My heart is heavy

April 11, 2016

Yes, I am off in another adventure.  Heading back west and north, again.  At least both places have much warmer weather than we were experiencing at home.  Even Alaska has been warmer!  My crocus were out for a day or two and then buried again under six inches of snow.  All of our April showers so far have been snow showers so I am excited to be heading west to warmer weather.

I left Kate's at our usual 6:00 starting time.  It was extremely foggy most of the way to East Lansing but at least the roads were clear and dry.  Agnes was hanging out upstairs when I left she was not at all excited to meet Kate's dogs yesterday.  She hide under the lockers for an hour before I could get her out and moved upstairs.  She did sleep at might feet last night.  I am sure she will do fine there.

Looks like we are going to have a fun conductor in our car on this trip.  He seems to be very jolly so far.  The lady sitting in front of me is a retired school teacher out of New York.  She has only been retired four years but is loving it very much.  We met in the train station and decided to set close to one another on this journey.  She, too, is going to Seattle.  Found out her name when we went to the Lounge Car it is Gloria.  We also caught up with the other lady we were talking to at Union Station in Chicago.  She is Leslie.  We sat in the Observation Deck car until Gloria and I left fir diner at 5:15.  Was very interesting learning about each other's experiences..  Leslie is still working but at what she didn't say.  But her company has sent her on trips overseas several times.  

So far there is nothing exciting to see as were are still in the Chicago area but the sun is shinning and bright so the day is wonderful no matter how you look at it.

Had dinner in the dinning car.  Was wonderful, shrimp and crab cakes, rice and a vegetable medley.  I opted for a salad.  Plus we had a desert, had a chocolate truffle.  Probably the only meal I will purchase as it was 34.00 plus a tip.  Gloria ate dinner with me and another gentleman.  He seemed to be a history buff was very knowledgeable about the Dakotas and kept us entertained all through dinner.

It appears we are starting to see some of the foothills even though we are still in Wisconsin.  But our next stop after this one will actually be in Minnesota and it is starting to get dark so I will miss seeing most of North Dakota.  Montana will be a daylight trip so that will be fun and the mountains will be great.

Have made it to Minneapolis/St Paul, looks like we will be here forty minutes.  Must be restocking supplies or changing staff.  But is a nice break and gives the smokers a nice smoke break.

There has also been a young lady on this trip that I have been talking too.  She is going to Spokane to work on an organic farm.  She works May through November.  She and her boyfriend want to go to anchorage in 2017 so she has been asking questions about Alaska.  They plan to stay on a hostel and maybe do some work to cover the cost of their stay.  She is probably in her twenties and traveling alone.  Which on a train does not seem to be an issue at all.  It seems as though there are a lot of young people on this train.

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