Sept. 4,2009                              
Even though it is September already, I'm writing about the trip I took a few weeks ago. I went to Texas on the Amtrak train.  On August 14, 2009, I caught the Amtrak train out of Seattle.  There is no direct train from Seattle to Texas, so you have to switch trains.  There are two routes you can take.  One is to go from Seattle to Los Angeles, and switch trains in LA.  The other way is to go from Seattle to Chicago and switch trains in Chicago. 

There are several reasons why the latter route worked better for me.  For one thing, I have family in California and have been on the Coast Starlight on numerous occaisions.  But I'd never been on the Empire Builder from Seattle to Chicago.  So I'd be seeing a part of the country that I'd never seen before.  Getting there is half the fun.  Also, it looks like the Texas Eagle train has a holdup in San Antonio that promised to be a real nuisance.  Catching the Texas Eagle in Chicago avoids that delay.  It's also cheaper to go to Chicago than to do the LA route.  The Coast Starlight train leaves Seattle at 10 am, and the Empire Builder train leaves Seattle at 4:45 in the afternoon.  Since I'm not a morning person, this too works better for me. 

But the Empire Builder train doesn't make good connections with the Texas Eagle train.  So you have to spend a night in Chicago, then catch the train to Texas the next day.  That's OK.  It means you can take a good shower at the hotel, before heading down to Texas.  Technically they have showers on Amtrak trains, but they are so small that I worry about priavcy and I don't feel comfortable using them.  So it is actually a good thing to have a night's layover in Chicago.  

Of course, I had a roomette.  There is no way I can sleep on those stupid seats.  I could not cope with even one night on coach, let alone two (or three after the Texas train's night is counted in).  Sleeping on a train seat was a hardship when I was twenty, now that I'm in my early 50's it's an impossibility.  I either get a bed somehow, or I don't go.  

I love to look out the train window and watch the scenary go by.  The train goes through some very wild and beautiful places.  I got to go through Montana.  Now there's a beautiful state.  

I was hoping that I'd get to see a bigfoot (AKA sasquatch) when I looked out the train window.  Since we were going through some really wild places, it seemed that it might happen.  The mountains we passed through seemed to be perfect habitat for bigfoots.  I don't know if bigfoots exist or not, but I hope they do, because I think they're really neat.  It would be a little scary to see one face to face, because they're so big.  But to look out a train window and see one, or better yet, a whole family of them, kids and all, that would be way cool.  It would be safe from a train window. They can't get you if you're in a train.  Not that they'd want to, but they're so big you naturally think of stuff like that.    

So I prayed to God: 'Dear God, I don't know if you created bigfoots or not.  But if you did, could you arrange for me to see them from the train window when we pass through the wild places.'  I didn't get to see any bigfoots at all.  Not going to Texas and not coming back from Texas either.  

The second night out, when the train was going through the North Dakota farmland and prairies (probably not bigfoot country), I was eating dinner in the dinning car.  I mentioned that I had prayed to see bigfoots out the window, but it didn't seem to be happening.  Oh well, there was still the return trip.  A women at my table said that you'd never see a bigfoot out the train window, because, and I quote, "bigfoots don't like trains."  She said the noise trains make really upsets and bothers the bigfoots.  They especially hate the sound of the whistle blowing, she said.  The bigfoots take a hike far away when they hear a train coming in the distance.  "Oh, so that's why I haven't seen them."  "That's why, and you won't see them on the way back either."  

Amtrak seats people together in the dining car who don't know each other.  I never saw this lady again.  It's too bad, because after a few hours, I started to wonder how she knew so much about bigfoots.  So how did she know how bigfoots feel about trains?  

Well, I have to admit, those bigfoots have a point.  Train whistles can be annoying.  I heard it loud in my roomette, which is close to the front of the train.  When I'm trying to sleep, it irritates me.  But I realize that the train has to make noise to let anything or anyone on the track know that it's coming.  Especially when we go through towns, the train has to warn cars crossing the tracks that it's coming.  So I just plug my ears with cotton and go to sleep, knowing the whistle helps prevent a tragedy.  

But what I did see out the window made up for the disappointment of what I didn't see. The mountains of Western Montana were wonderful.  I woke up going through those mountains.  The forests, mountains, and streams were absolutely gorgeous.  I'm told that this is what they call the continental divide, where the rivers and streams can flow towards either the Atlantic ocean or the Pacific ocean.  Just great.  I wish my friends had come along.  They are missing some great scenary.  

The girl in the roomette across the hall got off today at East Glacier National Park.  She's been keeping me company since I first got on.  She said, "Bye, enjoy Texas."  
I said, "I will.  I'm already enjoying Montana."  Later, when we crossed the prairies, I got to see some pronghorn antelope.  The train crew said you can see bears sometimes, but I never did. 

The first night out, I didn't sleep well.  It was the same coming home the last night out.  I figured out why.  When the train goes through the mountaims of Idaho and eastern Washington, they go fast around the curves, causing the centrifical force and extreme rocking to startle me awake.  I'd just drift off to sleep, when it seemed like the train was going to roll over.  It never did, but it felt like it and I'd startle awake.  It was better sleeping when we were on the prairies.  The second night out, I slept like a rock.