The last few days have been a roller coaster ride... on the Empire Builder. I didn't sleep well Tuesday night. I was not quite used to the bed and the Amtrak steak, which had been recommended by another passenger, was tougher than an MMA fighter. Wednesday morning, I went to breakfast. All the meals are included in the price of the sleeper room, so I ended up eating every meal for two days in the dinning car. The food's OK, but the fun part is getting to meet so many people. They always sit four to a table, so every meal is with someone new. Everyone is nice, except on this Wednesday morning, I sat with three people from North Dakota, which is going through an oil boom due to this new extraction method called fracking. It's horrible for the environment, and as a left coast liberal, of course I had to mention that. I was quickly reminded that people have to feed their families. "No doubt" I calmly said, and had my dose of humility to go along with my french toast. You quickly learn to keep your opinions to yourself while on the road. All that aside, I meet some really nice people in the dinning car, and it was one of the best parts of the train ride.
I spent most of Wednesday in my roomette, enthralled with making HDR versions of some of my photographs. I can't wait to show them. I am actually doing two versions of each because I'm trying to decide which of the two leading HDR software tools I want to keep. After processing about 20 photos, twice, I still can't decide. But it was enjoyable, just looking out the window, eating in the dinner, and working on my photos.
After rolling through North Dakota and Montana the sun was beginning to set, when I realized that we would be going through the real scenic part of the trip after nightfall. I was bummed, I had really been looking forward to seeing Glacier National Park from my window. I asked Curtis, our train attendant, and yup, it will be dark for that, if you were taking the east bound Empire Builder you could see it. Greeaaat. I reluctantly went to bed, knowing I was going to miss something incredible.
I slept good, and woke up at 6:20, which was perfect timing. Breakfast service was short and early because we were due into Seattle at 10:30AM. As I ate with a sweet young couple from Montana, the sun came up and we were in the mountains, surround by stunning views, trees dusted with snow, winding rivers and white covered peaks. It was everything I had hopped this part of the journey to be. After breakfast I went back to my roomette, and chatted with the elder couple in the room next to mine (we had lunch together the day before) and snapped hundreds of glorious pictures.
We ended up being put on a bus to Seattle at Everett , some fuss about a mud slide blocking our train. Seattle was very beautiful and just got added to my list. I arrived in Vancouver on schedule and walked to my hotel, it's a beautiful day and only a mile and half from the station. More on Vancouver tomorrow.
Most interesting site of the day: (Wednesday) A huge frozen lake in North Dakota, with cars and trucks parked in the middle of it. They were ice fishing.
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