The train was losing time all morning, and at its stop at Rugby, ND the train was an hour and twenty-three minutes late. Amtrak kept predicting they would make up a half hour in the 90 minutes it normally takes the train to go from Rugby to Minot. I didn't believe it. I didn't get to the train station until 15 minutes before Amtrak's estimated arrival time. I got my ticket and settled down for what I thought would be a 45 minute wait. Surprise! Amtrak made up the 30 minutes and arrived when they predicted they would. Good thing I didn't wait longer before coming to the train station!
Since the baggage area is closed 30 minutes prior to a train's arrival I didn't check any of my luggage. I was able to find a spot in a train car's luggage area for all my stuff. (My luggage cart was piled high with my stuff.) I had to talk the train attendant in letting me board another car that had more luggage space for my stuff.
The train had more people than usual at this time of the year. Usually it is a slow time of the year to travel and times in the past the car would only be a quarter to a third full. This time it was over half full. Still I was able to find two seats open together and never had a seatmate the entire trip.
Around ten people in the seats behind me were traveling as a group to Spokane, Washington. Two women talked... a lot. They talked just to talk even when they had nothing to say. On and on and on. It got old fast. I had quiet when they went to supper. It must have been a good supper as later they were mostly quiet and the woman in the seat behind me even fell asleep judging from the occasional snoring.
Across the aisle from me was a young woman - college age I estimate - traveling back home to the Flathead Valley. She didn't talk much, but during one long phone conversation she used the word 'like'... like every seventh word. I guess it is a trait of the young people these days. I remember when it was just Valley Girls in the 1980s that used 'like' all the time.
Near a stop at Wolf Point, Montana one young man ("man 1") asked another young man ("man 2") across the aisle and back a couple rows if he would keep an eye on his stuff as he was going to get a bite to eat. Once the train left Wolf Point "man 2" got concerned and told the conductor that walked by that he was worried that "man 1" had gotten left at Wolf Point and he was asked to watch his stuff. The conductor assured "man 2" that he wasn't responsible for "man 1's" stuff. Later "man 1" returned from having a bite to eat in the dining car to the great relief of "man 2". The two young men looked to be in their early 20s and prior to this I had thought of them as being intelligent adults.
Unlike prior trips few people got on or off across central Montana. As usual, now that the oil boom started in western ND, more people than in the past got on or off across western North Dakota. Mainly young men.
Sweetgrass Hills. I never tire of looking at them.
Sunset. Below the sunset you can just barely make out the Rocky Mountains. That is a jet making the white streak across the top of the photos.
Amtrak slowly gained time during the day and we arrived in Whitefish around 30 to 40 minutes late. In eastern Montana I could feel the train was going faster than normal as the cars rocked back and forth more than usual.
Patti was at the station to meet me and drive me home. It is good that her car is a four wheel drive as my driveway had plenty of snow on it. She was able to make it in and out of my driveway using her four wheel drive. While it had not been cleared since I left in December, the snow was not super deep. But it was a combination of snow that had settled, thawed and re-froze, had blown in, and therefore it was heavy and dense.
Here is the snow near the end of the next day after I had shoveled part of the driveway. Clearing the snow was a pain as the snow could not be pushed and had to be carried. The snow was 'slippery' and would easily slide off the shovel when the shovel was not held straight.
As for the 'disaster' part of the email, more on that in my next post.
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