Earl and Roxie's Excellent Adventure

 New Friends in Room 805   Back across the Mississippi. We made it. 48 hours is a long time to spend in any one place, much less in a 6x6-foot stateroom on a moving train. We were able to get off and walk around at some stops although the fact we were running an hour and a half behind at one point prompted the conductors to eagerly shout “all aboard!” after just a few minutes in order to make up for lost time. It was already dark by the time we crossed over into North Dakota (We apparently went through Fargo around 3:30 a.m., sorry we missed it) and we were well into Minnesota by the time the sky started to brighten to the east. The first daylight stop was in St. Paul, the twin city with Minneapolis, around 8:30 a.m. We wanted to check out the terminal and look for a newspaper but when we got to the concourse there were more than 100 grumpy-looking people waiting in line to board and it appeared getting in line to get back on would be a cluster. So we turned around, zipp...

A Marriage Made in Spokane  Sunrise at Whitefish Station, Montana. I’m writing this on the Empire Builder somewhere east of Havre, Montana keeping fingers crossed we get into the Central Time Zone by nightfall. We shoved off from Union Station in Portland, Oregon just about 24 hours ago and we’ve still got another 24 before we embrace the skyline of Chicago. The first stretch seemed like riding along memory lane as the tracks parallel the Columbia River through the gorge we visited last week albeit on the north bank not the south. As the sun faded we had good views of the towering cliffs and the damage done by forest fires in 2017. So far on this trip each and every embarkation has been with the aim of going somewhere new. Today, instead of going to, we’re returning from, and despite the diversion of new scenery and landscapes, we’re happy to have home in our sights. After doing this on and off for a month, getting onto the train and settled into our cramped accommodations comes as...

In Oregon, Life’s a Beach Short Sand Beach in Oswald State Park With mile upon mile of wide open sand beaches, Oregon has one of the most spectacular coasts in the country. And, with few exceptions, it’s all open to the public. That tradition goes back to 1913 when all 363 miles of the state’s coast was declared a public highway. The public’s claim extends over the entire slope of the beach which can be up to 200 yards wide in places at low tide. Compare that to Maine where folks are still fighting over whether or not the public still has miserly access to a narrow strip of land between high and low tide marks for “fishing, fowling and navigating.” In Oregon you can drive on the beach, picnic, sunbathe (when it is sunny) go swimming, go clamming, fly kites, have open fires, surf, and generally hang out just about anywhere. The ability to have fires is especially alien to those of us on the East Coast. In fact, gift shops in towns here also sell bundles of kindling and firewood. The tak...

  The End of the Trail   Cape Disappointment State Park, Washington. This part of Oregon, on the southern shore of the mighty Columbia River, has long been the western extent of many a great journey. It marks the western zenith of our grand adventure seeing as we are some 3,450 miles from Bar Harbor after a route that has covered more than 4,400 miles, not including another 1,400 miles of side trips. Over the past few days we’ve been learning about those of more noble purpose who preceded us to this place, in particular Lewis and Clark, the dynamic exploring duo of the early 1800s who on their “Voyage of Discovery,” traversed the massive dark territory of the Louisiana Purchase and cemented the United States as truly a country stretching from sea to shining sea. Lewis and Clark Memorial in Seaside. Their exploits are celebrated everywhere here including at a massive bronze statue in the center of Seaside’s main promenade. Locations on the Washington ...

Dancing Green Flames Clouds moved in overnight and it has been raining steady all since before sunup. We saw the forecast last night so the plan from the start is to take another “Zero” day with no major excursions planned.  Along with half-heartedly watching football (the Patriots are not broadcast out here) and a rousing final round of cribbage to determine which team from last night’s tournament is the champion, it’s the perfect day to hang out with Dale, Jane, their daughter Crystal, and her three pre-teen boys, Riley, Rohan and Dashel. Of course the entire household is run as a tight ship, rooms are neat and each boy does his own laundry. There’s plenty of time for fun and creativity in a house that has three separate maker spaces for everything from auto repairs and woodworking, to sewing, to crafts.  Dale, as family patriarch, is part of the equation of course and lately he has been working with the boys to convert a former propane grill tank into a smelting furnace for...

  A Symphony of Water and Rock   The Columbia River Gorge Forming part of the border between Oregon and Washington State, the majestic Columbia River Gorge stretches some 80 miles long and in places is 4,000 feet deep. The river itself, nearly 1,200 miles long, drains about 12 percent of the continental United States and ranks as the country’s fourth largest. We left Seaside mid-morning for the two-hour ride to the gorge. For nearly the entire way we follow the river, it’s broad expanse the perfect maritime highway for the scores of ocean-going ships that ply its waters each day. Petroleum products, automobiles and shipping containers flood in from overseas. Grain brought down from the interior by barges and trains, long logs, and finished lumber make the reverse journey. Near Portland both sides of the river are lined with massive mills and wood yards, with 100-foot-long tree trunks piled in seemingly endless rows. Federal rules prohibit the expo...

  Sea to Shining Sea   Today was all about the beach. Living as we do on the eastern edge of the continent in Bar Harbor it’s easy to take for granted what it means to be close to the sea. Beyond the obvious audio, visual and olfactory delights, there’s a freedom in knowing you can literally step out your door, board a ship, and go pretty much anyplace in the world. No clogged highways. No bus rides. No cancelled plane tickets. Just go. After some three weeks of traversing the interior of North America, where the only waves we saw were in fields of grain, we welcome the chance to feel wet sand under our feet. Sunset Beach is a broad, flat expanse of densely packed sand that is actually listed as a state highway with a speed limit of 25 mph. Winds that get a head start in Northern Japan dance across the Pacific and push the water ashore in a complicated wave pattern with four or more breaks, even on relatively calm days. The southern boundary is set by 1,2...

  Back on Track   Mount Shasta, California After 14 hours of travel that would make the late John Candy proud we finally board the train we should have started the day on. The attendant already had the bunks in our roomette made up and that is fine with us. We have covered 400 miles by Uber, Amtrak bus, and commuter rail to get to this point. There are nearly 700 more miles left before this part of our Hejira is through. The wild fires north of Santa Barbara that cancelled our train out of Los Angeles was no fault of Amtrak and they did a pretty good job of rescheduling everything. During the three hours we wait, additional commuter trains deposit more and more people in similar situations at the station in Martinez, California for the rendezvous with the re-routed Coast Starlight. With a resounding “All Aboard!” from the conductor, we are back on track at 11 p.m. By 6 a.m. Thursday the sky is barely starting to lighten in the east as the two locom...

 Up In Smoke   Bakersfield, California Amtrak Station Our scheduled plans for travel today, literally, went up in smoke. Wild fires in the Santa Barbara area closed down all Amtrak trains running on the coastal route including the Coast Starlight which we were booked on for the overnight run to Portland, Oregon. That means the scenes of the spectacular Pacific coastline we had been looking forward to are not to be. Personally, I think running a fast train, composed of flame-resistant, stainless steel passenger cars, through a gauntlet of towering flames would be kind of exciting and a great photo op, but cooler heads have prevailed. We found out in an email from Amtrak when we got back from yesterday’s shore excursion. After an hour on hold with customer service I was finally able to talk to a representative who explained our travel life was about to get a bit more complicated. Option one was that we could stay another day in La La Land, at our expense, and merely ta...