Welcome to Missouri

Today was a lot of sitting, and not in the saddle. We are however, slowly making our way to the Katy Trail.

We boarded the Amtrak at the Summit station, located in the Chicago suburbs. It's one of those train stations where there is not a depot or attendants. All of the passengers were lined up on the platform on the east side of the tracks, so we toted all of our baggage across the tracks. We see the train coming and it is pulling up to the other platform...the engineer stops the train and we all scurried back over the tracks. Thank goodness that we had some help getting our bags onto the train. There is nothing like dragging around panniers, camping gear and bicycles.

The train ride to St Louis was rather uneventful. Of course we had to get off the train, walk over to the station, wait, and then walk right back to where we were to get back on the next train. It all worked out, especially for T, as a nice Amtrak employee picked her and the two bikes up with their little orange cart.

Rolling into St Louis

In the process of boarding the Missouri River Runner Amtrak train, one of the train attendants was helping us figure out where to put our bikes. He was black gentleman named Martin and was probably around 50. From down the way, the white conductor, about the same age, was yelling out suggestions on what we should do... he was a regular buttinsky, and in fact ended up making us drag those darn bicycles around more than we needed too! I ended up walking towards his end of the car, the bike over my shoulder. He looked at me and I just said there wasn't room at the other end. So he yells back at Martin, something to the effect of, "SON, you need to learn how to stack items into that space," which came across as very belittling. I was horrified because it was clearly racist. These two men are the same age and that black man was certainly not his son. I said something to Martin on the train, and he just basically said that the guy was how we was. I told him that in Oregon this was not how we did things, and it was not okay.

The whole episode did not sit well with me. When we got off the train in Warrensburg, the whit conductor helped us get our bags off the train. Before we left, I told him that we observed what had happened on the platform in St Louis and how when he referred his colleague as "SON," it came across as racist, that it was not ok, and that it didn't feel safe. He looked at me, wondering what I was talking about. He made some comment, and it was clear that he had no idea that he actually referred to Martin as "SON." I also told him it was a great welcome to St Louis, Missouri.

So there we were in the tiny little Warrensburg depot at about 8:45pm putting our gear on to our bicycles. There's a young black guy (20ish) on the phone, but he stops his conversation to ask us about our bikes. We asked him if he was waiting for the train. He replied that he's waiting for a taxi and proceeds to refer to someone as a retard. Sigh... I already called out the guy on the train; I let this one go. Not next time.

Night ride from the Warrensburg Amtrak Station to our hotel.

We rode our bikes two miles to the hotel and spent the next hour and a half deciding what we should mail home. In the end, we kept it all and were glad we did. We used everything we brought except first aid and tools (a very good thing!).

Selfie taken with phone in the handlebar mount.

In It For The Long Haul

The scenery has been beautiful, but one of the things you realize about train travel, is that if you have any kind of need other than your basic meals, you really don't have any options. There are no convenience stores near train stops that you can get in and out of in four minutes!

T has been feeling nauseous. Yesterday, we thought maybe it was motion sickness. That wasn't it...she was gifted Dramamine from another passenger, but it didn't really help. After I got really sick last night, we realized that it was probably something we ate on the train.

Here are the things we will always be sure to bring along on an overnight train trip...

1. A liter or two of 7-Up
2. Saltines and pretzels
3. Dramamine
4. Your favorite ultralight down throw (like the awesome ones you can get at Costco right now) and pillow.
5. Something to throw up in just in case there isn't a plastic bag lining the bathroom trash. Maybe something like a gallon sized ZipLoc bag; it's nice to be able to seal a barf bag.

After the trip, T was diagnosed with Celiac disease, which was the cause of her discomfort.

LaCrosse, WI Amtrak Station

Big Sky

This morning we woke up to the Big Sky of Montana. After breakfast, we took a quick jump off of the train in Whitefish to get a few laps in.

If you haven't ridden the Amtrak before, you'll always want to take advantage of the stops—even if they're only for a couple of minutes. the good news is that if you're in a sleeper car, there's always somebody getting on or off. You do have to stay nearby, because if you don't get on the train when they call "All Aboard," you may find that the train has left without you!

We've seen some pretty amazing scenery this morning. The fall foliage just East of East Glacier was particularly beautiful.

For some reason, I have never seen clean train windows. Which is a a shame; the reason we take the train is for the views. This time, it occurred to me that I could clean the windows myself...and WOW what a difference. It is so amazing...definitely tip worthy for future train travellers.

Red Cap Service

We did a lot of research for our Katy Trail trip, and were really having a hard time figuring out how we would get to the start of the trail in an affordable way.

Having folding bikes makes everything a little bit easier because it opens up a couple of options for us. First we can take these bikes on Amtrak as luggage, including our bus segment from Eugene to Portland. Secondly, these will fit in the back of a regular sized car, which we will be renting in Missouri to drive from Warrensburg to Clinton ($35—less than taking the Greyhound!).

If you get a sleeper car when traveling on Amtrak, make sure you talk with your agent about the Red Cap service that's available. It was great to have somebody meet us at our bus andr transfer all of our bags and bicycles to our sleeper car for us.

We had no idea that this was even possible until the lady at the Eugene Amtrak station told us about it. She was so kind and set everything up ahead of time for us; when we arrived in Portland, Craig was there to greet us with his electric cart. He took the bags; we got to take a walk and then relax in the Sleeper Car passenger lounge with a beverage.

On Our Way

Today marks the beginning of our journey, leaving Eugene, Oregon and heading to Chicago on the Amtrak.

Yes, we do have a lot of bags! Our gear consists of two bicycles in the large bags, one giant suitcase full of bicycle gear, two panniers full of bicycle gear, a suitcase for our time in Chicago, and two backpacks with everything that we might need for our two nights aboard Amtrak. Thank goodness for our neighbors and their Toyota RAV, you can fit anything into one of those cars!

It feels a little weird to be going on a trip at the end of September. I've always worked in public education, so vacations during this time of year have always been off-limits. But this year I requested to go to a part-time status, which allows for taking unpaid time off during the school year.