My trip was good. The 12+ hrs passed quickly even if the train was 15-20 minutes late to Minot. I had only 3 hrs sleep the night before so in the afternoon I slept hard on the train.
By coincidence I ended up sitting in the same car and seat that I had gotten for Tammy when she returned home the beginning of the month. When Tammy returned to Minnesota she was assigned to a car without electrical plug-ins for phone and computers. So I had checked the car ahead of hers and discovered it had electrical outlets along the seats and also had many more open seats. So I moved her there.
In the morning I went to the observation car to read the newspaper. Lots of people - mainly retirees - were filling the seats. You'd think the rest of the cars were full, which was not the case.
Also in the observation car Amtrak had a historical volunteer from the Yukon Gold Rush historical society (no idea where that is located) who explained the area over (at times loud) a loudspeaker. He was very good and very knowledgeable about Glacier Park and Montana. I even learned a few things.
As the observation car was a little crowded a young woman asked if she could sit at my table. Sure. She was bicycling part way across the U.S. before starting officer school for the Marines in Virginia. She and her boyfriend had bicycled from Seattle to Whitefish. He would return to Seattle on that evening's train and she was taking this train to St Paul, MN where she will continue her ride to Virginia, alone part of the way and with friends or a sister on other parts.
In addition to having bicycling in common she and I also had in common experiences with hiking among the Hill tribes of Thailand and visiting a Burma border town in the Golden Triangle.
Typical of young people now-a-days is the texting while conversing with you.
Apparently the young have learned to (or must?!) multi-task, even if studies show it is not efficient and each task suffers.When she spoke with me, and had to explain things, she put the phone down and closed it. I am not sure she even consciously realized she had picked the phone up the times I droned on. I figure it was because of texts from her boyfriend. She had told me it was hard to leave him. She also told me she enjoyed our conversation. Probably also a habit the young have to reassure people they are not ignoring them while texting.
Other than our conversation I mainly slept or read magazines. I barely glanced at the scenery outside other than to note the clouds or lack of them at various times. In North Dakota fires flared from pipes at several oil pump sites and it was actually cool to see in the dusk. While I have traveled this land numerous times over the decade I still was surprised at my lack of interest in the scenery. I do enjoy seeing the open expanse of the Plains.
At Stanley, ND a middle aged man got on the train and was heading to Chicago. I gathered from his cell phone conversation this was the first time he had ridden on the train as he was describing the seats and the experience to the other person. He also described his job and living conditions. As expected from someone getting on at Stanley he worked in the oil fields. He lived in a trailer with 12 other men. Six bunk beds were on one side and 6 bunk beds were on the other with the kitchen and dining area in the middle. He said living conditions were made harder as these men never cleaned or picked up anything. "And they're grown men", he said.
Before I left Montana I spoke with a woman whose husband was now also working in Stanley. When I told her I was heading to Minot she asked if I knew of any places to live around here as that is the hardest thing to find right now. She also told me lots of men have moved from the Flathead Valley to North Dakota to work. (The latest North Dakota Job Service data shows about 7,000 people have moved to North Dakota from out of state to work in the drilling business). Many of the men she knew from the Flathead have left their families and houses behind; partly because it is hard to sell homes right now, and partly because of the difficulty of finding a place to live in NW North Dakota. The fellow on the train told the person he was talking to he hoped to eventually find an apartment so she could come join him here.
From all this you'd think people were talking about living and working in the Arctic or some other remote place, though to many non-North Dakotans it is probably the same.
The fellow on the train was stressing that the temperature in the morning the other day was already down to 43 degrees! Ya... we'll see how tough these people are after a winter here.Here is a recent article about oil activity and Minot: Ward County waits for oil
I've been here just one day and it seems busier. I also read that the number of fares-paying airline passengers boarding at Minot International Airport was up 44 percent in August and flights have been added. Quite different from the Flathead airport where the numbers are lower.
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