ate chex mix, worked side by side, and hugged a lot.
Friday it was time to head home. Ha! When I got to the Portland station, I found out that due to more freezing weather and more freight car derailments (hey, guys, slow down!) my train would be about 8 hours late. whooo hoooo
Sooooo I settled into the waiting room with my laptop and coffee. To make a long story short and a short trip long, I was due home on Sunday at 3 in the afternoon, but actually arrived on Monday at 9 in the morning. No busses, though, so for me I was thrilled to get extra train time….
Now it’s Tuesday night. Julie and I have finished our Christmas orders… I HOPE… and I’m just about to start looking at cookie recipe books. Our tree is up, the laundry is going, it’s snowing outside, and that’s all folks. All aboard!!