Train Ride To Camp

This is a trip I took last summer. Enjoy.

And So It Begins...Day one on the train across country to the campground.

It’s nice to be able to get some more sleep. I only slept two hours last night. I was so tired this morning I couldn’t even think. The world is passing by outside the window. Beautiful. Contemplating getting food from the cafe car. Roseville looks so very quaint from here. The dining car is open, but right now that idea is too stuffy for me. They want reservations. No reservations for the cafe car and the cafe has more of the food I want to eat.

People are getting on the train. More people. The last time I thought there would be people standing in the isle so many got on. But no. Big comfy seats. I like looking out the window.Oh - the Mormons. Four young Mormon men outside on their bikes. I got flanked by two Mormon women the other day while I was waiting for the bus. I couldn’t believe they had the guts to brave my neighborhood. I told them I would go to their church to see this play on Sunday. But I lied. You couldn’t pay me to set foot in their church. They wouldn’t want me in their church. Couldn’t handle me. God can, but not the Mormons.

I love riding past bodies of water. Sparkling; even if it’s filthy, contaminated water it still sparkles.

The Amish Take The Train?

Day two on the train. The tracks go through the backside of most cities. Traveling through small towns it goes down the middle of the main street practically. Think this is still Nevada. I could pull out the schedule and check, but I don’t feel like it and it doesn’t really matter anyway.

It’s 6:58 mountain time. We just left a stop. Surrounded by mountains. I slept quite well. Much More rested than I was yesterday at this time, that’s for sure.Provo Utah Population ten thousand and something.Helper Utah, where many an outlaw laid their heads. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.In Utah the rock formations look almost chiseled out and leveled off by hand. The hand of God. Green River, Grand River, Colorado River, Grand Junction - I’m waiting for Petticoat Junction! We picked up some Amish folks in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. One woman smiled at me. I smiled back. That was nice. I ignore the people passing by, that I pass when I walk down the isle. It’s much more interesting to see what’s outside the window. We’re closing in on Denver. Going through the Rocky Mountains. Beautiful. Rolling next to the Colorado River.People tubing down the river. I would love to be doing that. Only went tubing once and it was a blast. Someone has a house along the river. Who wouldn’t kill for that? A few more houses, farms. Its getting dark. Wonder if it’s going to rain? It’s not even 5 pm yet. Definitely cloudy. Mountain climbing the Rockies...

It’s raining. Thunder and lightening coming down hard. Sideways.We’re in Frasier and we’re four hours late. We going to travel through Nebraska overnight. While I sleep. That’s good. All the boring parts while I sleep. We’re closing in on Denver still. Apparently lots of people are going to get on there. It’s almost 10 pm now.We’re three hours behind now. How fast did the conductor have to kick it up to in order to make up that hour? Still find it hard to believe at the end of this journey I’ll be in Michigan, on the land. Then another journey begins.Think that last stop was a false alarm for people, but we are in Denver. Denver just has more that one train stop. Yep. Here we come to a big train yard. It’s the main stop. Three and a half hours now.

About the Amish. There were five of them. Two parents - I’m assuming - and three kids. Two boys and a girl. One boy was young, no more than 8 or 9 and wore a maroon shirt with his blue pants and suspenders. The older boy was well into his teens and sported a beard rounded at the bottom, like his father. Both wore white shirts and the same blue pants and suspenders as the young boy. The older woman was plump and smiled at me as she got on. Her smile made me feel good, so I smiled back. The other young woman was a teenager and wore a blue dress made of the same material as the man’s pants. The women had on white shirts too underneath their dresses and wore white bonnets. The mother wore glasses and had a pleasantly round face and red hair. The top of the father’s head was bald and shiny. He was a heavy man. He spoke in words I could not understand. I couldn’t even catch phrases.

An older black woman sat in front of me. She smiled at me earlier. Seemed nice. She looked about my mother’s age. Then again, every older black woman reminds me of my mother. Although my mother will swear up and down that she’s not old. Oh well, after the the train conductor people fucked around in Denver for so long we are - again - four hours late.

God, It Stinks In Here!

One of the drawbacks to long train rides in the coach section is that there is no where to shower. A two day trip is fine, but going on three days, it gets kind of rank. It could definitely prompt one to exclaim (as the woman did when she was leaving the car) that it smelled in here.The train is still roughly four hours late. I don’t have a clue what’s to become of my connecting train to Grand Rapids from Chicago. We’re still in Nebraska, making our way to Omaha. Hopefully I’ll get into Michigan sometime before midnight and get to my hotel room.

I just found out. We’re going to be arriving in Chicago five and a half hours late. They’re going to have shuttle buses ready to take me to my final destination. Now that’s what I call service! Of course not being late in the first place would have been better, but oh well.I have my headphones on so I don’t have to listen to this young guy macking on this girl behind me. Listening to Spoon’s I Turn My Camera On - from that jaguar commerical. I enjoyed that song so much I found it and bought it. Whole CD is pretty good too.

Nebraska and Iowa are both boring as hell to travel through. I would throw Illinois in there too, but I’m from there and corn fields in Illinois still triggers that close-to-home excitement. Corn fields anywhere else is just boring. I’m going to take the longest shower known to the human race when I get to my hotel room. Then I’m going to open my bags and throw everything on the floor (I think i forgot my camera at home)...

The Amish family got off at Osceola, Iowa. And surprise, surprise a brotha got on. The only black passengers I’ve seen on the train are the woman in front of me, and the man that just got on. Everyone else I’ve seen has either been white ( or white-like), or an employee. The white people pass over and around the black woman in front of me like she’s an obstacle to get around on their way to wherever. They don’t see her, barely even looked in her direction as they pass her seat. I think I ‘ve gotten the attention I have because I’m an anomaly for them. The way I look, the energy I give off forces their attention. Sad.

Oh Great! All the teenagers in the car have found one another and congregated behind me. Have I mentioned how irritating those little bastards are? The headphones are going back on! I swear, animals and kids! They are drawn to me for some inexplicable reason.