Train to Washington

So busy I haven't kept up on my blogging. I am in Tacoma, Washington now as I arrived here this morning. I took a train from Whitefish last night.

The train was over an hour late arriving in Whitefish. The train car attendant was in a bad mood. He told us waiting to get on to wait until the people from the train disembarked before we got on. I did so then got on the train. A half dozen of us were on the train when he yelled for us to get off the train. Huh? We did so. I asked why and he said not everyone was off the train.

But everyone who wanted to get off did so.

Off the train and wait until I say you can board!

As I got off I told Gary who was waiting outside, "This guy is different than the other train car attendants I've had."

The attendant was right behind me and sterned asked, "What did you say?!"

So I repeated my comment directly to him to which he replied, "I guess I am."

After a few minutes he then allowed people to board and asked for couples to board first. Once all the couple boarded he then allowed others to board and Gary and I did so.

A lot of people were on the train and many seats were filled with passengers. The attendant hadn't taken the city destination tags off from above the seats so we couldn't tell which seats were empty until I realized all the tags were still up. Gary and I each found a pair of empty seats. A few minutes later the attendant came and directed a few people to empty seats. He saw me and Gary, and since I had ticked him off, directed the person to the seat next to me.

A short time later a couple came and he had Gary move to a single seat and gave the pair of seats to the couple. Later when he came to write a tag for their destination he learned they were going to Portland and not Seattle. The train would be split in Spokane with different cars going to Portland and Seattle and the couple were in the wrong car. The woman was argumentative and did not believe the attendant they were in the wrong car and they got into an argument. After five minutes the couple finally agreed to move to the Portland car. Gary must have had his headphone on as he did not hear the disagreement and did not move to reclaim his seat. Another woman moved to claim the two seats and stretched out to sleep in them. When the attendant returned he was upset she was in the seats but relented to let her sleep in them until someone would board the train who needed one of the seats.

The next morning the attendant apologized for yelling at me the night before. His excuse was that he had worked 20 hours straight and was experiencing a mood swing. Uh, huh. He also said he wasn't clear in his instructions the night before as I explained I followed what he had said, and that was the same as what other attendants wanted in the past.

Even though the train was an hour late leaving Whitefish we were a half hour early to Seattle. I don't know how we made up that much time overnight.