When I have internet access on the train ( there’s no WiFi, but my 5G has been better than expected), I can do some fun stuff. Lately, I’ve been making avatars from photos of me with the DALL-E functionality in ChatGPT. This is one that I did in the observation car on the train.

The trip from Chicago is different. For one, I have the bedroom instead of a roomette. This gives me a toilet/shower, a sink, and a sitting chair across from a full-length couch. The couch slides out to become a bed with a sleeping pad like the one in the roomette but doesn’t consume the chair (and leaves some space to stand).

The unexpected thing about the different bed was that I had shifted my sleeping position from parallel to the train’s movement (feet first, like luging) to perpendicular (so that stopping and starting of the train caused me to roll). After a few stops, I started sleeping with my knees pulled up so that I didn’t roll as easily, which helped.

The shower was nice. I didn’t use the common shower on the Empire builder, but they were bigger than the shower I have at home, where the shower in the bedroom was not only smaller, but shared a space with the toilet (like a small RV). The water was hot and had a lot of pressure, so, still enjoyable.

The food is mostly reheated stuff and instant food. Where the previous train had you wait to be seated and a waiter at your table, the Capitol Limited has you come into the car and order your food at a counter and take it to a table of your own. The exception to this was for dinner, where you told the sleeper car attendant what you want and she’d order it ahead.

I didn’t like having a table of my own. I like talking with my fellow passengers. Breakfast was different. I got a late start and ate around 9 am. The dining car was crowded, prompting a couple to ask if they could sit with me. They travel by train a lot in this region and could tell me a lot about the places that Amtrak goes. They were really nice, and we had a great conversation. One thing that they mentioned was a trip that goes from Chicago to Fairbanks that is a new route for Amtrak. It seemed that it might be a hybrid train/cruise trip.

At this point, I’m chugging along through Maryland. I’m only a couple of hours from Washington, DC.

Sleeping on Night 2 was easier. I decided not to use the matress that they supply for the lower bunk. On night one, it felt harder than what I needed, so going without it seemed like the correct call. Even though the car was moving faster and rocking pretty hard, I slept much better with the softer surface and a backlog of missing sleep from night one.

We had pulled into Minot early (about an hour early). So we had a stationary break for about 2 hours. It’s amazing how much you get used to the constant motion on a train. At times it’s a balance challenge to walk around. I found that using different martial arts stances kept me from getting thrown into the wall a few times.

I found myself wishing that I’d packed lighter. I had packed 5 holiday themed shirts (part of a tradition that I started in 2019 of wearing a holdiay shirt for every day of December), 5 waffle pattern shirts (for warmth under some of the shirts), 5 days of underwear and socks, and one pair of pants. This wasn’t much, but, when you factor in the toiletry kit, charging pack, and CPAP, my backpack was pretty packed. I needed to carry the CPAP in a separate bag that I connected to the backpack synch straps.

I didn’t even bring a laptop. The blog posts that I’ve been typing have been created on my tablet with a foldable keyboard that I purchased on TEMU. It is really convenient to be able to type, but the ‘T’ and ‘V’ keys are a little thin, which causes type-os sometimes.

I like the backpack for the ease of carrying. I brought my cane to use as a walking stick (taking the strain off my knees with the weight of the backpack). I wore a hoodie and heavy jacket, which initially saves space in the pack. However, when I’m carrying my pack on subsequent days the hoodie has to go in the pack. Also, expecting cold weather, I brought my heavy gloves, which take up non-trivial space.

This setup is working, but could be better. I may try going with some Ex-Officio garments next time so that I carry less (but launder more).

At this point, I am thinking that there will be a next time. This has been a reflective experience. I’ve looked at several towns and thought, “this reminds me of…” which led me to write this down this morning:

As I look out the windows of the train, I’m reminded of all the places I used to live. Sometimes it’s a large industrial town like Poughkeepsie, while others are small towns like Halfway, OR or LaGrande, OR. There’s something familiar about these places, though I’ve never been to them. This path through the country is literally and figuratively a slice of America.

The eastern portion of this trip seems a lot faster. The stops are closer together, and the towns are more continuous. I’ve had 5G service for most of the trip. The observation car is much more crowded, as there are more coach passengers for this last stretch than there were for the sparser part of the country. There’s a lot of industry here. Factories and storage facilities seem to be in every town. And, as we’re on the tracks and these facilities are typically by the railroad, I get to see a lot of them.

The interesting thing about traveling by train across the north western United States is the different terrain that you cover. Going through Washington, we saw mostly snowy mountains. Somewhere after Spokane, I recall us climbing through the mountains again. My window faced the mountain side at night, so all I could see was snowy trees by the lights of the other windows on the train.

By the time the sun came up, we could see snowy landscapes with mountains in the background. This was a good time to be in the observation car, because you could see out of both sides of the train. I found myself there because I had a hard time sleeping the first night. It worked out, as I was able to see some spectaular views as the sun came up.

Sleeping in the Roomette was interesting. I liken it to sleeping in a small mountaineering tent. You collapse the two chairs in your room into a flat platform and place a sleeping mat over it that already has a sheet on it. This covers most of the room, so I left the upper bunk down and placed my backpack and other stuff up there (I would later learn that my stuff fits up there when it is closed).

As we left the mountains, we also left the snow for a while. We went across the plains of Montana at a rapid pace. You can really see why they call this Big Sky Country as the plains seem to stretch forever on both sides of the train.

A lot of the stations where we stopped were small towns. Some of the larger towns, like Shelby, MT and Havre, MT had enough services that Amtrak made stops to restock and unload refuse. Havre had a sign facing the train that explained the origin of the town name. I found it amusing, and as such, included a photo here.

There’s still a lot of time to kill on the train when you’re not staring out the window. I watched movies like Violent Night, A Christmas Carol (the one with Patrick Stewart), It’s a Wonderful Llife. Those last two, I watch every Christmas. Then to break away from the Christmas theme, I watched Totally Killer, Let It Ride (one of my favorite travel movies), and Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanimo Bay. I read a book on packing lightly, and a book about writing. I even took some time to create a Christmas playlist of my favorite songs.

It was a bit surreal watching Christmas movies while I saw houses outside my window with their Chirstmas lights reflecting off the snow.

There were a lot of picturesque views that I didn’t bother trying to photograph, simply because the pictures wouldn’t do them justince or they’d just come out blurry because I’m on a platform moving at high speeds in low lighting.

And, of course I got time to type into my blog.

Now, I’m entering the eastern US, having awoke this morning in St. Paul, MN. I expect a lot more cell service, as the cities are closer together. By the end of today, I’ll have changed trains in Chicago from the Empire Builder to the Capitol Limited.