Sunday February 2 - train to St. Paul/Minneapolis

Well Thursday started well enough, checked out of the hotel and the car was on time. Managed to change my tickets so I am staying a bit longer in Minnesota and then straight through to Chicago rather than stopping at Milwaukee. I also booked my trips to East Lansing, Cleveland, Buffalo and finally, Bryan.

At the station, as well as checking my big bag I was able to leave some of my hand luggage while I found a coffee shop. I found a good one, very popular so always a good sign. I spent two and a half hours over two cups of coffee and finished my book (paper back) so left it there. Back to the station in good time and then we were informed that there was a landslide between Seattle and Everett so we would travel by bus there. About forty people boarded the bus and it was in rush hour traffic so of course, red lights across all lanes on our side and white lights in the lanes to our left, I sure would not like to drive those roads every day!

When we arrived in Everett there was no train! However, we did not have to wait too long for it to arrive. The train was in Seattle but could not take passengers on the alternative track so that is why we had to have a bus to Everett. The Empire Builder actually starts from Portland as well as Seattle and the two parts get joined up at Spokane into one long train!

We get the choice of a small bottle of champagne or some apple cider when we get on board in the sleeper area,  not a bad way to start the trip! We left about thirty minutes behind schedule so not too bad and had a very nice dinner seated with three other people so all in all a pleasant experience.

Three and a half hours into our journey and we made our first stop at Leavenworth, it was snowing and there was snow on the ground as well, probably a couple of inches or so. It will obviously only get worse the further on the train travels! We had a short stop at Wenatchee so I took the opportunity to stretch my legs, some snow on the ground but not that much, was about 30 degrees so not that cold either!

I managed about five hours sleep and woke to a white landscape on Friday. As we travelled on it was obvious there had been some heavy snowfalls in some places, especially as we neared Glacier National Park. Many of the peaks are just under ten thousand feet high and it provided such a beautiful landscape clothed in white. One small river we crossed over was nearly all frozen over!

Montana is, like Ohio, very flat and I imagine grows a variety of crops such as wheat, at least that is what it could be from the stubble left in the ground. It must be a very harsh life for the farmers and their families at this time of the year. We stopped at a place called Havre, and I watched this small tractor drive onto the station, I figured I would like to drive it and a woman actually got out of the cab!!

The journey goes on, mile after mile, we make up some time then we lose time due to goods trains. While we were having dinner we were stopped for 40 minutes,  this occurred on the border between Montana and North Dakota. As it was now dark we started to see fires in pits as the gases are burnt off the oil. I did not realise there was a large oil caldera under this part of the US and Canada. By the time I made up my bed about 10 pm (CT) we were two and a half hours behind schedule.

I set my alarm for 6.15 am just in case, well I need not have bothered! We still had not reached Fargo, five hours away from my destination. I had an early breakfast still in the dark but once the day dawned the sun came up and it turned out to be a lovely day. The train stopped for some while, a goods train up ahead had broken down! Finally, that was repaired but the second goods train then had to wait for a new crew as they were over their twelve hour limit!

We eventually arrived at a very snowy Fargo, eight hours behind schedule! I cannot imagine what it is like to live with so much snow around presumably for weeks and temperatures that would freeze rivers and keep the snow lying around. As the train was now running very late, all passengers were to be provided with dinner tonight, the coach passengers will be fed Beef stew! Not for me though, thankfully! 

For my New Zealand friends, you cannot imagine what it has been like to have ridden all day with snow on the ground outside, certainly was a learning curve about how people live out here in the winter. Also, the amount of freight and oil train traffic that uses these lines and holds the passenger trains up! This happens because much of the track is single lane so the train we were on had to wait where there was either double lane or a special siding for the other train to come down the line.

 On Saturday, we arrived in St. Paul/Minneapolis at 4.40 pm, instead of 7.05 am!!! Deb and Larry were there to pick me up and we went first of all to see the Ice Sculptures, these were amazing and are carved out of 300 lb blocks of ice, all part of the Winter Festival. There was also an ice bar set up!!

Today, for example, there is to be a marathon - cross country skiing, there are miles of trails throughout the area and it is very popular.

Although Larry said yesterday was the warmest day for a while (20 degrees) it sure felt cold to me, at least it was not in the negative numbers!

It was not too late when I went to bed as I needed to catch up on my sleep. Guess who decided to share my bed??? None other than Dollyanna, many of you will remember her. Well, she is very friendly but my she is quite a big girl. There are three other Persians here so plenty of kitty loving to be had. Outside the snow is fairly thick on the ground and there is little chance of a thaw just yet. It looks so pretty but I can see why people want winter to go away!!

Later on today there is a lunch with a few people from the area including Connie and Joe who are taking me to there place tomorrow. Superbowl day, go Hawks, go Broncos, I just hope it is a good close game!!

Just wanted to say how much I enjoyed lunch today and meeting some new people, Joanne, Mary, Julie and Patty as well as catching up again with Sandy, Connie, Joe, Larry and Deb. I want to give many thanks to Joanne for the two books of her conversations and to Connie for some clothing that will be very useful over the next few weeks!! I have to admit that I watched KittyBowl rather than SuperBowl and it was very enjoyable. Congratulations to the SeaHawks, Seattle will be a mad house this week, I was very surprised at the scoreline!!

Oh, and Dollyanna is on my bed - again!!!