Welp...You've Come THIS Far

 Welcome to the penultimate post covering my 2026 Amtrak Trip, I am happy you are (hopefully) still reading and caught up. And I'm sorry for taking so long to post (Bradley), but the internet service has been spotty at best (which is good BTW) and I've been busy. When we last left off I was on the train heading to Portland and had awakened to some of the most spectacular views yet of my train voyage, let's see if we can top those stories.  

The beautiful Oregon scenery continued from the morning wake up call almost all the way into Portland. Just south of Portland there is surprisingly a lot of manufacturing, and other large scale industrial activity along the river and I found the logging facilities be interesting in both their scale and obvious dangerousness. We rode along the river and through some really cool forests all the way up and I was constantly in awe at the shear overwhelming views. I cannot suggest the trip up the California coast into the Oregon coast enough, as it was indeed a highlight of my travels on Amtrak. 

 Once I got into Portland and settled into my hotel I took a walk around the "Pearl District", which my Uber driver told me it is called that because it is in the Pearl district (yep, circuitous was he) and found it to be really cool. I dropped in and out of a few recommended places and enjoyed them all.  I then met one of my Clemson buddies, Cari, for dinner and got caught up on her and Chuck's lives since they left Clemson some time ago. They're both enjoying the area and she was full of suggestions for touring around the next day. After a quick walk/drive around the area we headed out to Multnomah Falls for some tourist sightseeing and a quick walk up the path to the  top of the falls. The area is really pretty even though it is accessed via an interstate with parking the middle of the interstate...which I found very interesting. The falls were cool and the walk was just what I needed after so many hours on the train, so all in all a very good idea by Cari to go see the falls. Nearby was a nice brewery overlooking yet another river with a view of one of the many fancy bridges in the area. Once I saw it I quickly googled "tacoma narrows bridge collapse" and realized we were pretty far from that site, which was good since I needed to get back to Portland to catch the "Empire Builder" going east towards Chicago. The Portland train station, like many out west, is a beautiful building and a 'must see' if you're ever in the area. 

 

 

 All the major Amtrak lines have names and "Empire Builder" is what they call the line from Chicago to the northwest states. It splits in Spokane and one half goes to Seattle and the other half goes to Portland. When they head back to the east they are separate lines that wait on each other in Spokane and then continue towards Chicago as one train. The ride out of Portland was very cool with more beautiful scenery and was somewhat full. I spent most of my time in the observation car (sit on the right for best views) and ended up in a very interesting conversation with a guy from the Bronx, a union worker from Oregon and an Amish family from Iowa. Yep, that's Amtrak in a nutshell. Unfortunately the Portland half of the train did not have a dining car, so I just waited till well after sundown and ate some snacks from my backpack and tried to settle in for the night. Sleep, as it has been on almost every overnight segment, was elusive and ended up just being a series of short naps. Morning was a little foggy, both outside and in my head due to lack of sleep, but once everything cleared up there was plenty of continuous beautiful scenery as we ventured into the high mountains of Idaho and Montana. Once we finally reached West Glacier station in Belton, Montana I got off and made my way across the street to the Belton Chalet which is a very old little inn with a few floors of rooms, a game room, a nice fireplace in the lobby and an attached resturaunt.  I took a quick nap to try and catch up on sleep and then headed back across the road to the village where I was told there is a business rented bikes. Unfortunately "JP" the overenthusiastic sales guy who recently graduated Florida State University only had E-Bikes for rent, no real bikes were available at his place or within a reasonable distance according to him, so I had to compromise my integrity and rent what I, and most of my cycling friends, call a "DAMN E-Bike". My original plan was just to cruise around the area and visit one of the nearby lakes; but, since I had this damn e-bike JP assured me that I could ride up the "Going to the Sun" highway and even past the place where the cars have to stop and ride on even further up the hill, so I went ahead and rented the DEB. After he packed the rack bag with tools, spare tube, a pump and bear spray I rode back to the hotel to get my rain coat since I figured I would need it with the higher altitude riding I was now planning and the thick layer of clouds that were building up. I was ashamedly cruising up the road in the mist and light rain when an oncoming truck stopped to tell me that there was a bear and two cubs standing on the side of the road. At least he didn't want to point out that I was a sellout to the real cycling community and only wanted to inform me that my life was in imminent danger, which I find preferable to being seen on a DEB. As I approached said bear I was confident that not only my astute awareness of my surroundings combined with my superior intellect & experience but was buoyed by the can of bear spray in my rack bag. So I was sure that I would not have an issue with Buddy Bear. I also knew that my bright red English Post Office jacket would be an effective deterrent. Of course I just pulled out my phone to get a picture of her and continued to ride right on by her as she snacked on either elderberries or the last e-cyclist she encountered. Meanwhile, there were tons of cars, in both directions, stopped in the middle of the road taking photos of her and her cubs, I hope at least one of them were a tasty snack for her! The rest of the ride was really cool, and rainy, and there were a lot of good places to see the river and other wildlife. As it began to rain more I made the decision to turn around even though I was better prepared for the weather this time than I was on my last bike ride, I was at least 15-20 miles away from any reliable shelter if it were to start raining more, so back I went. Towards the bottom of the hill the rain let up (of course) so I found a bike trail that went through the woods and that was a great ride without cars and passed by an ice cream store...one good thing about bike riding is that you get to eat all the ice cream you want, and despite the fact I was on a DEB I still partook. I pray that the cycling gods will forgive me for that transgression. Eventually I rode back to the Belton Chalet, took a shower and a nap and ate a great dinner at the attached restaurant where I met a couple that were from Tryon, NC. The next morning as I waited in the lobby for the train I met a couple that were from Fort Mill, SC, which is just a few miles from my hometown. It's odd how I have managed to meet so many Carolinian's on this trip, but good to share stories of 'home' with them. I then took the quick walk across the road to wait on the train at the Belton train platform and ran into three nice women from China whose agenda has overlapped with mine for a few days now. They are very adept travelers and have a very set routine and method to using their passes. I'm glad they chose Amtrak to see America and hope their visit has been very enjoyable for them. 

 

The ride from Belton / West Glacier was a tale of three rides...first the scenic views of mountainous western Montana was very enjoyable, second the overnight section was cold and featured lots of quick stops that turned my night of sleeping into a series of quick naps and third, the northern plains of North Dakota and Minnesota were quite tedious and repetitive but good to see nonetheless, I just wish they didn't roll on for hours! The train arrived into Milwaukee a few hours late, I scurried to my hotel for a quick shower and change of clothes and was picked up by friend / former coworker Rogelio to go to dinner with a few former coworkers. We had a good time catching up and enjoying a wonderful spring evening in Wisconsin with promises to do more in the future. The next day I caught my last Amtrak ride down to Chicago where I would spend the night prior to my flight home on Tuesday. While on the train I came to the realization that the Cubs were playing at home that night (once again, bad planning on my part) and quickly started trying to see if I could get to the game. Of course I had dinner at Twin Anchors, probably the best 'rib joint' in this space-time continuum, and was joined by my buddy Sunny who was my original boss at SPX/Prolec-GE Waukesha/GE Vernova. She has lived in Chicago for decades and never had the pleasure of dining at Twin Anchors and suffice it to say she'll be going back there often. I got to the Cubs game at about the third inning and unfortunately they were already down 5 runs...BUT, they outscored the Brewers for the remainder of the game and won my part of the game but still lost overall. Oh well, I did my best with the Old Style and Peanuts but just fell short of a win. 

 

 

Now I'm in the Hampton Inn about to leave for O'Hare and finishing up this post. I trust that American Airlines will take good care of me and I'll have a nice drive back to Eastern North Carolina to end up this month long travel excursion. I'll start work soon on what will be the 'Recap Post' of this trip, so keep your eyes open for just one more post in this series and take care of yourself until then! 

 

(And as always, I'd appreciate it if you'd put your name into your comment if you're posting anonymously.)  

 PS: I know a lot of people who have not been to Portland, and some who have, possess a biased view of the 'condition' of the city. Suffice it to say that I can attest that all of the 'free range chicken' meals I had met the qualifications of the "Portlandia" crew!  Watch "Colin the Chicken" here: 

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ZfjkDxVaMFo

PPS: Also, I have been approached by more panhandlers and witnessed more homelessness in Goldsboro, NC than I did in Portland. Just Sayin...