Wow! It's been awhile...

I guess I've been on blogger hiatus! Time passed so fast and before I knew it, it was almost a month ago that I last posted! Not that anyone is really reading this anyway, but it gives me an outlet, so I guess that is what counts.

I'm now living in the hills of Truckee, California. I'm sitting at the desk of my new job; the back door is wide open and the gentle breeze of our first (near) 70 degree day is tickling my sandaled feet. My back is to the Truckee River. It's pure green water is rushing by quickly from the fresh snow melt. I feel a slight contentment as I watch the people come and go across the street at the train station.

In the beginning of March, we took the train from Reno, NV to Grand Rapids, MI. The forces that be twisted our plans and intersected our course with some really great people. I don't know if I've ever had a better time travelling any where. While some may say what transpired during the trip was an inconvenience, we embraced our fate and turned it into something positive.

We were about 18 hours into the trip when we made a stop in Grand Junction, Colorado. The sun was shining and it was unseasonably warm - lucky for us! Everyone hustled out of the train for smoking breaks and to the station store and fruit stand for pop and snacks. As everyone began to assemble back at their appropriate cars, we were notified that there was a rock slide on the tracks and that we were stuck there for at least 6 hours. We had met a girl from the bay area named Lisa who was making her way back to Terre Haute, Indiana. We rounded her up and went off to find a grocery store and some lunch.

It didn't take us long heading down main street Grand Junction to find a nice brew pub. We went in, sat down and commenced to drink 2 pitchers of beer. After our mass consumption, we walked around town. We stopped at a book store, then we ended up at a very cool record store. We marvelled at their selection of LP's - we even found an old John Hartford record.

We started walking back toward the train when the sun had begun to drop in the sky. Upon arrival at the train station, we found that it was still not time to go. The three of us sat down at some picnic tables across from the train and a group of people began to accumulate around us. Everyone was asking eachother where they were from and where they were heading. We met people coming and going from here to there. There was Tony from Mississippi, Mike from Iowa, a girl moving from California to Georgia to be with her mom...and a host of others. The conversation was fun and before long, bud was being passed around, people were skateboarding and a good time was had by all.

At about 8 o'clock at night, we were summoned to board the train. Free dinner was offered to the passengers and before long we were listening to our head phones and dozing in our uncomfortable coach seating. I'm not really sure that I slept a wink that whole night, but it was fun anyway. We were able to sneak a 5th of Blackberry brandy on board and Lisa found some paper cups in the observation car, so we did shots of brandy and chit chatted with our car members. There was Elvira, an older Christian Philopino woman that befriended us and even tried to do a shot of brandy with us in the spirit of lateness. We also met a young girl who was a singer and she had us listen to her CD that she made at her college. Mississppi Tony was on our car with his new friend Lisa, who had her two daughters with her. We found out that she had left and taken her two daughters after a terrible fight with her husband. He didn' t even know where she went. Everyone had a different story to tell and it was very interesting to hear them. It really helped the time pass.

Before I knew it, it was morning (early) and I couldn't stand to be in that seat any longer, so I gathered up my toiletries and went to ladies room to freshen up and get dressed. Before we left Reno, we had bought a travel Scrabble board game, so when I was done, I grabbed Wile and Lisa and we headed off to the observation car to get some food and play some Scrabble. It didn't take long before our game started attracting other bored train passengers. First we met Ian, a 22 year old Scottish guy that was touring the United States and was on his way to Nebraska to see his uncle and eventually on to Graceland, the ubiquitous home of Elvis Presley. We found out quickly that he was a Scrabble shark, scoring 82 points with his very first word! We had a very drunk guy breathing over our shoulders giving us pointers on words to use, but he couldn't spell, so he eventually staggered away. There was a girl that told us all about how she lived in a big house on the coast but had to move because her dad got busted for attempted murder and growing marijuana and they lost their house because of it and then she went back for some of her stuff and she got arrested for breaking and entering. Then her dad found out in jail that he had a brain tumor and they had to do brain surgery on him to try to remove it. The fun doesn't stop there!!! We knew for a fact who it was, when we smelled the unmistakable aroma of Mary Jane eminating from the ladies room down stairs!!!

The day passed slowly as we said goodbye one by one to our new friends. Ian in Nebraska, Mike in Iowa and a host of others. The sun set and most of us settled in to watch the new Johnny Cash movie. The night was long and we didn't sleep well, but when it was time to get off in Chicago, we still had Elvira, Mississippi Tony, Lisa and the other Lisa and her girls and the crazy pot girl. When we arrived at Union Station, Amtrak put us on a bus to the Best Western as we all had missed our respective connector trains, gave us each $30 for food and told us to assemble back at the buses at 2:00pm. Instead of going to bed, Wile, Lisa and I set out on the early morning streets of Chicago in pursuit of breakfast.

We boarded the buses heading back to Union Station at 2:00pm and found our other familiar travellers and had lunch together before boarding our train at 5:00pm. We arrived in Grand Rapids a whole day late, gathered our packs and said hello to the snowy Michigan night sky. Ahhhh...Home. My dad and brother rushed to pick us up and many hugs abounded.

The Michigan leg of the trip is a wholllllle other story. That will have to be part 2. But, we have since kept in touch with Lisa and gone to visit our Scot friend Ian in Sacramento. We won't ever forget the fun time we had in transit to Michigan...even though we did miss seeing the Rockies as we were so late that we went through at 4 in the morning!! I hope the other great people that we met know that they are thought of fondly. Ahhhhh....Good Times.

Peace.