East Glacier Park, MT

0812 MDT

We arrived at East Glacier Park, MT last night shortly before 2100, which was a little later than planed. We got all of our gear off the train safely, then Joe and I went over to the Avis agent, which is located at the Glacier Park Trading Company (immediately across the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe tracks from the train station). We were lucky to look just lost enough to get a store employee out of her car and over knocking on the door to the store to get us inside.

The store was broiling inside. It had been 95 deg F during the day, and the building retained every bit of that heat. We rented a Chevrolet Tahoe, then drove it around to the train station to pick up Lorraine and Emily, along with all of our gear. From the train station, it was another 300m or so to the lodge.

We got checked into the lodge, then did a little scouting around. the temperature was dropping nicely between 2200 and midnight, so sleeping wasn't a problem.

I woke up about 0700 really parched. the lower humidity and the temperature overnight really dried me out.

We stayed in room 317 in their "annex" building. The room is enormous, and not bad for a historic facility. I'm up on the third floor veranda, facing the train station and the rest of East Glacier Park. It's pretty quiet on this side of the building; there's a diesel bus running on the front of the building which I can do without.

We'll probably be headed to West Glacier Park and Apgar later this morning.

The building on the left in the background is the train station, and the tunnel under the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe tracks is the path to Route 2 and the general store.

The pool is out back of the lodge; the golf course is out of view, to the right.

The lodge is in the Blackfeet Reservation, not in the National Park.

Golfing

Golfing is A Big Deal at East Glacier Park. This is a putting green that is in the front of the lodge; the big course is out back.

This was the view from the balcony, not far from our room.

The room was very comfortable, but it's an old lodge, and there wasn't much for ventilation. The weather cooled off in the late evening, so it was fine for sleeping.

Here's all of our stuff, and you can see the lodge in the distance. We're not too far away from having a shower and a nice (immobile) rack in which to sleep!

One of the advantages of being so far north, is that we have plenty of "hiking light" left after 2100.

The train station at East Glacier Park, Montana.

The good news: we made it safely to Montana.
The bad news (potentially): we arrived at 2100, just when the rental agency was scheduled to close. Fortunately, they remained open long enough for Joe and me to hoof it through the bridge under the tracks and over to the general store / rental counter.

Grand Forks, ND

0646 CDT

I woke up a few minutes before 0600 and discovered all the heads in this car to be locked. Bummer. We were just a few minutes out of Grand Forks, ND, so I stuck around to see the empty observation car we'd been pulling decoupled and left in Grand Forks. Not much has changed in that technology since the invention and deployment of the train coupler.

Anyway, I've now been to all fifty United States. It took 51 years, but I've finally done it.

The northern Great Plains are very, very, big and very, very flat. I'd always thought of wheat when thinking of North Dakota, but there's mile after mile of corn and other products, as well.

We were stopped in Minneapolis / St Paul, MN for quite a while last night, so we're nearly two hours behind schedule. It's a pleasant ride, though, and we're in no big hurry.

Departing Chicago

The train just left Chicago, enroute East Glacier Park, MT.

Shortly after arriving in Chicago, we tracked down the lockers to stow our gear. Unlike airports, the train station in Chicago has pay lockers (operated by the company behind SmartCartes), where you can stash your stuff. It turns out the lounge has secure storage, as well, but the line to get in when we arrived was very long.

After stowing our gear, we headed out into town to see the sights and score some geocaches. GPS satellite reception is AWFUL in Chicago (as bad as it is in Manhattan), so we weren't able to find any geocaches until we got closer to Lake Michigan. We headed over to see the Clarence Buckingham Memorial Fountain and Garden (there's a virtual cache there), then on to Millennium Park to see the sculpture Cloud Gate (another virtual cache).

After our walking tour of downtown, we headed back to the train station to grab a bite to eat at a sandwich shop in the station's food court -- very good food at a low price.

Lorraine, checking out our new compartment, on the Chicago-to-East Glacier Park portion of our journey.

One more picture of "The Bean".

On the hoof in Chicago, IL.

This is our image reflected in the sculpture Cloud Gate, which is located in Millenium Park in Chicago.

This item of art is affectionately known as "The Bean" (it's a virtual cache, by the way).

Yep...it's a little breezy by the lake. This is a great fountain -- a real icon on the Chicago shoreline.

We're on the loose in Chicago, hunting geocaches. The building cause havoc with the satellite reception, and we don't want to get bogged down looking for micros, we're limited to caching by the lake.

As you can see, the weather is really nice; perfect for hiking around Chicago.

Chicago!

We arrived!

Chicago

0917 CDT

Well, we're nearly to Chicago. We're a bit late because of freight traffic, but it looks like we'll arrive safely. all-in-all, this is a very relaxing way to travel across country.

You certainly get a different view of the country from the train tracks. Many communities locate recycling centers near the tracks, and there are a lot of junk yards along the route. It's a different view of the country than you get from the average freeway.

Find dining, Amtrak style....

Our fare included three meals a day in the dining car. The food was good, and there was enough to keep us comfortable.

Sleeping cars

The Amtrak sleeping cars are pretty nice. They're two-level; the lower level contains heads, showers, and some sleeping compartments. The upper level contains a few large rooms and a larger number of smaller, two-person rooms. The two-person rooms consist of seats that face one-another that can be reconfigured to make a single rack. There's another rack that trices up to make head-room, and that can be lowered to make the second rack. it's a bit cramped, but it's adequate and FAR better than trying to sleep sitting up in the coach cars.

The fare for the sleeping cars includes meals, but not alcohol or the gratuity.