The morning of my train trip I woke up before the alarm went off - even after only a few hours sleep. But this was a half hour before I planned to get up. *sigh* I checked the train’s status. Amtrak’s automated and perky voice - "Julie" - passed me on to a real live human as there was a "schedule" problem. The human simply told me the train would arrive a half hour late. They passed me on to a human to tell me this? I like "Julie". She sounds perky, not like the usual sleep deprived humans who answer the phone at that hour.
The arrival time then slipped further. I called my neighbor Jan to tell her the arrival time was now 8:15 am instead of 7:22 am. Jan was awake and ready to go. She wanted to take me as scheduled. "We’ll just drive slower."
As I loaded my stuff into her SUV Jan asked with a smile "Are you planning on staying til June?" I was glad she had a SUV as I had alot of stuff! My plan that morning to weed out what not to take did not work. I wasn’t thinking well on a few hours sleep.
The temperature had risen from 1 F at midnight to 16 F now. It was still dark, even with a light dusting of snow over everything. Jan drove the back roads and avoided the route that went up a steep ridge. We arrived at the station at 7:25 am, about the time the train normally arrives.
As we drove into the parking lot I saw the train. "What?!! The train wasn’t supposed to arrive till 8:15!" I flashed back to the time my dad took me to the station years ago. We had arrived just before the time I was told the train was to arrive late only to discover the train at the station and everyone on board. Fortunately I only had a carry on bag (traveling light for once!) and I was able to jump on the train mere minutes before it left the station. Today I had luggage to check.
I rushed to the station. Inside, a line from the ticket window stretched all the way across the long room and to the south door. I had never seen so many people in line there. I also knew the train wouldn’t leave until the people in line were taken care of. I grabbed luggage carts and unloaded my stuff. I had 3 carts full and overflowing. Why, oh why, did I bring all this stuff?!!!
After bidding good-bye to Jan I moved my carts just outside a station door. The station doesn’t allow carts in the building so I hefted my 3 large suitcases inside. The station was packed with people so I had to search for the end of the line. Then it was stand, shuffle, and move my suitcases as the line moved. Initially I was able to slide the suitcases across the floor using my foot, but as time dragged on I got weaker and had to reach down and move the suitcases using their handles.
The people in line were mostly late teen / early 20s Native Americans. They were on Christmas break from a Job Corps school in Ronan, MT, and now were returning home to their respective reservations. The guy next to me - studying to be a heavy equipment operator - said they all had gotten up at 3:30 am. 3:30?!!! That’s inhumane! I expressed my sympathy but he said they usually get up at 5 am. "Isn’t that early for classes?" No, they have chores to do before classes begin. Doesn’t sound like any school I went to!
Finally I reached the ticket counter amongst all that chaos. The girl in front of me didn’t have her luggage with her when she got her ticket (huh?) and had to go find it. Naturally she returned with her luggage as I was putting mine through the opening to be checked and tagged. I made sure they tagged my suitcases with my destination, and not her destination.
Most people were inside, in out of the cold. The rest of my luggage - two carts full - was outside. A few people were outside having a smoke. Next to my carts was an old grizzled bearded white guy who was drunk. Very drunk. But not a mean drunk; just a very confused one. Still he was lucid enough to know he had to catch the eastbound train and he asked me what time we were suppose to leave.
I learned that the reason for the delay - and why Amtrak’s "Julie" passed me off to a real live person - was that a freight train had derailed that night in Idaho. Amtrak was bussing those people around the derailment. The train at the Whitefish station was the formerly westbound train which Amtrak had "partially" turned around. By "partially" I mean they moved the engines from the front to the rear of the train. The cars with seats had their seats swiveled around so they would be facing forward. This wasn’t odd to the passengers, but the train attendants would get disoriented as the car’s layout were now "backward" to them.
I saw an Amtrak employee by the train. I went over and asked her which car the Minot passengers would board. I want to pre-position my 2 carts outside that car as the train stretched away from the station. She claimed not to know saying the conductors were responsible for that, and they were on the buses with the passengers.
The conductor and engineers are governed by a different set of rules than the attendants. The Amtrak attendants from the westbound train were required to turn around and work the train back to Chicago. The attendants - who live and work out of either Seattle or Chicago - also wanted to be bussed across the derailment to continue on. Especially the west bound attendants as they had less than a day of work left vs. almost 2 days back to Chicago. The Seattle attendants had been away from home since Sunday (today was Friday) and Amtrak would fly them home to Seattle once the train arrives in Chicago. No wonder Amtrak is losing money. Still, someone was needed to switch the seats around, clean and prepare the train for its return trip to Chicago.
8:15 am arrived and people began to come out of the station. Lots of people. So I guessed - based on past experience - where the Minot car would be and moved my carts there. Then an announcement was broadcast that I couldn’t make out. Now what? People were going back into the station, so I did also. Some milling around before they announced train personal would now be issuing boarding passes. Fortunately this was on my side of the room so I made sure I was one of the initial people to present my ticket and get my boarding pass.
I dashed outside and asked which car I was to board. So the attendants knew after all! I was one car off and quickly moved my carts to that car. I loaded my suitcases in the car’s lower level baggage area, then grabbed a few grocery bags and went upstairs to find a seat. I was among the first passengers on board so I had my choice. Not at the ends near the doors, nor near the center stairs, but in the middle between, and in a row where I had a full window. Perfect. I got the rest of my bags and filled the overhead luggage rack above me. I settled into my seat. Ahhhh.... made it. And with all my luggage!
I watched as more people boarded the train and came upstairs to find a seat. Most would plop their stuff into seats then head off to find the lounge car, or other people they knew, or back outside to smoke some more.
Four buses arrived outside the train station and people got off them. They retrieved their luggage from the storage bins under the buses and then some people walked through the station to reach the train. The younger people made a path over the lawn and through the snow directly to the train as they realized people had boarded the train already and the good seats probably were gone, or going soon.
One young white woman dashed between the train and the station a number of times. When I was in the ticket line I heard her talk on a phone and say she lost her backpack and stuff - she didn’t know if she misplaced it or it was stolen. Apparently she had been partying most of the previous night and still looked hung over. Eventually a van pulled up and she dashed over the lawn and snow to retrieve her backpack from the van. All is well now?
The train attendant announced Amtrak was expecting another bus of people and the train would be full. Train seats are 2 across and the single people needed to be aware Amtrak may move people so couples could sit together. This has happened to me in the past where Amtrak moved me and I lost my window seat.
A young guy (19? 20?), who had arrived on a bus, seemed to be in a daze. He chose a seat across the aisle from me where the other occupant had left his stuff on one of the two seats before going elsewhere. The attendant announced that whoever left their stuff in the hallway and not in a downstairs’ luggage bin had to come and move their stuff - now! This guy immediately got up and went downstairs.
When he returned he sat down in a seat one row ahead of the seat he chose earlier. He sat next to a Native American girl going to Havre. The seat he was now in had earlier been occupied by a Native girl going to Browning, and who put her stuff in the overhead storage rack and left. The Havre girl didn’t say anything. A short time later the Browning girl came back, and kneeling in a seat one row ahead, looked over the top of the seat to talk to the Havre girl. Neither girl would talk to the guy. They didn’t mention he was in her seat but he finally caught on as their conversation got more and more direct that this was her seat. He apologized and got up.
I then told him the seat next to me was open. I had seen that his destination was West Glacier - the next stop 15 minutes away. If he sat next to me it would prevent me from possibly getting moved, or someone else taking the seat whose destination was hours away.
He traveled from Florida. His mother has a second house/cabin near West Glacier. A few years ago he and his mother had traveled the western U.S. looking for a second place to live. (Must be nice to be rich!) When they arrived in the Flathead Valley they fell in love with the area and bought land outside the Park. The past few years they, and more members of her family, would vacation and build on their house/cabin. The place was now far enough along that they could spend time here during the winter. I felt duty bound to enlighten him that the winter here, while warm, is cloudy. He was fine with that as the sun mostly shines in Florida and this would be a nice change of pace. Okay...
He seemed like a nice enough kid - just young and confused. Maybe because he had flown from Florida to Arizona to Spokane, then took the train from Spokane and was in the group bussed around the derailment. He had been traveling a long time.
Our departure
Our 8:15 am departure time came and went. Time passed, and passed, and... passed. Amtrak announced the dining car would soon be open for breakfast, but they would only be serving cold meals. Our car’s attendant mentioned that the train needed to resupplied with food, and part of the reason we hadn’t left yet was that the cook had to go to the grocery store to get food. The last I looked the local grocery store sold eggs and other items used to make hot meals. And the store was open either 24 hrs or very early in the morning. The cook could have gotten the food earlier.
Finally the train moved. It started out so slowly I only could tell we started when I saw the landscape outside moving. We traveled a quarter mile down the track before stopping. Then we sat, and sat, and... sat. *sigh* Did the cook forget something? I told the kid that he should have called his mother from the station, "She could have driven from West Glacier to get you, and you’d be home now." He looked around to see if he could see the station, but I told him to forget it, it was too far to walk back to the station with his carryon luggage.
Finally near 10 am - about 2 1/2 hours late - we were on our way. My seat mate got off at West Glacier and two scruffy ski bums (too late in the year to be backpacking bums) got on the train and found seats in our car near the back door. Then off through the mountains and snow and along the river.
The Native kids, fresh out of school, were bouncing off the walls. Most of them couldn’t keep still. Talk, talk, talk. Up and down the aisles. It was like being back in high school. As contrast, the Havre Native girl borrowed her seat mate's blanket and stuffed animal - a moose. She had both seats, and raising both seats’ footrests curled up under the blanket. With the moose as a pillow she went to sleep.
While going through the mountains the Amtrak lounge car official announced over the loudspeaker that from now on everyone will be carded in the lounge car when ordering items. Downstairs in my car, in the hallway near the bathrooms, some Native kids hung out. As I filled a cup with the foul tasting water Amtrak carries, a young Native girl came out of the door to the lounge toilet and announced to the Native boys that the girls in that room were having a "conference". I didn’t think much of it because kids, especially teenage girls, can be such drama queens.
A short time later the female car attendant came upstairs and announced that smoking is not allowed on the train, and like on airlines, it is a federal offense. If she caught anyone smoking they would be kicked off the train and arrested. In the row in front of me were a couple in their 60s, and in the row in front of them was another older woman they knew. They informed the attendant that the kids were smoking in the bathrooms. I don’t care for smoking, but it was a little humorous to me as I remember a pop song when I was in high school in the 70s called "Smoking in the Boys Room" (by Brownsville Station). If you aren't familiar with the song, or want to listen again, a 30 second clip can be heard at the Amazon web site.
Later Amtrak announced that the people who just left the lounge car and had made a mess were to immediately return and clean up their mess. A short time later the Native guy who sat across the aisle from me came back to his seat and sat down. He fidgeted and fidgeted.
We talked about West Glacier and Lake MacDonald, and I realized visiting these places this past summer was a new experience for him. Since he was from Browning, and in his late teens, I was surprised he hadn’t been west of the Divide in Glacier before.
More fidgeting, and after seeing the Havre girl was now awake, he moved up and sat next to her. He asked if it was all right with her as he didn’t like sitting alone. While they were both in the Ronan Job Corps program he didn’t know her.
They were from different reservations; he from the Blackfoot Reservation and lived in the "country" (as he called it) outside of Browning; she from the Rocky Boy Reservation near Havre. They knew little about each other’s reservations, nor apparently much of any other Native reservations, which surprised me. But then they were kids, and kids usually don’t know much of the world.
His vacation plans were to party with his friends. He liked to party, but I got the idea he partied out of boredom as he didn’t know what else to do. He said he was one of the people who were buying liquor in the lounge car, but he was in the bathroom when the attendants realized what was happening and starting to id people. So he didn’t get into trouble.
He was still talking to the girl when we arrived at Browning. Browning is a "on-and-off" stop so one needs to be downstairs and ready to leave. Finally, reluctantly, as he had someone to talk to (and a girl no less), he got up, grabbed his bag and left.
The train sat and sat and sat at Browning. The girl who loaned her blanket and moose to the Havre girl came, got her stuff and left. The train continued to sit as more kids came down the aisle to go downstairs to get off. Now why isn’t the train leaving?! Finally a Native girl came running down the aisle from the direction of the lounge car with a female train attendant closely following. Harshly the attendant said, "Hurry up! You’re delaying the train!" I think Amtrak wasn’t missing any opportunity to ensure those who were supposed to depart at Browning, indeed did so. The girl got her bag and blanket, which had sat unattended in the overhead rack across the aisle the whole trip. She left in a huff complaining how rude they were to her. After she left, the train finally departed.
Our car was mostly empty: in our car were a half dozen Native kids going to Havre, the two backpacker/ski bums, a few old people, and me. Peace and quiet.
The two old women in the rows in front of me chatted with the female car attendant trying to get the gossip on what was going on. The attendant said the lounge car had its hands full trying to sell liquor only to the people 21 and older, and also watch that they weren’t buying liquor for their under 21 year old friends. The two women again informed the attendant that girls had been smoking in the bathrooms. The attendant said she couldn’t do anything unless she caught the girls in the act. The girls would have lookouts in the hallway who would signal when the attendant came downstairs.
Havre
Havre is a stop to refuel and empty the trash. I stepped outside for some exercise and fresh air. Out front of the station I saw several Havre police cars. Our 20 minute stop took over an hour. The attendant later said Amtrak tossed off 33 Job Corp kids and had them arrested for underage drinking or giving alcohol to minors. Apparently only 6 to 10 Wolf Point kids were left on the train, and they were now quiet.
Leaving Havre we were now 3 1/2 hours behind schedule. *sigh*
At the Havre station I picked up a copy of the train schedule and gave it to the older couple in front of me. I was tired of her always asking the attendants, what the next stop was, and when we will arrive in Williston? Then she would launch into a story about how:
I asked the husband about his cattle. What breed he raised, how many acres, irrigation (yes) vs. dry land farming, etc. His wife interjected they raised Angus and Angus/Hereford cross and rubbed two of her fingers together as she said they were worth more money. She didn’t think much of my raising Charolais cattle this past summer as that breed doesn’t bring as much money. She said when their kids were younger, her son raised Herefords and her daughter raised Angus; and her daughter was smarter as she made more money than her son. Okay...
At Malta, the stop was longer than the usual quick-and-go stop. The train attendant later said they found and kicked off some kids that they has missed in Havre, and it took a few extra minutes to turn them over to the Malta police.
At the Glasgow station a large group of men wearing winter coats and overalls stood on the platform in the cold. I saw each man’s breath quickly fly away into the darkness as they huddled together waiting to board. Our car stopped right in front of the station and they boarded our car. Each man staked out a pair of seats in the rows across and behind me. They were Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) railroad workers and they were going to Minot. Because of the Idaho train derailment no eastbound trains were moving. Instead of catching an eastbound freight from Glasgow back to Minot, BNSF put the employees on the Amtrak train so they could later drive another westbound train out of Minot.
At the Wolf Point station the parking lot was full of cars and pickups. The vehicles’ lights were on and the exhausts flew away in the wind. Only a half dozen or so kids got off the train. Many more than a half dozen parents were waiting. Our attendant said she told the other parents to call the jails in Malta and Harve. It would be a long drive to get the kids in Havre: 207 miles.
When the train arrived in Williston I was in conversation with a BNSF employee from Glasgow who just bought land in the Flathead Valley and would move there when he retired in 2 years. I really didn’t notice as the Washington couple left the train. The last I knew via her cell phone conversation (couldn’t help but overhear), it was too late to surprise her son that night. Their plan was to wait till the next morning.
I was talking with another BNSF employee when the train arrived in Minot. He had earlier overheard that I had lived in Rochester. He had a Mayo Clinic story where he needed a liver transplant and one wasn’t available.
The Clinic appeared to not have hope the transplant would help him. His wife pulled him out of there and got him to a University hospital in Madison, Wisconsin where he got his transplant, treatment, and a cure. He was also unhappy that some older rock star (Van Halen?) on his Rochester hospital floor got special treatment while he was at the Clinic. The woman in the seat in front of me also had a negative Clinic story. It turns out she graduated from Minot High a year after I did. We didn’t know each other.
The train arrived at 12:40 am - about 3 1/2 hours late.
My brother was there to meet me. Quickly in the cold a few other people and I picked our luggage off the cart outside the station. My brother and I loaded his pickup with all the stuff I brought along. Even though Minot is another long refueling stop, it was late and only a few die hard smokers got off the train to have a cigarette in the cold night air.
It was late and I was tired. But it was nice to finally be here.
The arrival time then slipped further. I called my neighbor Jan to tell her the arrival time was now 8:15 am instead of 7:22 am. Jan was awake and ready to go. She wanted to take me as scheduled. "We’ll just drive slower."
As I loaded my stuff into her SUV Jan asked with a smile "Are you planning on staying til June?" I was glad she had a SUV as I had alot of stuff! My plan that morning to weed out what not to take did not work. I wasn’t thinking well on a few hours sleep.
The temperature had risen from 1 F at midnight to 16 F now. It was still dark, even with a light dusting of snow over everything. Jan drove the back roads and avoided the route that went up a steep ridge. We arrived at the station at 7:25 am, about the time the train normally arrives.
As we drove into the parking lot I saw the train. "What?!! The train wasn’t supposed to arrive till 8:15!" I flashed back to the time my dad took me to the station years ago. We had arrived just before the time I was told the train was to arrive late only to discover the train at the station and everyone on board. Fortunately I only had a carry on bag (traveling light for once!) and I was able to jump on the train mere minutes before it left the station. Today I had luggage to check.
I rushed to the station. Inside, a line from the ticket window stretched all the way across the long room and to the south door. I had never seen so many people in line there. I also knew the train wouldn’t leave until the people in line were taken care of. I grabbed luggage carts and unloaded my stuff. I had 3 carts full and overflowing. Why, oh why, did I bring all this stuff?!!!
After bidding good-bye to Jan I moved my carts just outside a station door. The station doesn’t allow carts in the building so I hefted my 3 large suitcases inside. The station was packed with people so I had to search for the end of the line. Then it was stand, shuffle, and move my suitcases as the line moved. Initially I was able to slide the suitcases across the floor using my foot, but as time dragged on I got weaker and had to reach down and move the suitcases using their handles.
The people in line were mostly late teen / early 20s Native Americans. They were on Christmas break from a Job Corps school in Ronan, MT, and now were returning home to their respective reservations. The guy next to me - studying to be a heavy equipment operator - said they all had gotten up at 3:30 am. 3:30?!!! That’s inhumane! I expressed my sympathy but he said they usually get up at 5 am. "Isn’t that early for classes?" No, they have chores to do before classes begin. Doesn’t sound like any school I went to!
Finally I reached the ticket counter amongst all that chaos. The girl in front of me didn’t have her luggage with her when she got her ticket (huh?) and had to go find it. Naturally she returned with her luggage as I was putting mine through the opening to be checked and tagged. I made sure they tagged my suitcases with my destination, and not her destination.
Most people were inside, in out of the cold. The rest of my luggage - two carts full - was outside. A few people were outside having a smoke. Next to my carts was an old grizzled bearded white guy who was drunk. Very drunk. But not a mean drunk; just a very confused one. Still he was lucid enough to know he had to catch the eastbound train and he asked me what time we were suppose to leave.
I learned that the reason for the delay - and why Amtrak’s "Julie" passed me off to a real live person - was that a freight train had derailed that night in Idaho. Amtrak was bussing those people around the derailment. The train at the Whitefish station was the formerly westbound train which Amtrak had "partially" turned around. By "partially" I mean they moved the engines from the front to the rear of the train. The cars with seats had their seats swiveled around so they would be facing forward. This wasn’t odd to the passengers, but the train attendants would get disoriented as the car’s layout were now "backward" to them.
I saw an Amtrak employee by the train. I went over and asked her which car the Minot passengers would board. I want to pre-position my 2 carts outside that car as the train stretched away from the station. She claimed not to know saying the conductors were responsible for that, and they were on the buses with the passengers.
The conductor and engineers are governed by a different set of rules than the attendants. The Amtrak attendants from the westbound train were required to turn around and work the train back to Chicago. The attendants - who live and work out of either Seattle or Chicago - also wanted to be bussed across the derailment to continue on. Especially the west bound attendants as they had less than a day of work left vs. almost 2 days back to Chicago. The Seattle attendants had been away from home since Sunday (today was Friday) and Amtrak would fly them home to Seattle once the train arrives in Chicago. No wonder Amtrak is losing money. Still, someone was needed to switch the seats around, clean and prepare the train for its return trip to Chicago.
8:15 am arrived and people began to come out of the station. Lots of people. So I guessed - based on past experience - where the Minot car would be and moved my carts there. Then an announcement was broadcast that I couldn’t make out. Now what? People were going back into the station, so I did also. Some milling around before they announced train personal would now be issuing boarding passes. Fortunately this was on my side of the room so I made sure I was one of the initial people to present my ticket and get my boarding pass.
I dashed outside and asked which car I was to board. So the attendants knew after all! I was one car off and quickly moved my carts to that car. I loaded my suitcases in the car’s lower level baggage area, then grabbed a few grocery bags and went upstairs to find a seat. I was among the first passengers on board so I had my choice. Not at the ends near the doors, nor near the center stairs, but in the middle between, and in a row where I had a full window. Perfect. I got the rest of my bags and filled the overhead luggage rack above me. I settled into my seat. Ahhhh.... made it. And with all my luggage!
I watched as more people boarded the train and came upstairs to find a seat. Most would plop their stuff into seats then head off to find the lounge car, or other people they knew, or back outside to smoke some more.
Four buses arrived outside the train station and people got off them. They retrieved their luggage from the storage bins under the buses and then some people walked through the station to reach the train. The younger people made a path over the lawn and through the snow directly to the train as they realized people had boarded the train already and the good seats probably were gone, or going soon.
One young white woman dashed between the train and the station a number of times. When I was in the ticket line I heard her talk on a phone and say she lost her backpack and stuff - she didn’t know if she misplaced it or it was stolen. Apparently she had been partying most of the previous night and still looked hung over. Eventually a van pulled up and she dashed over the lawn and snow to retrieve her backpack from the van. All is well now?
The train attendant announced Amtrak was expecting another bus of people and the train would be full. Train seats are 2 across and the single people needed to be aware Amtrak may move people so couples could sit together. This has happened to me in the past where Amtrak moved me and I lost my window seat.
A young guy (19? 20?), who had arrived on a bus, seemed to be in a daze. He chose a seat across the aisle from me where the other occupant had left his stuff on one of the two seats before going elsewhere. The attendant announced that whoever left their stuff in the hallway and not in a downstairs’ luggage bin had to come and move their stuff - now! This guy immediately got up and went downstairs.
When he returned he sat down in a seat one row ahead of the seat he chose earlier. He sat next to a Native American girl going to Havre. The seat he was now in had earlier been occupied by a Native girl going to Browning, and who put her stuff in the overhead storage rack and left. The Havre girl didn’t say anything. A short time later the Browning girl came back, and kneeling in a seat one row ahead, looked over the top of the seat to talk to the Havre girl. Neither girl would talk to the guy. They didn’t mention he was in her seat but he finally caught on as their conversation got more and more direct that this was her seat. He apologized and got up.
I then told him the seat next to me was open. I had seen that his destination was West Glacier - the next stop 15 minutes away. If he sat next to me it would prevent me from possibly getting moved, or someone else taking the seat whose destination was hours away.
He traveled from Florida. His mother has a second house/cabin near West Glacier. A few years ago he and his mother had traveled the western U.S. looking for a second place to live. (Must be nice to be rich!) When they arrived in the Flathead Valley they fell in love with the area and bought land outside the Park. The past few years they, and more members of her family, would vacation and build on their house/cabin. The place was now far enough along that they could spend time here during the winter. I felt duty bound to enlighten him that the winter here, while warm, is cloudy. He was fine with that as the sun mostly shines in Florida and this would be a nice change of pace. Okay...
He seemed like a nice enough kid - just young and confused. Maybe because he had flown from Florida to Arizona to Spokane, then took the train from Spokane and was in the group bussed around the derailment. He had been traveling a long time.
Our departure
Our 8:15 am departure time came and went. Time passed, and passed, and... passed. Amtrak announced the dining car would soon be open for breakfast, but they would only be serving cold meals. Our car’s attendant mentioned that the train needed to resupplied with food, and part of the reason we hadn’t left yet was that the cook had to go to the grocery store to get food. The last I looked the local grocery store sold eggs and other items used to make hot meals. And the store was open either 24 hrs or very early in the morning. The cook could have gotten the food earlier.
Finally the train moved. It started out so slowly I only could tell we started when I saw the landscape outside moving. We traveled a quarter mile down the track before stopping. Then we sat, and sat, and... sat. *sigh* Did the cook forget something? I told the kid that he should have called his mother from the station, "She could have driven from West Glacier to get you, and you’d be home now." He looked around to see if he could see the station, but I told him to forget it, it was too far to walk back to the station with his carryon luggage.
Finally near 10 am - about 2 1/2 hours late - we were on our way. My seat mate got off at West Glacier and two scruffy ski bums (too late in the year to be backpacking bums) got on the train and found seats in our car near the back door. Then off through the mountains and snow and along the river.
The Native kids, fresh out of school, were bouncing off the walls. Most of them couldn’t keep still. Talk, talk, talk. Up and down the aisles. It was like being back in high school. As contrast, the Havre Native girl borrowed her seat mate's blanket and stuffed animal - a moose. She had both seats, and raising both seats’ footrests curled up under the blanket. With the moose as a pillow she went to sleep.
While going through the mountains the Amtrak lounge car official announced over the loudspeaker that from now on everyone will be carded in the lounge car when ordering items. Downstairs in my car, in the hallway near the bathrooms, some Native kids hung out. As I filled a cup with the foul tasting water Amtrak carries, a young Native girl came out of the door to the lounge toilet and announced to the Native boys that the girls in that room were having a "conference". I didn’t think much of it because kids, especially teenage girls, can be such drama queens.
A short time later the female car attendant came upstairs and announced that smoking is not allowed on the train, and like on airlines, it is a federal offense. If she caught anyone smoking they would be kicked off the train and arrested. In the row in front of me were a couple in their 60s, and in the row in front of them was another older woman they knew. They informed the attendant that the kids were smoking in the bathrooms. I don’t care for smoking, but it was a little humorous to me as I remember a pop song when I was in high school in the 70s called "Smoking in the Boys Room" (by Brownsville Station). If you aren't familiar with the song, or want to listen again, a 30 second clip can be heard at the Amazon web site.
Later Amtrak announced that the people who just left the lounge car and had made a mess were to immediately return and clean up their mess. A short time later the Native guy who sat across the aisle from me came back to his seat and sat down. He fidgeted and fidgeted.
We talked about West Glacier and Lake MacDonald, and I realized visiting these places this past summer was a new experience for him. Since he was from Browning, and in his late teens, I was surprised he hadn’t been west of the Divide in Glacier before.
More fidgeting, and after seeing the Havre girl was now awake, he moved up and sat next to her. He asked if it was all right with her as he didn’t like sitting alone. While they were both in the Ronan Job Corps program he didn’t know her.
They were from different reservations; he from the Blackfoot Reservation and lived in the "country" (as he called it) outside of Browning; she from the Rocky Boy Reservation near Havre. They knew little about each other’s reservations, nor apparently much of any other Native reservations, which surprised me. But then they were kids, and kids usually don’t know much of the world.
His vacation plans were to party with his friends. He liked to party, but I got the idea he partied out of boredom as he didn’t know what else to do. He said he was one of the people who were buying liquor in the lounge car, but he was in the bathroom when the attendants realized what was happening and starting to id people. So he didn’t get into trouble.
He was still talking to the girl when we arrived at Browning. Browning is a "on-and-off" stop so one needs to be downstairs and ready to leave. Finally, reluctantly, as he had someone to talk to (and a girl no less), he got up, grabbed his bag and left.
The train sat and sat and sat at Browning. The girl who loaned her blanket and moose to the Havre girl came, got her stuff and left. The train continued to sit as more kids came down the aisle to go downstairs to get off. Now why isn’t the train leaving?! Finally a Native girl came running down the aisle from the direction of the lounge car with a female train attendant closely following. Harshly the attendant said, "Hurry up! You’re delaying the train!" I think Amtrak wasn’t missing any opportunity to ensure those who were supposed to depart at Browning, indeed did so. The girl got her bag and blanket, which had sat unattended in the overhead rack across the aisle the whole trip. She left in a huff complaining how rude they were to her. After she left, the train finally departed.
Our car was mostly empty: in our car were a half dozen Native kids going to Havre, the two backpacker/ski bums, a few old people, and me. Peace and quiet.
The two old women in the rows in front of me chatted with the female car attendant trying to get the gossip on what was going on. The attendant said the lounge car had its hands full trying to sell liquor only to the people 21 and older, and also watch that they weren’t buying liquor for their under 21 year old friends. The two women again informed the attendant that girls had been smoking in the bathrooms. The attendant said she couldn’t do anything unless she caught the girls in the act. The girls would have lookouts in the hallway who would signal when the attendant came downstairs.
Havre
Havre is a stop to refuel and empty the trash. I stepped outside for some exercise and fresh air. Out front of the station I saw several Havre police cars. Our 20 minute stop took over an hour. The attendant later said Amtrak tossed off 33 Job Corp kids and had them arrested for underage drinking or giving alcohol to minors. Apparently only 6 to 10 Wolf Point kids were left on the train, and they were now quiet.
Leaving Havre we were now 3 1/2 hours behind schedule. *sigh*
At the Havre station I picked up a copy of the train schedule and gave it to the older couple in front of me. I was tired of her always asking the attendants, what the next stop was, and when we will arrive in Williston? Then she would launch into a story about how:
- they farmed with their son,
- their son just got married a few weeks ago,
- they had a reception for the newlyweds last week at their farm in Washington state,
- the newlyweds drove back to her parents’ farm near Dagmar, MT to have another reception,
- the couple found someone to watch and feed their 80 head of cattle for 3 days,
- they were on their way to surprise the newlyweds at her parents place (her parents were in on the surprise),
- and this was their first train trip.
I asked the husband about his cattle. What breed he raised, how many acres, irrigation (yes) vs. dry land farming, etc. His wife interjected they raised Angus and Angus/Hereford cross and rubbed two of her fingers together as she said they were worth more money. She didn’t think much of my raising Charolais cattle this past summer as that breed doesn’t bring as much money. She said when their kids were younger, her son raised Herefords and her daughter raised Angus; and her daughter was smarter as she made more money than her son. Okay...
At Malta, the stop was longer than the usual quick-and-go stop. The train attendant later said they found and kicked off some kids that they has missed in Havre, and it took a few extra minutes to turn them over to the Malta police.
At the Glasgow station a large group of men wearing winter coats and overalls stood on the platform in the cold. I saw each man’s breath quickly fly away into the darkness as they huddled together waiting to board. Our car stopped right in front of the station and they boarded our car. Each man staked out a pair of seats in the rows across and behind me. They were Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) railroad workers and they were going to Minot. Because of the Idaho train derailment no eastbound trains were moving. Instead of catching an eastbound freight from Glasgow back to Minot, BNSF put the employees on the Amtrak train so they could later drive another westbound train out of Minot.
At the Wolf Point station the parking lot was full of cars and pickups. The vehicles’ lights were on and the exhausts flew away in the wind. Only a half dozen or so kids got off the train. Many more than a half dozen parents were waiting. Our attendant said she told the other parents to call the jails in Malta and Harve. It would be a long drive to get the kids in Havre: 207 miles.
When the train arrived in Williston I was in conversation with a BNSF employee from Glasgow who just bought land in the Flathead Valley and would move there when he retired in 2 years. I really didn’t notice as the Washington couple left the train. The last I knew via her cell phone conversation (couldn’t help but overhear), it was too late to surprise her son that night. Their plan was to wait till the next morning.
I was talking with another BNSF employee when the train arrived in Minot. He had earlier overheard that I had lived in Rochester. He had a Mayo Clinic story where he needed a liver transplant and one wasn’t available.
The Clinic appeared to not have hope the transplant would help him. His wife pulled him out of there and got him to a University hospital in Madison, Wisconsin where he got his transplant, treatment, and a cure. He was also unhappy that some older rock star (Van Halen?) on his Rochester hospital floor got special treatment while he was at the Clinic. The woman in the seat in front of me also had a negative Clinic story. It turns out she graduated from Minot High a year after I did. We didn’t know each other.
The train arrived at 12:40 am - about 3 1/2 hours late.
My brother was there to meet me. Quickly in the cold a few other people and I picked our luggage off the cart outside the station. My brother and I loaded his pickup with all the stuff I brought along. Even though Minot is another long refueling stop, it was late and only a few die hard smokers got off the train to have a cigarette in the cold night air.
It was late and I was tired. But it was nice to finally be here.
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