Friday, June 15, 2012

The Trip West


They say getting there is half the fun. After doing a few errands with Peggy on Tuesday morning, she dropped me off at the Springfield/Franconia Metro stop and I was off on my adventure via the subway to Washington’s Union Station. The train station is a very familiar place as my entire work career took place only two blocks away at the US Government Printing Office, so I enjoyed many shopping and lunch vistits over the 33 years. The next leg of my journey was on the AMTRAK Capitol Limited bound for Chicago. The train seemed to be full of Girl Scouts going home from their 100th anniversary celebration on the Mall. The girls quieted down as night fell and surprisingly I had no problem sleeping on the train. I woke early and had a 6:00am breakfast and enjoyed the ride until we arrived in Chicago on Wednesday morning about 9:00 am.

My connecting train to Portland (The Empire Builder)didn’t leave until 2:15pm, so I found a WIFI signal and caught up with email.

There are not many sightseeing attractions visible from the train, but we did pass Rugby ND, which is the geographical center of North America, and according to a native is marked by a pile of rocks.


As we traveled farther west, things did get a little more interesting as we passed through Glacier National Park and the Columbia River Gorge before arriving in Portland. I have some time to kill before my bus leaves for Astoria OR, so I thought I would update you on my progress west.



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