So Katherine and I decided we would visit Glacier national park during our American travels an the most cost effective way to achieve this was to take an overnight train from Seattle to West Glacier.
We would spend a full day at the national park, stay overnight in a (haunted) chalet and catch another overnight train through to Chicago!
The first day/night on the Amtrak train went relatively smoothly and it actually didn't feel too long. We hopped on at 4pm...sat around...ate dinner at 9pm...slept...woke up and were off the train at West Glacier by 8am the next day.
No fuss, plenty of leg room and an ok sleep considering we were Amtrak noobs and did not realise that to bring some form of blanket and pillow with you is a MUST because it gets fucking cold at night.
The Second trek of our Amtrak journey was somewhat different. The train was supposed to pick us up at 8:30am, however it was delayed and arrived at 11am.
So already we knew we would be in for a longer ride than expected...further delays whilst on the train (people thinking that jumping on the tracks would be an ok idea-all good, no one was harmed on our journey) concluded that our original arrival time of 3pm in Chicago would now be 9:30pm. Yes...let the good times roll
Here is a somewhat summary and just general shit about our time on the train.
OLD PEOPLE:
The trains can get quite shaky at times, especially when there are high winds and the driver is trying to make up time by speeding his balls off.
It's like really bad turbulence on a plane :)
There are lots of old people on these trains :)
Many a time we would watch helplessly and gasp as old couples would hobble from carriage to carriage, escaping what could be a brutal fall.
One other thing about old people...they shrink.
At one stage Katherine and I were sitting in the "observation lounge" which is a carriage you can sit in to escape the smelly sleepiness of your train seats.
I'm facing the doors that separate the carriages, these doors have windows so you can see who's coming and going and to open them you gotta push a button.
Something frightening happens...
The carriage door slides open...yet I saw no one on the other side of the window. THEN as my gaze lowers...I see this...decrepit old man...FULLY hunched over, like...fully bent, not just a little arched... it's like he pulled a weird yoga pose and the wind fucking changed.
Also, his face didn't help the situation...he had a crazy old man face..the kind of face you would put on a mask for Halloween.
Seeing this man seemingly appear out of nowhere made me jump out of my seat while yelling "holy shit what the fuck is that!"
Katherine got angry at me for being so over the top with it all....but if only she had seen what I had seen...we saw this man hobbling about numerous times after this incident...every time he'd walk past I would look at Katherine for validation...."seeee!! Do you see what i mean now?!"
PASSING THE TIME:
The idea that I would be on this train for 20+ hours was outrageous and much like if I were on a long flight, if I think about it too much I could literally lose my mind.
So to distract myself from this I read constantly while on the train.
Book of choice: Marilyn Manson's biography 'The Long Hard Road Out of Hell'. Having too much time to think is, sometimes, never a good thing and on numerous occasions I had to put the book down because it is very fucked up in parts and I'm still trying to figure out if I like this dude.
Note to self: don't read intense shit when you're trapped on a train with no escape and have no god dam fresh air.
FOOD:
Not a whole lot to say on this topic but....Katherine decided to order the cheeseburger for lunch one day...a burger...on a train..with one man working at the kiosk.
It was a microwaved piece of sloppy shitballs.
She ate 80% of it and claimed it was "alright"....I do not believe her.
Luckily we were smart for the most part...we would eat their dinners, way better than plane food! and you get to eat at a makeshift "restaurant" dining area...and we stocked up on a loot of fruit, lollies, bagels...and carrots.
HOW TO CURE BORDEM:
Reading, sleeping, listening to music and eating is usually enough to entertain yourself on a long haul transit experience.
Not in this case. Katherine and I had just finished dinner and were bored. Bored of eating. Bored of reading. All my music was pissing me off. So we got creative
"Let's play a game!...lets play haannng maaaan!"
I was already thinking of hilarious words relating to our train journey. 'Farting man' 'old people' 'this train will destroy us'...not actually that funny now that I'm reflecting on this a week after it happened...but at the time it was gold.
Anyway, Katherine dismissed it and had a better idea, Mr fucking Squiggle. Best idea.
So for the next hour we took turns and gave ourself ridiculous time limits for completing the drawings.
Below are our creations.
On the pictures you will see each drawing is annotated. Squig = person who drew the random lines
W.O.A= person who had to create an image out of the random lines. Yep...quite an intelligent system.
The time allocated for each drawing is also noted 8-)
Anyway, looking back it was great and I'm so glad we travelled that way across the top of America...even if it meant reaching a level of slight insanity and smelling like absolute shit for a day and a half :)
Peace out hommes
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