JOANAH IN SLEEPLESS IN SEATLE HOW TO
JOANAH IN SLEEPLESS IN SEATLE FULL

It’s a chilly day here in Seattle but the sun is shining and we are taking some time to recharge and repack. Pat and I were introduced to much of North Dakota’s landscape, the Rocky Mountains throughout Glacier National Park and the raging rapids in the state of Washington. People played cards, drank soda and beer and kept their eyes on the ever changing scenery. Cramped but doable as long as our panniers stayed in a luggage area, this train offered us private sleeping quarters and an observation car equipped with swivel chairs, glass ceilings and windows. Once on the Empire Builder in Chicago, we secured a roomette, all of four feet by seven feet. We soon recognized she had some cognitive challenges and everyone in the train car stepped up to help her get through the next several hours. She was terrified without him, had no money and held on tight to a teddy bear from Shoney’s. Unfortunately, he left his partner to fend for herself. In Charleston, WV, a man sitting directly across from us, was handcuffed and removed from the train by three local police officers when he refused to stop badgering the conductor and continued to escalate.

JOANAH IN SLEEPLESS IN SEATLE HOW TO

We quickly learned about shift changes, smoke breaks, how to take a shower in a moving train and when a conductor threatens to throw someone off the train, they mean business. We had our share of microwaved TV dinners ( because of the pandemic they have not been preparing fresh meals ), coped with no running water in the bathrooms for several hours and maintained our composure when we discovered we had purchased train tickets to Chicago on the Cardinal through Virginia, West Virginia and then back up through Kentucky, Ohio and Indianapolis (a 24 hour trip) rather than the much quicker route through Maryland and Pennsylvania. We chatted with other travelers, were exposed to exquisite scenery, provi ded care to a needy passenger and fell in line with the regimented Amtrak rules.

JOANAH IN SLEEPLESS IN SEATLE FULL

The past few days were full of pleasure and the unexpected. Not quite, although after three days of living and sleeping (first in coach and then in bunk beds) on two Amtrak trains we are ready for our last bit of luxury before we begin cycling east.

Joanah in sleepless in seatle