Take the A-Train to Chicago: Day Two

Friday: Montana is icy cold

I woke for the last time at about 8 am this morning, and Val, sensing I was awake, asked me, “How are you feeling?” Tired, I replied. I know I slept, but not a lot. I asked her how she felt, and she repeated, “Tired.” The train was noisy, shaking constantly. And she has a cold. Knowing I was up in the higher bunk bed and couldn’t move was psychologically confining. There’s a ladder that stays put, pins under the rim. And two hooks with straps that hook to the ceiling to prevent me from falling out. Val’s bed pulled out just beneath, and prevented any other activity except going to bed. And using the bathroom.

My best-case scenario was staying still and not having to use the bathroom. My acceptable scenario was having to get down once. Well, I went ‘way beyond that. Let’s just say that I became rather good at climbing up the ladder and descending backwards (meaning, facing front) on the ladder. And I didn’t wake her up once.

We knew the dining room closed at 9 am (which is actually 8 am, since we had to forward our watches one hour). So we had to get a move-on. We were dressing, and just fell apart giggling when it became a challenge. A challenge to find our clothes, a challenge to stay upright while we tried to put them on as the train lurched forward. We were having a good time.

After breakfast, we dug further into the train and found the Observation Lounge, which has windows up above and windows all the way along the car length. We sat down at a table, and marveled at Montana. We could see Glacier National Park in the background, and parts of Canada on the left, and sometimes there was a light dusting of snow in the foreground. Not a lot of houses, people, cars. Just wilderness. The trees were intermittently yellow, then green, then naked.

I decided to go back to our room and left Val there. I was determined to try the shower. It’s a metal enclosure, and there’s a shower wand above. The directions were simple: turn the shower nozzle on, adjust the temperature, move the wand above you. What it didn’t tell me, and what I forgot, was to lower the lid of the toilet so that the seat didn’t get wet. Ooops. Well, I cleaned that up. The temperature was a little tricky, as the nozzle goes beyond the red/blue, but I found a nice, hot temp. We noticed the day before that they didn’t provide shampoo, so I put some of the sink liquid soap into a little drinking cup and used that. I luxuriated in it, in the impossibility of having a hot shower amid 30-degree temperatures outside. What luxury.

We went over around noon for lunch at the Dining Car, and found ourselves sitting with two young men from Wisconsin. Each was about 25, and very nice. We talked about innocuous subjects, like who names cities and how some get started, the benefits of public transit, things like that. I don’t think I learned much of anything about either of them, but the pleasantries certainly passed the time.

Amtrak is offering a wine and cheese tasting right now in the Dining Car, but Val’s stretched out, asleep. I don’t think we need the food anyway, although that belief has never stopped me before. Tonight we’ll be celebrating Shabbat, although it’ll be hard to bless the wine when other people are staring at you. I’ll let the rabbi handle that.