Saturday's Departure

Our train left Seattle’s King Street Station on time, at 4:45 p.m., with the crowd of passengers in a festive mood that is sorely lacking at airports these days.

A side note: Friends and relatives are allowed on the platform to see people off—when was the last time you could accompany someone to the gate at an airport? Even getting to an airport gate with a child traveling alone is a hassle. Believe me, I did it for years when Younger Son was going to SF to see his father and didn’t feel ready to handle security or the wait at the gate on his own.

Lots of students—both college students and younger kids with their parents—on the train, including two girls who tried to occupy a sleeper car roomette without a ticket. (They only had coach tickets.)

Younger Son and I heard snatches of the argument down the corridor from our little roomette, which was to be our home for the next 45 hours—yes, we arrived in Chicago rested, refreshed, and ON TIME on Monday afternoon at about 4.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. I was amazed at the chutzpa of these students—who I would have expected to go meekly back to their reserved seats in coach. But no, they argued with the conductor: “Why shouldn’t we sit here if no one is sitting here?” And he replied, “It’s stealing.”

When he threatened to put them off the train, they backed down and moved.

A conductor also made an announcement that someone had been smoking in a lavatory “and we know who you are!” If it happened again, he said, the smoker would be put off the train. That’s quite a threat as you head toward Montana, snow, and darkness.

Designated Smoke Stops
For some reason, Amtrak’s “designated smoke stops” amused me. The first one of our trip was at 8:35 p.m. Saturday in Wenatchee, Washington, a town in the middle of the state known for its production of apples and its citizens’ consumption of the antidepressant Prozac.

The conductor instructed all smokers getting off for the smoke break to more 25 feet away from the train, but at the same time to be careful not to be left behind.

We peered down the platform, but only saw one lonely smoker, huddled against the wind in the classic smoker’s hunch.

We had plenty of time to sleep on the journey.

@ Jeanne Sather 2008.

Comments

[Carver]

I hope you and your son are enjoying your trip thus far. Sounds like a fun trip.