[Kalon] We arrived in Whitefish, Montana with several hours to spare before our train arrived around 9 pm. The drive down through Radium Hot Springs was uneventful: there was obviously a cycling event of some sort going on as people were riding up the parkway into the cross-Canada highway, and there was a minimal aid station that we saw. A pretty long uphill climb, but the grade for the cyclists was not bad.
We did notice a number of barren areas with dead trees still standing. While some of these might have been due to fire, the absence of charring (and downed trees) suggests this was rather the result of beetle infestation. There is some speculation that climate change is facilitating this. The drive was still lovely, but these areas were sad to see.
We slept in our train room and woke about when the train was paralleling the Columbia river: this is one of the nicer parts of the journey. During the night the train had split with half of it going to Seattle and our half going to Portland. Since the Empire Builder connects in Seattle with the Coastal Starlight to Los Angeles, we could have exchanged more train miles (with a routing through Seattle) for the 4 hour wait we had in Portland before the Starlight arrived. Not sure how much more this would have cost.
After boarding the train and getting settled in we watched a DVD ("Breaking Away") about some town kids in a college town (Bloomington, Indiana). Then dinner in the dining car. There were always two options for eating: the dining car or the lounge car. In the dining car you share tables with other passengers, and that was generally enjoyable as we shared our traveling stories. In the lounge car the menu was more limited but Karen and I could eat alone which was also pleasant.
The next morning when we awoke the train was in northern California and the scenery became less interesting. Later in the day we approached Santa Barbara and passed by Refugio Road where the "Sherpa" fire was still burning. Lots of smoke but I didn't see much by way of aerial tankers so was thinking the fire was coming under control. A day or two before, the highway and the coastal train were closed because of the fire, and we had been speculating what the train might do if the route was still closed (disembark passengers at Paso Robles and bus them south to Santa Barbara and Los Angeles?)
And so our trip ended and soon enough we were back home.
[Karen] We said goodbye to Walter and Mary and Mary Lydia who kindly stayed to drive her parents home and wended our way to Whitefish where I tried to do a bit of repacking but not enough to prevent my having to continually search through my luggage to find what I wanted. We have now slept in every roomette with bath combination possible... Worst - Room E; Best - Room C which is slightly larger than Room B, with room A minimally better than E. After sleeping in real beds for 6 nights it was hard to get used to sleeping on the train beds again. Kalon had the worst of it as he slept on the bunk bed with straps which were to prevent his falling out. We had a 4+ hour layover in Portland before boarding our final train home - the one we watch for as we have a glass of wine in the evening. We were amused to talk with someone else who does the same including counting the number of train cars!
As walking thru the cars is a bit of a careening journey for me if the train has not stopped, and the train doors are difficult to keep open because of their weight, Kalon always had to shepherd me thru and fro for every meal. He finally agreed to bring me back a croissant for breakfast to which he added some lovely strawberries and it was also possible to bring back a salad for lunch so that was two less ricochet journeys. Dinner demanded that I make my way thru two and half cars to a table in the dining car. The car hostess did take pity and put us at a table closer to the door. We had discovered on the way out to Glacier that the Parlour car was one car closer to our sleeper but it had filled up with reservations from non sleeper car passengers and so we had to make the longer journey on our way back to SB. It was with great relief to pile our suitcases into the back of the truck which we had left parked in the train station lot for the ten days we were gone (thinking it would be less of a target for theft) and a great joy to pull into the driveway. Home! a Queen size bed with a comfortable mattress! and our dear niece Karen Christensen to welcome us home. I believe my romance with traveling by train has ended. So perhaps my traveling days are over. But having ocean views and an apartment to welcome visiting friends and relatives is not a bad end to reach. Ciao!
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