The Empire Builder

Sat, Aug 19--Ed dropped us off at the train station, and we proceeded to inquire about our reservations to upgrade to sleeping class at the counter. There was some difficulty with them, and we stood at the counter for literally 45 minutes. Finally it was all sorted out, we checked our baggage and boarded. We reserved a roomette which was pretty cozy, and we got complimentary champagne, let the perks of sleeper class begin! We got views of Puget Sound and Mt Baker a little while after departing Seattle. We also went through the Cascade mountain range, and a 7.79 mile tunnel. On this segment of the train a couple of Rails and Trails people boarded and talked about sights that we were going by. Their commentary was interesting, but monotonic and thus somewhat annoying. We both had bland steaks for supper, but at least it was included with our sleeping car accomodation. Our attendant made up our beds and I took to the 2 foot wide upper berth for the night. The ride was a little rocky, but luckily there were safety straps should i roll out.

Sun, Aug 20--We woke up in Montana, near Glacier National Park, still in mountains. We had breakfast and as the train continued on the scenery changed from mountainous to rolling hills sometimes with mountains in the distance. This truly is big sky country, and it seems to go on forever. We had lunch in the dinning car again, and in the afternoon participated in a complimentary wine and cheese event with Washington wines and Minnesota cheeses. We sat with some people who had been travelling as long as us through Texas and the southwest, then up through California to Seattle, and then the Empire Builder. They said the Sunset Limited was 9 hours behind schedule because the freight trains take major precedence over Amtrak. On the Empire Builder, which is on Burlington North Santa Fe tracks they are a bit kinder, and typically our train stays on schedule. I watched Walk the Line in the afternoon as we rolled by more hill, fields, cows, and vast openness. We ate supper (seems like all we did on this train was eat!) with some New Yorkers who had come on this train to Seattle then took a cruise to Alaska and were returning home. We crossed the border into North Dakota, which looked pretty similar to Montana. We strectched our legs in Minot, ND, and back on the train watched another movie before bed. We traded berths this time, so Matt got to experience the small, wobbly top bunk, whilst I got the extra 4 inches and extra stability the bottom bunk provided.

Mon, Aug 21--I slept very well, and ended up missing Minnesota entirely, not getting up til 10:30am! We had slept through breakfast as well, which was fine with all the food we'd been having lately. We did catch a breif glimpse of the Mississippi River, which makes up part of the border. We were ready in time for lunch, and dined whilst riding through Wisconsin. Now the scenery has changed, it looks a lot more lush, more trees, more civilization than most of the Empire Builder's path. It was only a little while longer til we reached Chicago, signalled by the Sears Tower's appearance, and Union Station. We are now staying on the Gold Coast, can see the Sears Tower from our window, and are contemplating Giordano's deep dish pizza for supper. It feels good to be home :) heehee...

I'm having a little trouble uploading pictures, so they'll be added later.