'...how often do the trains go by?'

If your response to that witty reference to Chicago trains from ‘The Blues Brothers’ was ‘ah, so often you won’t even notice’, I’d assume you were referring strictly to urban transit. The correct answer, in terms of interstate traffic, is NOT ANYWHERE NEAR BLOODY OFTEN ENOUGH.

Below are a couple of notes I wrote on the train (no wifi).

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We are currently (Saturday 7/7, lunchtime) on the Amtrak train from Seattle to Chicago. Train was supposed to leave from Seattle mid-afternoon yesterday, but it’s been ridiculously hot here lately, and there was a derailment somewhere in Montana (presumably through warped rails) which meant we had to join the train in Spokane by road (note to Cathy’s and my parents – there’s no wifi on the train, so I’m typing this in a Word document which I’ll put on the blog when we get to Chicago – so if you’re reading this, it means we made it to Chicago OK). A 5 hour coach ride from one side of Washington (the State, not the city: confusing, I know) to Spokane station meant we made the train about 4 hours before departure. We were lucky – some buses from Seattle went straight to Spokane whereas others made all the stops, which would have taken about 8 hours. We were doubly lucky – Amtrak generously refunded us about $1.75 each for the fact we had to get a bus for part of the journey. And we were triply lucky - being in sleeper class meant we could get straight on the train from the coach – apparently everyone else had to wait, not sure why. As we got on board the train, the steward said it would be about 3 hours before we moved, but invited us to help ourselves to free complimentary champagne. They ought to know better than to put an Australian in charge of alcohol distribution. Anyway, we settled in to our roomette, we drank champagne, Cathy thrashed me at chess, then it was time for bed.

Didn’t think I’d sleep all that well given the cabins here are smaller than on the Canadian trains. But I slept like a log – I’m really getting used to the feeling of a moving train as I fall asleep. The bunk is so close to the roof that if I woke up in the middle of the night and tried to sit bolt upright, I’d probably break my neck, so I’ll have to remember not to do that tonight. Might leave myself a note, but since you’re reading this after we’ve actually arrived at our destination, you can rest assured I’m still all in one piece. Also the bunk is so skinny there’s a harness to keep me in place and stop me falling out of the bunk. All part of the adventure, and it didn’t affect my ability to sleep at all.

We keep passing these tiny towns – as I type, we’re stopped at a place called Shelby, in MT, which could be Montana or Minnesota – Cathy just corrected me, it’s Montana – so confusing, can’t the Americans spring for a third letter on their State IDs? – which looks to me to be an agricultural community in long decline. I can’t imagine what it must be like to live in places like these. They look dead, but there must be people here – looking out the window, there are ten times as many cars as there are people.  I imagine these towns are kept on life support through massive farm subsidies, but I wonder if it might be best to rip off the bandaid once and for all (term of the day is ‘structural adjustment’) rather than just stringing them along. Then again, food security is an emerging geo-political issue, so maybe (like in most things) I’m talking out of my arse.

We’ll keep passing these tiny towns at a fairly leisurely pace for the next day or so. On this trip, which takes about 47 hours (including the omnibus prologue) if we’re on time, we left Washington (the State) to pass through Idaho, Montana (where we currently are), North Dakota (Coen Bros fans: the train stops at Fargo overnight, but it’ll be 2.10am and I’m not getting up), Minnesota, Wisconsin (I’ll wave to Fonzie, Richie, Laverne and Shirley), and finally Illinois, which is where Chicago is. And while there are bushfires around the place (I’m expecting it to be pushing 40 degrees when we get to Chicago), I don’t think the train goes anywhere near them (refer earlier note: if you’re reading this, we made it to Chicago).

Seattle was nice. Was sunny and warm while we were there, which was contrary to all expectations. Apparently it had done nothing but rain for weeks prior, so everyone in the town was out and about, visiting the famous markets (as were we). Renea would have loved the punk rock exhibition we saw there, which included a famous guitar and a famous jumper from a famous film clip made by a famous band from Seattle. Also saw a science fiction exhibition where I nearly had to mop Cathy up off the floor a number of times (Star Trek stuff; don’t ask, I wouldn’t know the details). Also, while sitting in a lovely park we shared a piece of BBQed corn on the cob which was hotter than the sun and melted our faces. We also had what was billed as the best martini in the world – Fred Astaire in a glass, apparently. I wasn’t quite sure after the first one, so I had to have a second. Just to verify, of course. We didn’t go up the Space Needle as I’m a wuss, and we didn’t see Bill Gates or Frasier.

It seems strange to be working on uni stuff while on this trip. I’m going to miss 5 weeks of lectures so I need to be reading ahead. It’s OK, I’m coping (I think). So far, there’s plenty of travel time to read and write, as should be clearly self-evident.

Not sure what we plan to do in Chicago, to be honest. Maybe some quality time at the gym, for me – if there’s one in the hotel. Apparently there’s a Walter Burley Griffin district, so as any good Canberran would do, we plan to look it up. But to be honest, there’s not all that much about Chicago that interests me. No matter, we’re only there for 2 nights anyway; maybe my impression will change once we arrive. We had breakkie with a couple of people from Chicago and while they mentioned a number of things we could do, I hadn’t heard of any of them. I think we’re going to this city mainly because it’s where this train terminates; really no other reason. Will probably end up going to the Chicago Art Gallery – having been to the VAG, we should also go to the CAG.

I’m finding Americans to be very nice, kind, polite, friendly people (my impression of THAT might change as we get closer to New York) who are always up for a chat, but they also quite unbelievably loud. On the bus last night, Cathy and I remarked that you could almost hear a pin drop on the Sydney-to-Canberra Murrays bus because nobody speaks, but on the bus last night, there was no peace and/or quiet to be found at all. I don’t know whether it’s the niceness/kindness/politeness coming out in the sheer enjoyment of conversation, or whether it’s the overabundance of sugar in the diet. Probably both; either way, I was glad I bought noise-cancelling headphones before we left.

We’re still in Shelby. As mentioned earlier, it’s in MT, but it really should be in MN, as in middle of nowhere.

And we’re skipping lunch.

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‘Guess you’re really up shit creek then ….’

A few hours passed after I wrote that note, and it slowly became clear I wrote too soon. The delay in Shelby referred to earlier was nothing compared to what was to come. I’m writing again now about 24 hours later (Sunday 8/7, mid-afternoon) and the train is about 6 hours late. It relates to the derailment mentioned earlier. Apparently the track was unsafe in eastern Montana, so they called in a crew late yesterday afternoon to fix it before we could proceed. We were delayed about 5 hours, just sitting in the train, quite literally in MN (middle of nowhere), unable to do anything. I thought it was going to turn into the scene in ‘Planes, Trains and Automobiles’ where the train fries itself and they have to pull all their luggage off the train and go in search of alternatives. Given that as the alternative scenario, I’m happy with a 6 hour delay (not sure where the extra hour was lost). So we won’t get into Chicago until about 10 or 11 tonight, which means we really only have one full day in the town. That’s OK. Nothing we could do about it even if it wasn’t. But if we’d stayed there much longer I worried we’d run into The Good Ole Boys, which would have been disastrous, because I don’t know both kinds of music.

We got the impression they tried to make up some time overnight because the cabin really shook. I was glad of the arse harness for the top bunk, otherwise I might have fallen out and landed on Cathy. The delay meant we passed through Fargo at sunrise but I wasn’t awake, and even if I was, it’s a real challenge getting into an out of these bunks. In any case, when we awoke, we found that even after all that, we were just as late as we were at sunset the night before. The stories people tell about the DC/NY/Boston part of the network being the only efficient part seem to ring true.

I am not sure if the delay is Amtrak’s fault or not. Certainly seems strange that they would have let the train leave Spokane in the first place while suspecting the rail itself wasn’t up to scratch, but the eventual outcome is certainly better than being stuck on a bus for two days – Cathy would have lost it completely and I wouldn’t have been too far behind her. I don’t know how the American rail system is owned/managed, but I am guessing there is a third party access rights system in place (since this principle for regulation of natural monopoly emanates from the American railroad system – sorry, Cathy). If so, it would mean Amtrak merely run the service, and aren’t responsible for maintaining/fixing the track itself. Diffused responsibility is a wonderful thing; nobody on the train knows who to yell at (or even which level of government to yell at). Still, I’m kind of wishing we’d traversed Canada instead of the US. While we’ve again met some really interesting people on the train (but have only met one person so far who knows Canberra is the capital of Australia – and this is surprising because most US State capitals are not the State’s biggest city), it’s making me wish we’d traversed Canada by rail instead of the US.

I was also wondering about the crew they had to call in late on a Saturday afternoon to fix it. I was wondering what might have happened if it was 1950s Australia – the crew would have wanted triple time, and then when they showed up they would have said “it’s a bit too hot, we’ll call in some lights and start work after sunset, but the clock starts now” – we may still have been stuck there. Still, it’s given us a lot of time to read, sleep, talk and play chess. Read ‘The Great Gatsby’ on the train which was pretty good, as well as some uni stuff. We need to go bookshopping in Chicago and post some books home (and maybe one pair of Cathy’s shoes).

Again, by the time you read this, we’re in Chicago at our hotel, and have had a drink and a snack at a late night place across the road (resisted the strong temptation to order four fried chickens and a Coke) – but it’s taken a long time to get here and I’m tired. I don’t really mind if we don’t see very much of Chicago tomorrow (tomorrow’s all we’ve got), it’ll just be nice to be stationary for a while. I knew upfront that the train would take a long time to arrive (it’s a big country), and honestly, that’s part of the experience (the sensation of having travelled), but the delays soured it a bit for me. If this trip is any indication, it’s quite clear to me now why Americans rely so heavily on cars. I assume it’s a political choice, because other similar economies (the EU and Japan spring to mind) have much more balanced approaches to private and public transportation.

On the upside, I am currently the chess champion – that makes the aggregate score 2 games to me, and about 80 to Cathy … Yes! Yes! I HAVE SEEN THE LIGHT!