My visiting teaching partner drove me to the King Street station on a Friday afternoon. She deserves major brownie points for that, believe me. They boarded us and departed on time. I had a window seat and from Seattle to Leavenworth I shed quite a few tears, thinking about trips Neal and I had taken together through that same area. After Leavenworth it wasn't as poignant and I was okay. Except my Kindle quit. It had 90% of the reading material I brought along for the entire time - the scriptures, a couple of good mysteries and a book I had loaded especially for my granddaughter. It just quit and wouldn't come back up. That meant the only thing I had to read was the May 2011 Ensign.
Inserting rave for Kindle: When I got to my daughter's I called Kindle tech support to complain about the problem. Tech support is in Costa Rica by the way. The woman walked me through several tries to get it running again and finally had me plug it in and leave it. She said she'd call back in 2 hours. Exactly two hours later she called, we tried a few more things and it worked! It's been working ever since so I was very relieved.
I read and dozed. We were sidetracked several times for freight trains and then in Havre Montana there was a delay while six Border Patrol officers questioned some people in our car. Eventually we moved on but in the very next town more officers came on and escorted two women off the train. Given a choice, I wouldn't want to be stranded in Shelby Montana but that's where their trip ended that day. We also had to wait for an ambulance to meet the train in one town but it stopped by a different part of the train so I didn't see what happened. From Havre east we could see lots of standing water in fields - evidence of a lot of snow melt and rain. The train had to go very slooooowly through those sections.
I was able to text Anne Marie and keep her apprised of the delays and a possible ETA. They drove from their home to Devils Lake, checked into a motel, went swimming and were waiting for me to arrive. I finally got there about 3:30am and crashed until 7:30. (Expensive place for a 4 hour nap!) We had breakfast at the motel (homemade waffles anyone?) and then we all got ready for church. The building where Anne attends church is in Devils Lake so it made sense to spend the night, attend church together, bless the baby and then head home - 68 miles north.
Return trip (Devils Lake to Seattle)
Because the train was supposed to leave DLake at 6:30am, Anne and the baby and I drove down the night before, went to a Relief Society activity, did some shopping and stayed overnight in the motel. In the morning I checked Amtrak status online - they were two hours behind schedule coming from Chicago, but I was so nervous about missing the train that we headed to the station and sat there visiting until the train finally arrived. Three hours late. We could have slept at home, sent Celestina off to school, driven down that morning and been on time. But who knew? Apparently there had been a brush fire along the tracks so they had to wait and determine if the tracks were safe. From Devils Lake west there was a lot of water. A LOT OF WATER. Telephone poles were down, the tracks were submerged, felt like we were crossing a lake instead of fields. Like that.
After the gravel reinforcement we crept across the "lake" and on to the next station. Much of the area we passed was flooded and it didn't look like any planting would happen very soon in those fields. From Devils Lake across North Dakota and the eastern half of Montana there was serious flooding - even worse than a few days before.
I fell asleep now and then but the train was so crowded that we didn't have the luxury of two seats to ourselves so the only option was to recline the seat, raise the footrest and pretend it was a nap in a family room recliner. Except for the rocking of the train, the noise of other passengers, etc, that was how it felt.
My last seat partner was an interesting young man. He was a commercial fisherman who worked in Alaska but grew up on Vashon Island. His life had been one of adventures and bad choices, but he was intelligent and articulate. We had a long talk about how people treat each other and what happens when others make judgements without knowing the full story. He told of things people had said to his family when his parents divorced and how that affected them at a vulnerable time. He had a lot of anger bottled up inside and apparently my willingness to listen to him allowed him to talk about much of that. I just listened and nodded and felt sorry for this man and his choices. He had lots of tattoos and said he was planning that his next one would be a CTR crest, or maybe an Angel Moroni. That led to an entirely different conversation. After Edmunds there were only a few people left on the train so we could have several seats if we wanted to spread out, but my seat partner continued to sit by me and talk. I have no idea what will happen in his life, but I hope that he felt better after sharing his heartaches.
Arrival in Seattle was 3 hours late. Considering the fact that we had been 5 hours behind schedule at one point, they must have made up two hours overnight. My visiting teacher met me at the station and drove me home. I'm so grateful for friends!
1 comment:
And I thought it was bad when my smart phone with my books died while waiting at the DMV!
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