North By Rail.
Last night was filled with excitement. After watching bike polo I went to dinner with friends and talked with fervor of how to nurture the growing bicycle culture in Chico. After much excitement and plates of pasta I went home and packed the bare minimum for a five day trip. I loathe having to carry un-necessities on my person, so I tried to restrict my load to a few articles of clothing, laptop, camera, and an unread book.
The Coastal Starlight #14 was a little over half an hour late getting to Chico, finally arriving at half past two in the morning. I had warm company at the station and was seen off with a bag of snacks and a kiss on the cheek, almost enough to make me stay.
Trains being so much more capacious and comfortable than cars, busses, or airplanes, I had no trouble finding a comfortable position and falling asleep as we rolled through the dark. When I woke up we were passing either Mount Shasta or Lassen, I’m not sure which, but the peak was clouded in deep gray clouds. A light layer of snow on the ground gradually thickened as the train traced the Coastal and Sierra Nevada mountain ranges to their meeting grounds.
Crossing the Willamette river we bisected the path of a small rowboat crewed by two fishermen. One waved while the other held up his catch, a fish the length of my forearm. In Eugene a group of kindergartners waved in unison as their teacher pointed to our passing train cars. In Albany a young boy on a trampoline waved each time he hopped into view from behind the picket fence of his backyard.
My knee doesn’t take kindly to resting bent for hours on end, so I pace up and down the length of seven Superliner cars every two hours or so. I’ve walked as far as passengers are allowed to on this train, from the caboose to the lounge car, through the dining car and to the lonely arcade on the lower level of car three. Maybe the other passengers think I’m planning an early escape? Bag over shoulder, through the emergency exit window!
We’re an estimated half hour from Portland now. My brother, bodacious bikes, and other northwesterly friends await, and I am a happy traveling boy.