Anyway, back from another great trip!!! It didn't start off too great, though, as I discovered that just before arriving at the Spokane station, I'd left my power cord to my GPS unit at home. Oh noooooooo!!!! 
I was going to be forced into guessing where I was!!! LOL
Anyway, I got to the Spokane station about an hour before scheduled departure. While waiting, I saw a first for me, Border Patrol agents waiting to board with us. Of course those traveling eastbound from Spokane are at the mercy of TWO trains coming from the west, Seattle and Portland. And while #8 had arrived from Seattle early, #28 had started an hour down from Portland and would arrive about an hour late. However, the crews got everything together and we departed Spokane only half an hour down. Well, almost everything together. The car attendant was unsure of which car to direct me too, and when he finally figured it out, decided he'd given me wrong information (or so he thought) By that time, I wasn't sure nor was he, which car to go to. He had finally directed me to the proper car. Anyway, that gave me half an hour more of daylight for scenic purposes, and the scenery from Spokane to Glacier Park is nothing to be sneezed at, especially from Libby to Glacier. I was able to enjoy the scenery from Libby to Glacier in full daylight. We had a momentary delay in Spokane Valley, waiting for #7 to pass us, and we were on our way again. We lost a little time getting to Sandpoint, by which time the eastern sky was beginning to lighten up. The woman sitting across the aisle from me needed to lighten up, too. We were delayed a bit in Sandpoint, maybe five minutes at the most, and she began moaning and bitching about how she was "never going to get there!" in as loud a voice as possible. And she sounded as if she was born with a cigarette in her mouth, as she had that voice that sounded like she gargled daily with ground glass. And as it turned out, for her "there" was Libby, the next stop. Anyway, we would make up some time, and arrived in East Glacier about the same half hour down as we'd left Spokane. It had been a great morning, sunny and nice, something those of us in the Pacific Northwest, the Land that Global Warming Forgot, haven't seen much of. I went to breakfast right at 6:30, and was seated with a mother-daughter comedy team :giggle: that had boarded in Vancouver, and a young woman who had boarded in Seattle and was also on her way to Glacier Park. The mother-daughter team was headed to Minot, to see the younger woman's first grandchild, (and the older's great-grandchild) These two were hilarious the way they kept ragging on each other. I think it was in good fun, but you never Know. They said that the night before, they had witnessed a young man being tasered on the train by the cops. What they said didn't make sense in some ways, as they had boarded in Vancouver, WA, but they said this took place outside Seattle. Unless the EB has made some changes in their route I don't know about, of course it doesn't go from Vancouver to Seattle. So I don't know where this took place. At any rate, Chris was our server, and he was a hoot, too. He by himself made up for the absolute lack of personality whatsoever in the rest of the crew. I had the usual for breakfast, the veggie omlette, biscuit, side of pork sausage, and milk. And it wasn't all that good. The biscuit was stone cold, and the sausage and potatoes that came with the omlette lukewarm at best. And the omlette wasn't that great either. Win some, lose some, I guess. We only had to wait once on a siding for a freight, just west of the Flathead Tunnel, so that wasn't bad
I had arranged for a rental car, and after wandering around the East Glacier station, finally found the shuttle to the rental agency, and got that taken care of. As I was early for check-in at my motel, and my rental was a brand-new 2012 Subaru Forrester, I wanted to take a test drive around the area :lol: So I drove eastward to Browning, and wound my way back to East Glacier from there. After lunch, I was able to check in to my motel early. My plan was to rest up the first day, do some trainfanning, and take it easy, before driving over Going-to-the-Sun Road the next day before I went back home. But I wasn't too tired, so I thought, what the heck, I'd just drive to Marias Pass where the statue of John Stevens and the obelisk in memory of Teddy Roosevelt is. When I got there, I thought, what the heck, I'd just drive to Essex. When I got there I thought, what the heck, I'd just drive to West Glacier. When I got there, I thought, what the heck, I'd drive over Going-to-the-Sun Road, as long as I was in the vicinity. :lol: Which I did. And the scenery....wow!!! I mean, Holdrege, Nebraska is nothing like Glacier Park. :lol: :lol: :lol: Once I did that, I went back for a nap, and had dinner. I wanted to take pictures of #7 arriving into East Glacier, and with exquisite timing, got to the station just as it was pulling in. Made up for the time, between Sandpoint and Libby, there were two herds of elk, totalling about 30 in all, standing in a lush green field. Beautiful photo op, except I had chosen that precise moment to change the time on my watch from Pacific Time to Mountain Time, and wasn't ready. At any rate, I got my photo ops in, and then retired for the night.
End of Day one
I was going to be forced into guessing where I was!!! LOLAnyway, I got to the Spokane station about an hour before scheduled departure. While waiting, I saw a first for me, Border Patrol agents waiting to board with us. Of course those traveling eastbound from Spokane are at the mercy of TWO trains coming from the west, Seattle and Portland. And while #8 had arrived from Seattle early, #28 had started an hour down from Portland and would arrive about an hour late. However, the crews got everything together and we departed Spokane only half an hour down. Well, almost everything together. The car attendant was unsure of which car to direct me too, and when he finally figured it out, decided he'd given me wrong information (or so he thought) By that time, I wasn't sure nor was he, which car to go to. He had finally directed me to the proper car. Anyway, that gave me half an hour more of daylight for scenic purposes, and the scenery from Spokane to Glacier Park is nothing to be sneezed at, especially from Libby to Glacier. I was able to enjoy the scenery from Libby to Glacier in full daylight. We had a momentary delay in Spokane Valley, waiting for #7 to pass us, and we were on our way again. We lost a little time getting to Sandpoint, by which time the eastern sky was beginning to lighten up. The woman sitting across the aisle from me needed to lighten up, too. We were delayed a bit in Sandpoint, maybe five minutes at the most, and she began moaning and bitching about how she was "never going to get there!" in as loud a voice as possible. And she sounded as if she was born with a cigarette in her mouth, as she had that voice that sounded like she gargled daily with ground glass. And as it turned out, for her "there" was Libby, the next stop.
Anyway, we would make up some time, and arrived in East Glacier about the same half hour down as we'd left Spokane. It had been a great morning, sunny and nice, something those of us in the Pacific Northwest, the Land that Global Warming Forgot, haven't seen much of. I went to breakfast right at 6:30, and was seated with a mother-daughter comedy team :giggle: that had boarded in Vancouver, and a young woman who had boarded in Seattle and was also on her way to Glacier Park. The mother-daughter team was headed to Minot, to see the younger woman's first grandchild, (and the older's great-grandchild) These two were hilarious the way they kept ragging on each other. I think it was in good fun, but you never Know. They said that the night before, they had witnessed a young man being tasered on the train by the cops. What they said didn't make sense in some ways, as they had boarded in Vancouver, WA, but they said this took place outside Seattle. Unless the EB has made some changes in their route I don't know about, of course it doesn't go from Vancouver to Seattle. So I don't know where this took place. At any rate, Chris was our server, and he was a hoot, too. He by himself made up for the absolute lack of personality whatsoever in the rest of the crew. I had the usual for breakfast, the veggie omlette, biscuit, side of pork sausage, and milk. And it wasn't all that good. The biscuit was stone cold, and the sausage and potatoes that came with the omlette lukewarm at best. And the omlette wasn't that great either. Win some, lose some, I guess. We only had to wait once on a siding for a freight, just west of the Flathead Tunnel, so that wasn't badI had arranged for a rental car, and after wandering around the East Glacier station, finally found the shuttle to the rental agency, and got that taken care of. As I was early for check-in at my motel, and my rental was a brand-new 2012 Subaru Forrester, I wanted to take a test drive around the area :lol: So I drove eastward to Browning, and wound my way back to East Glacier from there. After lunch, I was able to check in to my motel early. My plan was to rest up the first day, do some trainfanning, and take it easy, before driving over Going-to-the-Sun Road the next day before I went back home. But I wasn't too tired, so I thought, what the heck, I'd just drive to Marias Pass where the statue of John Stevens and the obelisk in memory of Teddy Roosevelt is. When I got there, I thought, what the heck, I'd just drive to Essex. When I got there I thought, what the heck, I'd just drive to West Glacier. When I got there, I thought, what the heck, I'd drive over Going-to-the-Sun Road, as long as I was in the vicinity. :lol: Which I did. And the scenery....wow!!! I mean, Holdrege, Nebraska is nothing like Glacier Park. :lol: :lol: :lol: Once I did that, I went back for a nap, and had dinner. I wanted to take pictures of #7 arriving into East Glacier, and with exquisite timing, got to the station just as it was pulling in. Made up for the time, between Sandpoint and Libby, there were two herds of elk, totalling about 30 in all, standing in a lush green field. Beautiful photo op, except I had chosen that precise moment to change the time on my watch from Pacific Time to Mountain Time, and wasn't ready.
At any rate, I got my photo ops in, and then retired for the night.End of Day one
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