I was sitting at my desk, staring at the calendar. What's coming? Nothing. No real plans, just another night of TV and beer, or throwing bottle caps for the cat to chase and leave. Spanning out, ahead of me, night after night, day after day.
When it came to me it seemed the most natural thing ever.
A train trip. Why hadn't I thought of it? Well, I had, a few years ago.
It was late winter and I was itching for spring. I hit on Savannah, Georgia: I used to live in Athens, and I would head down to Savannah as often as I could, especially for St. Patrick's Day. I dreamed (briefly) of the Spanish moss, walking around town with a plastic cup of beer, the beach on Tybee Island.
But then, as happens more and more these days, I changed my mind, and I thought of a visit to Montana. Spend some time up there snowshowing maybe, or sitting around fires and just doing nothing. That sounded like a good way to end the winter - with some real winter of snow and teeth-shattering cold.
But how to get up to Montana? Do they have airports? Wait, doesn't the train go up there? I'd taken the Southwest Chief from LA to Lawrence, not exactly my favorite experience after the freedom of riding my bike where ever, but not terrible either. Maybe I could jump on a train, head out there. And why not just go all the way back to the West coast while I'm at it? This was back when I had just started working remotely, so it seemed like a good chance to work and ride and visit.
But again, indecision set in, and after the million logistical decisions I had to make on my ride to Mexico, I had gotten a bit wary of hassles - and this sounded like a big hassle. I ended up going out to San Francisco - the perfect choice. I just walked the city for a week, and everything was easy.
But at the outset of this most recent story, I was ready for hassles. Looking at the calendar and thinking of those million days of nothing ahead of me, a good hassle or two (and the possibility of some great non-hassles!) sounded like the perfect use of my time.
So I started looking into schedules and stops and cities and stations along the Empire Builder and I got swept away. An early train to Chicago, a night or two; run over to Kalispell, Montana - next to Glacier National Park - to visit my friend, Danielle; Seattle - wait, I'd be right there, how about Vancouver, Canada? Yeah, Vancouver, then Seattle, visit Daniel, down to Portland and visit Gabe and my uncle Chris; then end in San Francisco? Or make it a round trip, head to Denver on the California Zephyr?
It didn't take long for me put together a schedule - a clear indication to me that a plan has merit.
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