# Empire Builder, August-September 2008, Part 3



## Ispolkom (Oct 24, 2008)

After three days of hiking and not encountering grizzly bears, we were shuttled back to the West Glacier train station for the last two legs of our summer vacation. Here’s an interesting note: if you collect National Parks passport stamps, the two for Lake MacDonald Lodge and West Glacier are at the Glacier Natural History Association bookstore in the West Glacier (Belton) train station.

The Empire Builder pulled into the station a few minutes ahead of schedule, and we had to wait while it stopped first the front half of the train, and then the back half at the short station platform.

We had booked a roomette for our next leg, the twelve hours between West Glacier and Minot, even though this was a day trip. We had gotten tickets early enough to get the cheapest bucket (we were roomette 2), and I figured that we would almost break even just on meals. The privacy and quiet were just gravy.

Unfortunately we found that our fellow sleeper passengers had already filled the luggage shelves with suitcases. Hey, we would have checked luggage if we could have. Instead, we had to put our two suitcases with the half-dozen others in the vestibule, and Mrs. D, our sleeping car attendent, had to move them from side to side at station stops.

After dropping our carry-on luggage in our roomette we immediately went to the diner to sign up for breakfast. We were in a Seattle sleeper this time, so it was a much shorter trip. This morning I forewent my usual French toast for the oatmeal, which was pretty good. It didn’t have the wallpaper paste consistency you often get with instant oatmeal, making me think that they use quick oats. Nice to have a fiberous meal for a change.

The day went quickly, as we read, napped, and visited with a couple we’d had dinner with on the Seattle-West Glacier leg. They were returning to Massachusetts after traveling west on the Canadian. They described Via Rail as having much fancier service, but wretched time-keeping. Apparently you have to get used to constant waits for freight trains.

That wasn’t a problem on today’s Empire Builder. I was impressed to see several freights waiting at sidings as we overtook them.

The day’s low point was the reason I’ll avoid roomette 2 in the future. By late in the morning the upper-level toilet began to stink. It’s not surprising, since there’s only one toilet on the upper level, where most of the passengers in a sleeper are, so that one toilet gets lots of use. Still, it was quite unpleasant for us in the roomette closest to toilet. Mrs. D earned her tip when she made the train late out of Havre by demanding that the toilet be drained. End of smells.

The high point of the day was the wine tasting. Same Washington state wines and Minnesota cheeses as we tried on the west-bound Empire Builder, but this time I won one of the left-over bottles by correctly answering the question “What were the seven characters on ‘Gilligan’s Island’ based on.” I immediately thought Ginger -- Lust -- the seven deadly sins. We enjoyed the wine with dinner (another steak for me, the roasted chicken for my wife), but on further reflection I think that there really isn’t a congruence between the seven deadly sins and the characters. Sure Gilligan is sloth, Ginger lust, the Professor pride, Thurston Howell greed, I guess. If you stretch a point, maybe Mary Ann is envy. But Mrs. Howell really isn’t anything, and the skipper is both gluttony and anger. Maybe I’m analyzing too much here.

We arrived in Minot on time and were met by my mother at the station.

After several days in the Magic City we returned to the train station for the final leg of our trip, traveling in coach between Minot and St. Paul. I enormously prefer traveling by sleeper, but almost never do on my regular trips between St. Paul and Minot. The only meal you get in either direction is breakfast, and your bed is already made up when you board the train. I can never go to sleep immediately after boarding, so I lie there forever staring at the ceiling.

Still, it was a let down to be back in coach after several days in a sleeping compartment. We had the foresight to bring ear plugs and our new noise-canceling headphones but I still was grumpy about people talking late into the night. I was even grumpier about fellow passengers bellowing into their cellphones at 6:00 a.m. to announce that they didn’t know where they were, or when they would arrive in St. Paul, but wanted to call to… I don’t know why they wanted to call. Oh well, if we wanted quiet we could have gotten a sleeper. In any case the train arrived in St. Paul on time on a beautiful September morning. We retrieved our bags and took a taxi home, where we were happy to see our house still standing.

We had a wonderful time and were confirmed in our dislike of flying. When you take the train the vacation really begins when you step on board. While traveling in a roomette is perfectly fine, traveling in a larger compartment is even more fun. And spending a night in coach, as we did our last leg of this trip, is still better than spending all day behind the wheel of a car.


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## Cascadia (Oct 24, 2008)

Great trip report, I really enjoyed reading it, thanks. I have a question, I never heard of the National Parks passport stamps, you can hand them your passport and they'll stamp it for you? That's new to me. Did you get yours stamped?


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## Ispolkom (Oct 25, 2008)

Cascadia said:


> Great trip report, I really enjoyed reading it, thanks. I have a question, I never heard of the National Parks passport stamps, you can hand them your passport and they'll stamp it for you? That's new to me. Did you get yours stamped?


No, for God's sake don't take your real passport to a National Park. You want a nice, clean, empty passport. I remember once going to the Polish embassy in Moscow to get a transit visa to take a train to Brussels and the consul being concerned that I had a multi-use French visa. "You Americans don't need a visa to go to France!" he insisted, but I pointed out an unfortunate period in 1988, when they were required. Even so it took 20-30 minutes to get him to give me the visa.

I. . . well, this is embarassingly geeky, but the National Park Service sells its own "passport." As you travel about to national park sites, visitor centers have stamps that you can stamp your "passport" with. Some people actually go out of their way to get these stamps. Hence my visit to Carl Sandburg National Historic Site in North Carolina (don't go) and Russell Cave National Historic Site in Alabama (go) on one particular trip.

Here's the "passport" http://www.eparks.com/store/product/22515/Passport-Book/

Of course it gets worse. You encounter other enthusiasts, and they tell you about two-fers (like the West Glacier train station), 3-fers, even 5-fers (Fort Laramie National Historic Site). There's apparently an Iron Butt Association where you prove you ability to motorcycle long distances by getting these stamps at far-distant national parks. I now see that there are published guides to finding the stamps, but that would spoil the fun, I'd think.

We've been collecting passport stamps since our honeymoon 16 years ago (Jean Lafitte National Historical Park, New Orleans, 10/5/92, fresh off the Crescent from Washington, D.C.), and have amassed 300-400 of them. It does encourage you to go to the less-popular sites, which are usually fascinating. Railfans especially should visit Allegheny Portage Railroad Nat'l Historic Site in Pennsylvania, a strange combination of canals and rails that, I'm sure, seemed like a good idea at the time.


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## Cascadia (Oct 25, 2008)

Well, thanks for clarifying that, I never heard of the National Park passport and stamps before. It's cool that it got you to go to some places you otherwise wouldn't have gone.

You can learn interesting things hanging around the forum, for sure!


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## hello (Oct 27, 2008)

I have 6 NP Passport books -- and love getting them stamped. I also buy the yearly stamps that the NPS issues -- great reminders of great vacations!!


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