Wild Windows

Trains =  Locomotion = Loco + Motions =
Wild + Windows

When you’re on a train for three entire days, you bring lots of things to do. Books, podcasts, games, colors, instruments, electronic devices to help you forget you are, in fact, on a train for three days. In reality, though, the most incredible ever-changing thing to do is right outside your window. It is literally the view outside your window.

I wasn’t worried that I’d get bored at any point; I’m rarely bored and I knew this train ride was novel enough to keep me entertained. True, it’s probably one of the more picturesque routes in this country, traversing straight through the grand Rockies, even through passages only seen if you have wings or are on a canoe or this train. Crossing the country on a train is like nothing you could imagine. In three days, we went from the tent cities of a metropolis, to the high desert of the wild west, to the snowy peaks of the mountains, to the sprawling plains of the midwest. All from within a spacious steel tube with hundreds of our favorite stranger-friends.

I brought with me many things to do, but I nearly forgot about all of them once the windows captured my attention. If you’re lucky enough to grab one of the few chairs in the observation car, you’re in for a real treat. If you’re luckier to have the conductor come by and recommend you sit on this side and not that side because this side has the better view, buy a lottery ticket. It turns out, the route we took follows much of the Colorado River, with its twists and turns, weaving and winding through wide valleys and narrow mountain passages. For a solid couple of hours, all we did was sit and look into the slowly passing snowy woods, hoping to catch a glimpse of a bear or a fox or at least a squirrel. Many birds traveled along with us, probably watching us watch them.

We didn’t splurge for a sleeper car, which meant we crouched and snuggled in the two reclining chairs assigned to us. This also meant we were easily awake every time the sun and moon made their twice-daily switch in the sky above us. To add the slow sun rise to an already slow train ride is quite magical. There is so much to see, even in this most passive way. You are on the conductor’s time, who is on the time of the train-gods.

I have absolutely no say in when I will get to where I’m going, so I have to let go and just be. To dive as deep into this challenge as possible, I sit at the windows and watch the world go by.

And, oh, what a wild world I see.

Amtrak Seattle – Sacramento – Lincoln, March 2018