Day 4-5

Our first day started at 6 am with a quick swim in the pool then a read and rush out the door to get to the train station. Once in the station, we had access to the priority lounge because we had a sleeper car for this next leg. We waited there for a while, had a goodbye hot dog,

and then headed to our cabin.

It was small but much more comfortable than the alternative business or coach seats that we could have had. As we sat, we watched Chicago, our home for the past few days, fly by with a gorgeous clarity. We passed through 7 states along the way, in order, Illinois Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and finally Washington. Many of these ended up blurring together, especially North Dakota and Montana which were both vast plains of snowy waste lands...

While riding the train,

watched movies that took place on trains (the great train robbery, silver streak)

we read,

And we stared stoically out the window. For every meal, we ate in the dining car except for the last where we asked to have our dinner brought to our roomette. When Dining on a train, they try to sit four to a table, so by definition, you sit with strangers, cool in concept but slightly uncomfy at times. We met some interesting people.

            The first family, or couple, where from Portland, and were staying in a full room. They seemed to know a lot about the area that we were traveling across pretty well. The next morning for breakfast we sat with a photographer who worked for upper management of Amtrack, and a woman whose husband used to work for the upper management of Amtrack but now had retired. Both of them were nice, the photographer said that she had always enjoyed trains so when the job opportunity came up her husband urged her to apply even though it would most likely entail a move to the main headquarters in DC. But when she got the job they let her live anywhere she wanted, as long as she would go on the trains they needed her on when they needed her. She was on this train making an immersive experience for the heads of the company to know what it is like to spend the journey on the trains. The other women were from Portland, she knew the photographer because her husband had worked in upper management and had recently retired.

That same day during lunch we sat with another couple who lived in a small town about two hours outside of Portland. the train was the quickest (cheapest) way to get to there son for a visit who had just moved to a town in North Dakota for a job. They were probably the best conversationalists we had sat with and asked us many questions about our trip and the journey that it entailed, they had no clue what an air bnb was, which was fine, and had a completely audible whisper conversation about it in which the man said,

"We've stayed in a BnB before"
 wife said "Not an air bnb, just a bnb"
"well I really can't see the difference, it is just a bnb with a new name, no need to get fancy about it"

For our dinner, we ate in. Which was CLEARLY the right choice. as we ate we passed through Glacier national park...

This morning we went to breakfast and dined with a painter/chef/salesman/snowboarder from Florida, and a Painter from the Seattle area. The man from Florida was quite strange in that his reason for being in Montana (where the train picked him up) changed with almost every sentence. It first started with I have been traveling the country by train stopping in random places just to explore. Then soon became, I was there for work as a painter painting a factory for toxic chemicals. Then when the other man was talking about how he was snowboarding in Montana the man from Florida said that he was in Montana on a snowboarding trip. Finally, when we were talking about southern food, he mentioned that back in Florida he worked in a restaurant as a head chef who cooked gator. The other man was also a painter and seemed much more sincere, he talked a lot about painting and the plastic sheets for painting and where he painted.

Finally,

we arrived in Seattle, ready to start our newest adventure...