Blog du Wren

View From the Train

Being a coastal dweller, I sometimes finding myself dismissing that huge mass of land between the ocean as "flat and boring". Yet every time I am exposed to said countryside, I am always reminded that it has bushels of beauty. Traveling through the true countryside, away from interstates, truck stops, and billboards, I gained an even greater appreciation of this particular chunk of our fair country.

Cruising over the mountain pass in the Cascades was great. The pass over the Montanan Rockies was even better. We encountered a bit of a storm round about Glacier National Park*. I liked taking of the . The rest of Montana impressed me as well, with its rolling hills and vast plains(/grazing land, I assume). I thoroughly enjoyed spending the evening knitting while watching the lazy scenery roll on by. Unfortunately, our passage through North Dakota was in the night, so I didn't see much. I'm told, however, that it is very similar to Eastern Montana.

Besides the great landscape, it was neat to see the little . I got to get off and walk around in a few. Others we saw fly by at 50 miles an hour. There was a certain charm to the towns that was noticeable even at 50 mph*. Most of these places aren't experiencing the population expansion like so much of the NW, so the stores along main street are the same ones that have been there for years. (Or perhaps I am assuming too much. A brief glimpse and a lot of time to ponder can lead a person to do that.*).

Anyway, I just wanted to add this outside-the-train evidence to my previous post regarding internal evidence of why train travel kicks ass. I'm just sorry I don't have more photographic evidence.

Saturday March 22 2008

File under: travel, USA

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on Sun 23rd Mar, 2008 12:42 pm PDT Chris said:
Yeah, if train travel were a little cheaper and more ubiquitous I'd be all over it. Also, just a reminder in case you didn't hear from your mom, you are more than welcome to(encouraged and or threatened to, in fact) stop by at the Dayton homestead if you're still passing through. We'll be back there Wednesday night, hope we don't miss you!
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