my trouble with blogging on the road

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driving I-70, lewis and clark, national parks, st. louis, travel, travel by car, travel with children, traveling with kids, US travel

 

So, I have found that on this particular trip it has been almost impossible to stop and write down the chronicles of this particular adventure. It has just been all get up, drive for 7 hours, stop to sleep, get up, drive for 7 hours, etc. with very few pauses to collect thoughts and put them down within the annals of this blog. I feel a bit like we’re running a race to see where we can get to fastest only to pause and start the race again. I know my daughter feels this way – “we’re not getting to SEE anything or DO anything interesting!” is the main complaint. And, quite frankly, I agree. We aren’t really stopping to enjoy any one place or another. But mostly that’s the time constraint of a two week vacation time frame for getting across and back so that I am back to my job in time. Having been a teacher for many years being in a job that has a two week vacation package is tough going. So this trip’s journal is mainly going to be a collection of pieces that recounts and reflects with other goodies thrown in for good measure.

Let’s see, we last left you as we were heading out of Indianapolis, Indiana having spent the night in the Pullman car and continuing our journey west…

We first met a relative for breakfast before continuing on I-70 to head towards St. Louis and the Gateway Arch. We ended up stumbling upon the home of the world’s largest Wind Chime, Golf Tee, Rocking Chair, Pencil, curbside Mailbox, and Pitchfork in the small town of Casey, Illinois.

We spent the night catching up with friends and then it was on to St. Louis, Missouri – home of the Gateway Arch, which we could hardly miss going by. We didn’t consider going up in the arch since tickets during the height of the summer months are sold out pretty quickly and it’s hot up there! But we did go into the visitor’s center and we did wader around the base and then took a stroll down along the river, which cut the heat of the day.

 

After exploring the arch and the water we met up with a former student of mine who lives in St. Louis. She gave us a driving tour of Forest Hill Park which was expansive and has an amazing history as well as present. We then decided on lunch and enjoyed conversation and great food at The Fountain on Locust. They make most everything they serve, are vegetarian friendly, and have the smallest ice-cream cone in the world as well as sundae. We celebrated mum’s birthday and then moved on to visit the Louis and Clark Boathouse and Museum.

The Louis and Clark Boathouse and Museum is a bit further down the road from St. Louis, but worth the time and effort to get out there. It’s traditionally where the pair took off on their journey to map out a route west, much unlike our own trek out west! We go there with less than an hour before closing time, but made the most of the museum before getting shooed out by staff – not really. In the boathouse is a replica of the boat Lewis and Clark set off in. You can read more about it, but it was built for the bicentennial four year expedition that recreated the historic journey. They were lovely about letting us wander around and made sure we got the most out of our time before heading out for Kansas City, MO for the night.

 

the road much travelled

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car travel, driving I-70, driving the US, travel, travel by car, travel with children, travel with kids, traveling with kids, US travel

So, we’ve been on the road for a few days now, but this is the first stop that has given me even a moment to write of our adventures so far.

We left on Thursday from Baltimore, Md – home of the National aquarium, home of the Walters Art Museum, and last resting place of Edgar Allen Poe.  We started where I-70 stared and began our adventure westward. This was going to be the big push to get the trip started and we went farther than we had originally intended. We started in overcast skies and moved into driving rain which made the trip longer and feeling a bit treacherous at times – not being able to see the marked lines on the road made driving a little more exciting that I would have liked it to be! We made stops for a stretch and a rest about every 2.5 – 3 hours of driving to get the wiggles out. Our first big stop was to see a friend from university just outside of Columbus, OH. We only had an hour, but it was good to see him in person and to know that there are just some friendships where you can pick up and keep going without lots of drama or guilt for not being the best as keeping up. We then pushed onward to our over night stay in downtown Indianapolis, IN at the Crowne Plaza Hotel at Union Station where they have Pullman cars that have been fitted up as hotel rooms. They were very comfortable, clean, and lots of fun! The hotel is filled with paster statues of various folk from past days of rail travel. The cars each have two rooms in them so they are spacious even if they don’t look much like it. BUT having ridden on Amtrak in one of the more modern sleeper cars, these are glorious! The staff was attentive, but not overly so. It was worth the push forward. The night’s rest was good and we’d all stop over again if given the chance.

After checking out we went to meet a relative (don’t ask me to give specifics, 2nd cousins or something like that) for breakfast.

One of the nice things about this trip is that it is giving us a chance to see folk we haven’t seen in some time. It may not be for long, but it’s nice all the same.

States driven through on day 1: Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, and into Indiana!

riding the rails – last day part two in retrospect…

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#findyourpark, amtrak travel, cross-country travel, find your park, glacier national park, national parks, train travel, travel, travel by train, travel with children, travel with kids

When last we left our three heroines they were returning from a day on the eastern side of GNP having been enjoying an afternoon of water coloring and one entering into the world of Junior Ranger-ship. Now we pick up as they return to the lodge and walk over to the Amtrak station to check the status of their evening train…

Mum went to the window while AEB and I took a look around the station which has quite a display about the Great Northern Railway and in particular the history of the station with the Blackfoot Nation and the park. I was impressed with the array of pictures and artifacts as well as the signboards explaining things. The station may be small, but it packs a lot of history into a small space!
The conversation at the window with the attendant did not seem to be going well so I went over to see what the news was. We were prepared for delays as most local, or at least returning folk told us that the trains never really comes in until 7:00 p.m. or later. I was not prepared for the notice that the train might be in by 3:00 a.m. Did I hear that correctly? 3? A.M.? Uh, okay. What’s happened? Well, what happened was apparently there was a derailment. A freight train, fortunately or unfortunately depending upon your point-of-view, had derailed somewhere east of Glasgow, MT on each side the passenger trains were having to stop, get everyone off, get on a bus, drive around the derailment, get on the train on the other side of the derailment and then carry on their way. So, that was the first bump in the road. 3:00 a.m. was not my first choice for leaving, but one could do it and if we could not re-book into the lodge they had a nice lobby and comfortable sofas to sleep on if there wasn’t some concert or other entertainment going on there. The next one was more difficult, especially for mum who had been planning this trip for years and dreaming of this next bit – the Columbia River Gorge. She had been talking about getting to see it by train, plotting out either getting into the observation car very early or seeing it from the sleeper window, planning what time she would have to wake up so we could all see the beauty of this incredible sight. We would not be seeing the gorge…we would not be seeing it from a train. We were told that to try and get back on schedule the train would take us as far as Spokane, WA where it would dump everyone off, turn around and head back for the next bus load waiting to get around the derailment. What?!? No gorge?!? For me, to watch mum, it seemed as if the whole trip was for nothing. Oh GNP had been great, but the whole reason for taking the train in the first place was to continue on and see the gorge by rail where you’d be right there alongside it and be part of it. The idea of seeing it from a bus felt like a “booby” prize. We talked over our options and decided to take the ride and see where it went. So, crestfallen we went back up to the lodge, took our luggage out and stashed it with the other “stranded” rail passengers’ things and while mum returned the car AEB and I set up camp at a table where she could console herself with a DVD we’d brought along and I with reading and doing a bit of writing. Sigh.
So, a movie later, we went in for supper, after supper it was check with the train – still no sign of it getting in any earlier. Time for bed, such as it could be that night. Now, upstairs on the second floor balcony where there are rooms and a lovely view of the lobby below there was a spa and outside the door of the spa there was a teepee. Yes, that’s right a teepee. We had been in that teepee the night before to check it out and see what it might be like inside. Inside there was a big, I’m talking almost life-size, black bear and two blankets. We thought that Amelia might be able to sleep in the teepee where it was darker and less noisy. It took awhile, but she did finally fall asleep. I slept for a bit and mum dozed on a sofa outside the teepee. In this not so ideal situation and in a not so ideal locale things were made even more not so ideal by the revelers in the lounge. There was to be a wedding over the coming days and folk were starting to arrive. A few adults, who I do not begrudge joy in catching up with old friends over a few drinks, got drunk and in getting drunk got loud and one gentleman seemed to be “holding court” and even after the lounge stopped serving drinks he stayed getting louder and more boisterous with every sip. I’m pretty sure he could be heard behind the doors of the rooms encircling the lobby on that second floor and perhaps even by those on the third. I wished very much to have been around for the morning so I could, in his hungover state, been there to make a loud racket for him to endure. I know this is an unkind thing to think, but thinking is different than doing. And I do hope that anyone reading this will never behave so rudely. Getting drunk is not pretty and the hangover is never worth the effort. At least I’ve never felt great after a drunken night out and always rather regretted the back-talk of the alcohol.
So, not much sleep between mum or myself. I did get out of the teepee earlier than I had set my alarm to find that the train would be getting in at 2:00 a.m. and that a van from the lodge would take us all over at 1:00 a.m. Mum got our girl’s socks and shoes on without waking her, but we rousted her when pulling her out of the teepee to carry her down to the van and the lobby of the station to wait the arrival of the train there. Oh – SO – tired! I hoped, rather than believed, that our room on the train would have the beds made up ready to just fall into them. The train came, the beds were ready for us to fall into and sleep – blessed sleep with no drunken revelers came over us all! We were on our way to Spokane, WA and who knows where next…

riding the rails – last day at GNP in retrospect…

Tags

#findyourpark, amtrak travel, cross-country travel, glacier national park, national parks, train travel, travel, travel with children, travel with kids

following one of the many trails of GNP

So, since I’ve been on this adventure I know how it turns out – that gives me an advantage in the telling of the tale. I can build the suspense and I can drag out the details, or move along quickly as I so choose. Ah, the power of the writer. If I were writing using fictional characters I would have to move as they developed, but here the events have taken place, the characters are set and alive (fortunately not as doomed as Pirandello’s “Six Characters”) and I can tell the truth or create a great fish tale. However, in this case the fish tale might pale with the reality of the day, or rather the evening but you’ll have to wait until I get there!
Another glorious morning! Did we luck out with the weather on this trip. We were prepared for almost any sort of weather knowing that in the mountains things can change rapidly, but we had blue skies and warm weather – and fortunately not as warm as apparently home was

experiencing. We had one day left and the day before had us exploring the side routes around the Saint Mary Visitor Center. I know I posted about the 4th, but we did actually do more than go to the Blackfoot event. We took a short walk up to the old ranger station and found that it was closed, but a volunteer, Sheryl Mink,  was there setting things up for this day’s event which was water coloring and mural work. She told us to come back since she was closed for setting things up and shooing out the mice that had taken up residence during the winter. And really, who can blame the mice for wanting to get out of the cold?!? We took the trail leading to Red Eagle Lake Trail coming off from the old ranger station. It was beautiful and quiet and we sang to keep the bears away for our girl who was a bit worried about them being close by. On the day we had gone into the Trading Post to pick up the car she’d seen the bear bells for sale and asked, “Why would you want to give a bear a bell?” Good question. Why would you? So we sang since the bears aren’t deterred by the bells from what we’ve been told.
It was nice to have a slower paced day with no real need to rush here or there. We did our packing and our checking out since we were anticipating that we’d need to be at
the train station around 6:00 p.m. for our train leaving at 6:45 p.m. to Portland, OR. And once that was done we went back to the ranger station, the hike and just enjoyed the afternoon. We have a feeling that we’ll return to explore other parts of GNP – we haven’t even begun to explore this vast wondrous space. So, up and over to explore and do some painting!

Sheryl put us right to work first on adding a few clouds to the mural for 2012 and then we got to explore water coloring. it was really a nice way to spend an afternoon and it was rather full of people wandering up and into the old ranger station.  AEB had a great time working on two water colors and getting advice from Sheryl about her works and telling her about her field kit with sketch pad, pencils, pens, scissors, sharpener, clipboard, etc. so she could sketch when she felt the desire as we traveled.
We found out that Sheryl’s husband and daughter volunteer up at the visitor center and they come out for the summer to volunteer and enjoy GNP. I wonder if Amelia and I will do the same as she grows and decides what sort of summer adventures to have.
The last thing that happened before heading back to the lodge and turning in the car was that our girl was made a Junior Ranger. As a mum, I should have known to take the camera

for such a proud moment, but I forgot in the excitement of going into the visitor center so our girl could show a ranger her work and tell of her time in the park. The fellow behind the desk asked her if she’d done some hiking and what she’d done while at the park and approved the work in the junior ranger booklet she had worked so hard on filling out. He had her hold up her right hand and make a pledge to care for the park and help protect the wildlife. She felt very solemn doing it and said afterwards that if she had known it was going to be such a great responsibility that she might not have done it, but now that she was a Junior Ranger she was going to take her role seriously. She was given a badge and a sticker that said she’s been hiking. She put the badge on immediately – oh the pride! She wore the badge the rest of the day and would stop and look at it from time-to-time and beam.
Time to head back on winding roads to turn in the car, check on the train status and get ready to head on out and back on the Empire Builder to Portland! This next bit deserves its own post…

riding the rails – gnp: the blackfoot nation

Tags

amtrak travel, cross-country travel, find your park, glacier national park, national parks, the blackfeet nation, train travel, travel, travel with children, travel with kids

Retrospect can be lots of fun. I’ve been enjoying going back over the memories and the photos taken and experiences had over 4 years ago. It’s fun to be reminded of things forgotten and enjoyed…

*****

This playing catch up is tough! We’re doing great things now and yet I still want to get to those things that we’ve done but I had no access to wifi or anyother-fi. I may have to re-think and do double entries for a bit while I continue to allow the soul to be filled with the past and the heart filled with the present, or visa versa, or something like that. At any rate, here are my reflections on day three, July 4th, at GNP…
What a day and what a place! The 4th of July at Glacier. I’m not expecting fireworks – avalanche? forest fire? So what to do? I’ll tell you. The National Park Service has a series of programs in the summer that are put on my members of the Blackfeet Nation. This evening there is a group called the Two Medicine Singers and Dancers (there are a bunch of videos on flickr if you do a search) that are performing tonight through a program created through the park in conjunction with the Blackfoot group. On an aside, we were told that locally they are known as the Blackfeet Indians, which I had never heard before. Growing up I had heard of the Blackfoot Nation, but never Blackfeet and apparently, if you ask someone who is part of the Nation s/he will tell you that s/he is of Blackfoot dissent. I’m not sure where the feet part came in, but I guess it won’t be wrong to keep on saying foot. If I’m understanding it has something to do with making a distinction between the Canadian branch and the USA branch, foot and feet respectively, but all those of the Nation do not consider themselves divided so continue under the foot. Just another way for the White Man to classify and divide I guess. Anyway, I thought going to see the performance would be interesting to see and something that our girl could enjoy as well. It was!
The pictures I took are fairly lousy, but I’ll post a few anyway. We were too far away and the lighting was not good enough for the small pocket camera we took with us on the trip.
It was a good way to be reminded of how free or what freedom means to different peoples. I’ve celebrated the 4th of July, the U.S. A.’s day of independence, in lots of different places around the world, but none that spoke to me more about what one nation celebrates another views quite differently – even in the USA.

opening prayer by an elder

jungle dress dancer was valedictorian of her high school class that year

quail dance – you knew what bird her was channeling!

reigning Miss Blackfeet of her division and area that year – a real princess

There were fireworks that night. We saw them from the front porch of the lodge, but didn’t stay to watch them finish. It was getting late for our girl and for myself, truth be told. The next day would be our last at the park so we wanted to make sure we were rested and ready!

riding the rails – the red buses of gnp

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cross-country travel, glacier national park, national parks, the red buses of GNP, train travel, travel, travel by train, travel with children, travel with kids

When visiting Glacier National Park during the peak summer months when most of the paths have finally been slowed and the Sun Road are open for travelling it is worth the fun of touring on a Red Bus. Each time the snow melts there are new things to repair and as the snow and ice melt each spring/summer the road can be treacherous. . While we were touring a motorcycle had crashed into a guard rail and a worker that was rappelling and checking the safety of the rocks and soundness of the mountain where the road sits there was a mishap. So sometimes the road is closed to keep folk safe. However, while we were there we were able to go on most of the road, though not all of it. And while that was a bit disappointing, I’m glad to be kept safe. But back to the the Jammin’ Red Buses!

These buses have been part of the fun at Glacier since 1914, but the buses in current use have been working since the 1930s. They are iconic and worth every penny of the price of the tour. You’re bound to have an entertaining time with a guide who is fun and knowledgeable. Our tour guis, Larry, fell in love with the buses and Glacier as a tourist and he and his wife moved when it was time to retire so he could work with the red buses full time. He retired from Ford Auto as a film maker and worked on the quintessential film about the red buses. Larry was entertaining, a fount of knowledge, and ready to answer any question – even the ones posed by our girl. We took the full day tour, but they do have shorter options if you don’t want to spend the whole day out.

I’m not going to do anything more than post some fabulous photos of our time on the red bus tour. Some of the photos have captions to go with them. Soak it in, think about going, and enjoy the ride…

our red bus

stoping for lunch

Larry answering the question, “why are the Black Foot Indians call ‘Black Foot'”?

rivers are fast due to melting snow

we got to have the top down for a bit

the Paramount Pictures Mountain peak is the one just above the tiny island…

closer view of the peak

mountain goats

fast moving waters

our glaciers are melting

on top near the Nation Park visitor centre the snow was still pretty deep!

and home in time for tea!

riding the rails – glacier national park

Tags

catching up, cross-country travel, glacier national park, hiking in glacier, national parks, teacher and students, travel, travel with children, travel with kids

Ah, blue skies, nothing but blue skies…

Well, all except those over the mountains looming larger than life. But the rest of the sky is looking great. What a day for adventure and catching up. AEB is ready to go, go, go. It will take some time for Heath to get over from Whitefish so we have some time to burn up before we actually will get to hit the trails. We’ll go over to the trading post, that catch all shop on the main street that sells the typical tourist fare, hiking bits and bobs, a few food items, bear spray, etc. where we’ll pick up the rental car for our stay. Heath had suggested a convertible for optimal viewing, but they don’t carry them due to the extreme weather and lack of seasonal vehicles. Makes sense. With the car picked up, our girl and I went out on that great expanse of lawn to wait, run around and stay occupied whilst waiting. Waiting with a six year old without a plan is never a good idea. And AEB is no exception. Give her an occupation and you have a happy everyone. Have a lack of something to be busy with and all sorts of mayhem will ensue. I love her dearly, but when I’m not fully prepared for even down time that mischievous  side comes out. To give her credit she doesn’t set out to be naughty, or cause double, it’s just that if there’s nothing to do in particular her imagination gets the better of her and patience runs thin on all sides. Part of it is exhaustion. Part is her stubborn side. Part the inability to fully think through an action to its full conclusion, which makes life exciting and terrifying for her mum. So, running around, playing “catch me if you can” spent off some energy, time went by quickly and pretty soon I was doing something I could not have done years ago as a teacher – giving Heath a great big heartfelt hug! As a teacher, I understand that there needs to be a line drawn between students and teachers – a very definite, think line, but there are times when a student just needs a hug and a teacher needs to be able to extend that need, but in this day and time such actions get misconstrued. Yes, there are teachers who over step and abuse and distort their role in very ugly ways. But there are others that are mentors and care-givers in ways that go beyond mere teaching that are much like parenting. But today, was not a student/teacher day. Today was meeting and shifting of a relationship that was ready to make a positive shift to friendship.
Heath had mentioned going to Hidden Lake, but we decided that a less rigorous hike would be best for our girl. AEB was just about crushed when she was told we’d decided to opt for a different hike. I think the idea of hiking to a “hidden” lake had captured her imagination – mine, too. But we went over to Many Glacier where there is a nice hike to Redrock Lake where there is a water fall. It was powerful with the snow melt like it was/is at present. AEB climbed the rocks close to the falls with me trying to look and sound calm whilst ever ready to dive in after her should she slip into the falls. Heath kept an eye on her as well, but it was nice for our girl to have a sense of doing on her own, feeling secure and respected as a person and not just a kid to be treated like an inferior. I appreciated Heath’s attention to her and helping her with learning to look before leaping. Not that this is a fully learned lesson, but sometimes it takes a person other than a parent for some lessons to be learned. And I’m sure that her climbing days are far from over now that she seems to have a new respect for where to put her foot. AEB was well looked out for by us all, but it’s always good to expose her to other adults that treat her like a human being with ideas and thoughts that are worth listening to and understanding. I know that a lot of this has to do with Heath just being who he is, but it also has to do with his appreciation for Waldorf education, which is one great way to educate children. It was a long day’s hike for our girl but she was a trouper and loved every minute of it, especially the ending with a toe dip and dam building moment on the way back. Mr. and Mrs. Beaver of Narnia would be proud of her efforts. It’s good to get dirty! How ever would a person know s/he’d had fun if not by the amount of dirt covering said person?

We got back to the lodge in time for dinner and then mum was nice enough to give me the rest of the evening to catch up with Heath.
The lodge has a great front porch with willow rocking chairs that you sink into. They rock forward better than they rock back, so if you go, beware of this little tid bit. There was a lot to cover in a few hours, I dare say the conversation will continue over the years. But I think we managed to cover the basics of “how did you end up here” for both of us. Life is a journey and having supportive people is key to getting on with the journey. It’s hard to continue when you think your parents can’t support you and are still waiting for you to figure out what you want to be when you grow up – and I’m not talking specifically about Heath. The conversation was two sided and life has sent us both on interesting paths with jolts and bumps along the way. But you are where you are at any given moment and what you choose to do in that moment is important for the days that follow.
As with all great company, and conversation, the time ended far too quickly and Heath and I parted. It was nice to head back to my room knowing that Heath was doing for himself what he needs to be doing at this point and that I will get to be part of that in a very special way – as a friend. A very satisfying end to a full day at GNP.

riding the rails – day 3: coming into east glacier, a retrospect

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amtrak travel, cross-country travel, east glacier lodge, glacier national park, national parks, trails and rails, travel, travel by train, travel with children, travel with kids

Bang, bang, bang, bang. Bang, bang, bang, bang. The clanging banging rousted me from the rocking sleep of the train. The train was stopped somewhere out west. Opening the curtain of thew window I saw the shadow of our train on the tracks. I looked down and saw an engineer banging away at something between the cars. Then in the blink of an eye the last car was rolling away from the rest of the train. Moments later we were rolling forward without the last car. I got up and went out into the corridor, walked back to the back window of our car and watched the train roll away from the last car of the train – we were the last car now.
This has the makings of a good mystery. The germ of the idea has been planted – we’ll see if it ever gets written.

Good mornin’, good mornin’!
And it’s a wake up call somewhere in North Dakota. Breakfast is being served in the dining car. Woohoo! A new day, new sites to see out the window. The plains, the rolling hills, the abandoned homesteads, the piles of old cars, old trucks, old water heaters. The dosie-do of getting ready in the morning began. A shower in the tiny toilet/shower room – good heat! Cramped quarters. I love my family but the intimacy of the quarters did push the limits. Thank goodness for a place to stretch your legs and eat a hearty breakfast. AEB, ever the trooper, was cranky and ornery as usual about waking up and getting ready – whew! We’d learned our lessons about waiting at the door to be seated and were seated with a new fellow traveller.

Again, Amtrak provided Trails and Rails (this link talks about the Knife River Indian Villages of North Dakota) in the observation car. There was a table of women talking about what we were passing by and a bunch of artifacts about the First Nation Peoples that lived there in days gone by and the few that stay on in the reservation areas. AEB got to handle a bison horn turned into a scoop, touch buckskin that would have been turned into clothing, and feel the fur of the bison. She also saw the kernels of corn, which she told the women more about than they had told her – that’s my farmer girl! She’s learned it all from her Grammy who grew up on a farm in western Oklahoma.
We would make stops along the way, some were short and some were “smoking” stops. I thought it would be a good idea to stretch our legs and get off and run around since we wouldn’t be getting into Glacier until about 6 p.m. so the wiggles would be building up if we didn’t. My favorite stop? Well, that would be unfair to the other stops, but Haver, MT was memorable if only for the story behind the name and the beautiful stained glass at the stop. See the picture for the story behind the name.

I could regale all with tales of miles and miles of repeat, sticker books, fairy queen games and dvd watching until East Glacier, but I won’t. I’ll cut to the chase and get us to Glacier faster than we did. The excitement of arriving was building as we collected all our things and waited for the call to get out and step onto the station platform. Pictures never can fully capture the grander, the sheer scale of these amazing glacial formations – they can’t. There isn’t a man-made device that’s up to the challenge. You can “oooh” and “aaah” over pictures and imagine that you’re there, but when you finally ARE there – you realize how inadequate your imagination really is in comparison to the “hands” that created these. Getting off and working our way over to the East Glacier Lodge
our girl got to enjoy the great expanse of lawn. To run free is a wonderful thing! There are few places left where a parent can feel truly comfortable about their child/ren running free and wild. The realities of today’s world keep a healthy fear up front keeping small ones (hopefully) safe from harm. So to be in a place where that is possible was so so so so W-o-n-derful!

The lodge is huge! The timbers brought in from Washington and Oregon to build the place are as massive as any you’ll see in the great forests still under protection around the world. It’s everything you imagine it’s supposed to be from its pictures, but it’s been re-done in places and, as far as I can tell, not to any true advantage to the guest. We had a room with a balcony – lovely. We had a room with a double bed and a twin bed – fine. The room was basic – fine. We weren’t planning on spending all our time in the room so we didn’t need it to be a suit at the Ritz. The bathroom was basic, but the shower was even smaller than the one on the train – really?!? I’m an average built woman, but for those of a larger build, and there were some staying at the lodge, I wondered how they would manage to get clean if the fit was so snug. Supper was nice, especially since we didn’t have to worry about jolting about on the tracks and having to save the coffee from flying off the table. But there was the sensation of continual movement coming off the train – we had to get our land legs readjusted.

It was good to be settled for a few days. It was good to know that the next day would have us meeting up with Heath for a new day’s adventure. It would be good to have the opportunity to have a student teacher relationship move into friendship. That’s not an easy transition for some to make. Even parents and children have a hard time of allowing their relationship to shift and grow over time into adult child and parent friendship. I’m so fortunate that my mum and I have been able to do that.
Exhaustion won out over excitement for us all. Day three was done.

riding the rails – day 2 in retrospect

Tags

amtrak, cross-country travel, national parks, the empire builder, train etiquette, train travel, travel, travel with children, travel with kids

Day two – in retrospect…landing in Chicago in the morning and having a few hours to “kill” while there we decided to take in the Field Museum. AEB was in need of an adventure off the train to stretch her legs and give her the sense of freedom that the train cannot provide. It’s important to figure out how one can give a short person those moments even in an environment that doesn’t seem to be able to do so. Without tearing up the sleeper, without hanging from the ceiling and without making everyone else on the train completely nuts.
Chicago, Chicago… (our girl’s a Sinatra fan so we had to!)
A few hours to make use of before heading out again on the rails so we went out and about to show Amelia the Field Museum. She got to see Sue, the T-Rex, check out the Elephants, meet the man eating lions (which, by the way, we did not tell her that’s what they were) and were “shrunk down” to bug size to explore under the earth, had a lovely lunch at the bake shop and then back into time to pick up our luggage and grab a red cap and board the Empire Builder to Portland, but with a stop off for us at Glacier National Park.

Our girl has been a really great traveling companion so far, but the late nights at her dad’s are starting to catch up with her now and she’s starting to get impatient about just being some place for awhile. Dealing with the tired tyrant isn’t easy, but understanding where the behavior is coming from helps – a lot!

welcome aboard the empire builder

Now it’s time to hop onto the Empire Builder and head from Chicago to our stop off at East Glacier Park, Montana. We each have stops that we’re wanting to do more than any other, though the entire trip is awesome and awe – some! This bit is my bit because I’m going to get to see a former student. Back in another lifetime ago, so it seems, I taught English and Drama at a school in Tennessee. I had some great students, not so great students, students I would like to have given personality adjustments, etc. But that’s adolescents. That’s the mix of the lot either in public or private education. So, I’m most looking forward to catching up, in person, with a student now living in Whitefish, MT. I know that as a high school teacher I’m more likely to catch up with former students than an elementary school teacher, but it still feels wonderful when a former student “friends” me on facebook – though sometimes I feel like I’m collecting baseball cards when “friend-ing” so many folk. But back to the rails…
We have decided that we’d like some guidance as to what is expected of travelers, sleeper car or otherwise, before heading off. I don’t mind following rules, but I’d like to know what they are before I break them rather than being chastised for breaking one.

For example, the dining car. There is definitely a protocol for entering and being seated. On the Empire Builder there was no explanation for showing up and being seated. We were told when to show up by signing up for dinner, but not what to do once there so we got fussed at for going too far into the car to be seated. There was no sign, no little printout of instructions, just a fussing fellow yelling at us to go back, wait to be seated, etc. Fine. But I don’t like being yelled at like a naughty child when I don’t know what the protcol/rules of engagement are in the first place. The dining car is mostly set up as “community dining”, meaning that if you are a lone traveler you will be placed with folk you don’t know. The tables seat up to 4 people so the crew wants to fill up the seats as they can. I think this is nice since you get to meet interesting folk along the way. There are others that do not and if you’re not prepared to sit next to a complete stranger it can be a shock to the system. We are up for the adventure, but it was clear that a few were rather put out by having to share a table. So, if you go – be prepared to share a table.

The observation car was packed, not a chair or a table to be had. Disappointed six year old, oh well. We were lucky to find a table going from D.C. to Chicago and our room did have a nice large window to look out from, but the observation car is rather lovely with curved windows up on the ceiling and walls of windows. Sigh.
But it was time, after supper, to head back to the sleeper and fall into bed knowing that in the morning we’d be somewhere North Dakota and that much nearer to Glacier National Park, MT. but still a ways to go…