I thought we were on the same train of thought.

Graffiti on train car Minneapolis

Hour 46 and running 8 hours late. Scheduled arrival Chicago was 4:45, now scheduled for 9:32. Seems the train people are trying to make it work, but the infrastructure is not there.(according to me) Freight trains take precedence, and we often have to stop at a siding and wait. Apparently when we left Portland late that drops our priority to the bottom of queue. Alas. It is what it is. We just left Minneapolis-St.Paul and cruising at 78 mph.

Yesterday afternoon and today have just been sitting back and watch the scenery go by. Lots of reading materials and movies, but scenery is best. We left the mountains and were in miles and miles of wheat fields, already harvested. Today it is miles and miles of corn, although there are deciduous forests here. The colors though have not been coordinated and are a mishmash of green, red, yellow, orange. Jeanne is calling it paisley fall colors. Some are past prime some have not even started to turn colors. I noted in the forests often in relatively remote areas there were tree houses. Perhaps deer hunting sights.

One of the people we wanted to stop and visit was my sister. Unfortunately she and husband Steve are doing a driving trip visiting relatives, and were in Wisconsin when we passed through whitefish, Montana. But they were driving home and we would pass. We tracked each other and they stopped in Glasgow, Montana last night. Turns out a stop on our train, but a drop and go stop, no getting off for us and only seconds there. They came to the station, and I told them where we were-the lounge car. I looked but did not see them so decided to run for the door and wave. Unfortunately they saw us, while going down the stairs the train left, but I missed them.

We texted back and forth and the aurora was supposed to be out even down here. We returned to our roomette, blocking the light as well as possible, but minimal. Did get a picture on the phone which showed more than we saw, but something about taking a picture in the dark of a moving object while going 60mph did not work.

One thing I have distinctly noted since leaving the mountains is that this area is flat. North Dakota even more so. Definitely no mountains to block the view here. Miles and miles of miles and miles.

I have also started taking picture of us, not because we are vain or whatever, but the windows are so dirty it is difficult to get a decent picture. We still sit here in the lounge car enjoying the passing scenery.

This is pretty amazing! What an amazing country. On to Chicago and the city.