My uncle Rick has a boat, and the past few years he has taken a long boat trip around Puget Sound on his vacation. As this is usually in July/August - a time where it is easier for me to take a short time away from the ranch - he and I have hopes of going on a boat trip together next Summer. I love the ocean. Cross your fingers!
My uncle Curt and aunt Cathy were great hosts as always, but it was time for me to return to Montana on Monday.
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| Train arriving at the Tacoma train station. |
After taking the Amtrak Cascades train from Tacoma to Seattle and arriving at noon I had an hour and forty minutes before I had to catch my train to Montana. I decided to walk around downtown Seattle. I had packed light for this trip so I was able to carry my two small bags with me.
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| Unusual building near the Seattle King Street train station. |
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| Flowers across the street from the Seattle train station. |
I hadn't seen the ocean (other than from the train window) on this trip so I walked to the waterfront. Getting to the water was easier said than done. I was able to finally access the ocean at the Seattle ferry terminal.
The day was gorgeous. No wind. Sunny. Warm but not hot. The sights and sounds and light along the waterfront brought me back to a few years ago in September when I caught an Alaskan cruise ship at the Seattle waterfront near here.
While looking at, and smelling the ocean, a ferry arrived from across Puget Sound. After watching the ferry dock I had to leave so I could get back to the train station in time to catch the train.
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| Ferry leaving and one arriving. |
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| Bicycles were the first to leave the ferry. |
Back at the train station I learned the train would be late. Forty minutes late it turned out. Amtrak had to switch in another dining car as the first one had a problem.
The train station had undergone a remodel / restoration since I last was here. It was now bright and white. Not dark like I remembered. The police no longer came around with a dog to sniff your luggage while you sit there. Some functions (like the ticketing area) had been moved. One side effect of all the new marble(?) is that the acoustics were terrible when announcements were made over the loudspeaker. The Amtrak official had to go around the room and repeat the news about the train being late.
I was near the front of the line to board the train. Using my long legs I was the first to board my train car and got the pick of the seats. My car was the last car until we connected (at Spokane) to the train coming from Portland, Oregon. I chose a seat on the ocean and shady side of the train and a seat with a larger window view. I also chose a seat near the back of the train. The train was nowhere near full. Everyone who wanted two seats to themselves got them and there were still some seats pairs open.
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| Recognize this view from when I arrived in Seattle? |
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| I believe those are the Olympic Mountains on the horizon. |
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| Heading to the Cascade Mountains to cross them. |
Now to stories about the train passengers near me...
After the train got underway, and the conductor scanned our train tickets, a skinny knit-hat wearing 19 year old guy in the seat in front of me hung a small sling from the overhead area above his seats. Into the sling he placed a ferret. "Mocha". This guy had hid his ferret in his backpack until now.
The ferret was quiet and well behaved and just laid in the sling. Apparently ferrets are a turn on for women as several cooed over the ferret and one got to hold and snuggle with it for a short while. Train attendants often came and checked the back train door. They noticed the ferret hanging in the sling, but other than a few raising an eyebrow, none of them said anything.
Here is a 32 second video of the ferret: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkDTnHAgW6c&feature=youtu.be
A short time later a train conductor came with a woman and seated her in the pair of empty seats across the aisle from the ferret boy. Apparently this woman complained to Amtrak about a guy stalking her. She said he had hung around her at the Seattle train station then sat near her after boarding the train. She claimed that she never spoke with the guy and he smelled of alcohol.
This woman was also going to Whitefish, Montana where her 69 year old mother would be picking her up. While I believe she said her name was "Shy" (short for Cheyenne), I will be referring to her as "MT woman".
Shortly after the conductor left the MT woman noticed the ferret and began a conversation with the ferret boy. She was middle aged (43 she later claimed) but spoke like a 20 yr old something ("Awesome!") and often in cliches. She was quick to flatter people. At one point in their conversation I noticed her eying me but by then (rather quickly I might add) I realized she may be trouble. I may talk a lot but she easily out talked me - while not really saying anything of substance. She talked and talked... and talked. She didn't seem to like silence. So I tried to not notice her or encourage her to interact with me.
She then lamented about not being able to smoke and was dying for a smoke even though we had been on the train for less than an hour. She held a cigarette in her hand. She asked everyone when people could smoke. I told her the smoking break was at Wenatchee, Washington. When the train stopped in a siding to let a freight train pass she wondered if she could open the back door to have a smoke. I told her the train attendant would not like it. -- I know, I am such a spoilsport. -- She wondered if she could talk an attendant into opening the downstairs door while the train was stopped so she could step outside to smoke. I doubt it.
She then lamented that the bar was in the lounge car and would not open until 11 pm after we arrived in Spokane and connected to it. She said she only makes this trip once a year. She claimed to not normally drink but since she was not driving she would like to have a drink. Several times she said, "I'm not an alcoholic but I'd like to have a drink for a little fun since I am on vacation."
She talked about a previous train trip where she was in a car full of Amish people from Pennsylvania. "No one would talk to me!" She described that journey as being in a ghost train car as there were bodies but none of them had 'spirits'.
The MT woman also talked with a guy sitting in the seat in front of ferret boy. This guy was pale and pudgy and looked to be a nerd who didn't talk much with women. I bet he was in heaven talking with her.
Across the aisle from me was a 30 year old Native American Indian woman with tattoos returning to Wolf Point, Montana. I *believe* she told the MT woman that she had a 16 yr old child. Whoa! She said her name as "Cat". A little later Cat returned from the mini-lounge area set up in part of the dining car. She had a can of Miller-lite.
So the MT woman, ferret boy, nerd guy, and a guy who had just walked by to look out the back window went to the dining car. This last guy was in his late 20s and more attractive than ferret boy or nerd guy.
A minute later ferret boy came back and got his ferret and placed it on his shoulder. A short time later he came back alone and was pouting. To Cat he said, "The train people are so rude!" Apparently when he entered the dining car with the ferret the train attendant told him, "Get that damn thing out of here right now!" Ferret boy was upset the attendant had called his ferret 'a damn thing' and not a ferret.
Later as ferret boy sulked nerd guy came back. They had a discussion about the MT woman and the guy she just met. Apparently both had noticed she was getting affectionate with him. Nerd guy felt like a third wheel, was uncomfortable and left.
The MT woman and the guy came back to her seats and were talking and cuddling. Soon I heard loud kissing and then saw her leaning into him. They left and came back later. Their demeanor had changed and they had a 'glow' and were quiet as she cuddled next to him.
Then she realized her purple coat was gone. She looked around her seat area and was getting upset. The guy suggested she look in the other places they had been and off she went. He played with his phone for a while and then left before the Wenatchee station stop. I never saw him again.
The MT woman came back still looking for her coat. "If I see a bitch wearing my coat I'm going to kick her fucking ass!"
I thought, "Go out and have your cigarette before the station stop is over." Off she went.
Ferret boy got off the train at Wenatchee. I hoped no one would get on and sit next to the MT woman and maybe she would be quiet with fewer people to talk with. A man wearing a motorcycle shirt / coat and a head bandana and with tattoos came on board and walked to the back of the train. In a loud voice he said, "I heard that the back of the train is where the party people sit and I'm ready to party."
Someone made a comment that yeah, this is the party area. I just looked at the guy and said nothing. He decided not to sit in the empty seats behind me but chose to sit where ferret boy had sat.
He looked around and said in a loud voice, "Just so everyone knows, I'm an asshole and I'm proud of it." Then he took his jacket off and sat down in his seat.
The MT woman was back in her seat when the train conductor came and scanned the tattooed guy's ticket. The MT woman stood up and interrupted the conductor and asked if he wanted to see her ticket again. The conductor, an older stern man, said no, for her to sit down in her seat as he was going to have a talk with her after he finished with this guy's ticket.
The conductor then sat down next to the MT woman and told her she was intoxicated, he was tired of her hitting on all the men on the train and he had gotten complaints about her behavior. He told her to stop it, stay in her seat, settle down and be quiet. Otherwise he would kick her off the train. She tried to protest that she didn't do anything but he said he would give her just one warning and if she didn't behave she was leaving the train. Don't test him. With that he left. He was upset.
After a minute the MT woman got up and leaned over the back of her seat to talk with Cat. "Did you hear what he just said?! He was so rude. (A word she picked up from ferret boy). I'm being accused of things I didn't do."
She looked around. To Cat: "I know you didn't say that about me." To the guy in the seat behind Cat: "I know you didn't say that about me." To the nerd guy: "I know you didn't say that about me." To the tattooed guy: "I know you didn't say that about me." She looked at me but said nothing then looked away. Then to no one(?) in particular she complained that some people were complainers, said untrue things and were no fun.
And here I was trying to avoid her drama. Now I may have to sleep with one eye open.
The tattooed guy then offered her his sympathy. Minutes later he was sitting in the seat next to her. After a short while they left. They weren't gone long, and when they came back they sat in his seats in front of me with the MT woman sitting in the window seat.
They were chatting their life histories as one does when traveling with strangers. He said he didn't graduate high school and claimed to have been in the Marine corp. She shouted "Semper Fi!" and later "Hoo hah!" She giggled and talked quiet and loud. Then I heard loud kissing.
The nerd guy must have had enough as he gathered his belongings and moved to the empty seats behind me. He didn't look happy. I looked at him as he walked by but didn't say what was on my mind about him.
Back to the "couple":
"You're so handsome."
"I love your accent. Talk to me some more." (He seemed to have a slight southern accent although he claimed to have grown up in a small town in western Washington State.)
A few more: "You're so handsome."
They seemed to have had a blanket and then I heard her wiggle in her seat and briefly seen her hand come up just above her seat and it appeared she had an article of clothing - a bra?
A short time later she left and headed towards the bathrooms. Soon she returned and slipped back into the window seat. On the side of the seat against the window I could see the top of her head.
"My ass is slipping off the seat." For those who have ridden on the train you know how large the seats are and how hard it is to fall out of them..
"I can be noisy."
"You're making my kitty purr."
Yep.
A few times she made a loud sound and Cat, who was wearing headphones and laying down, looked up and over to the couple. Hearing nothing further Cat put her head back down.
After a while the couple were quiet.
How long had she known guy number two? A hour or two?
Later when I got up to use the bathroom, on my way back to my seat I saw them sitting snuggled together under a blanket and sleeping leaning against one another.
When the dining car closed for the night the train attendant announced it over the loudspeaker.
Nooooo.... don't wake her up.
She awoke. But she was so groggy she headed off to the bathrooms. When she returned she laid in her two seats under a coat or blanket. Several times later during the night he leaned over her and whispered in her ear but she didn't get up.
It was quiet the rest of the night and I was able to get some sleep without having to keep one eye open all the time.
We arrived at Whitefish almost an hour late at 5:25 am. The tattooed guy and his stuff were gone. He was going to Chicago so maybe he went to the lounge car and didn't trust leaving his stuff at his seat. A young woman who gotten on the train at Spokane had gotten into a mix-up with Cat with water bottles. Cat apparently had confused her water bottle with this woman's water bottle. Until she drank from it. Apparently the clear liquid wasn't water. They laughed about it.
The MT woman was up and ready when got to Whitefish. She was getting her bags downstairs and I declined her offer to go ahead of her and instead waited for her to exit the train with her bags. She was quiet. Hung over?
Once off the train I passed her and went to find Jan in the parking lot.
You know, you can read about stuff like this in Penthouse Forum. I guess it may not always be made up.
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