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That night the Empire Builder swept across Montana, shadows of cliffs and hills rising and falling like ghosts creeping up on the train. Photo: Jason Bergīut as much as I thrived off entertainment within the carriage, the glass-domed viewing car presented the perfect opportunity to gaze at the vastness of the expanse outside as we crossed the Mississippi and the Missouri, rocking for hours through North Dakota seeing no more than a scattering of farms and a series of billboards in what looked and felt so much like Coen Brothers territory that I almost expected Frances McDormand to hop on wearing a grimace and a trapper hat. The Empire Builder on its way through precarious mountain terrain. Over plates of roast chicken and rice, the cutlery and glasses clinking together as we curved through the mountains, Arlene described how they couldn’t possibly shoot deer with “those big brown eyes”, but had no qualms about popping a bullet into a squirrel that was eating up her yard. While giving way to a string of freight carriages in Minnesota, the train stopped long enough for me to stroll on a platform with a teacher from Seattle who explained how he’d taught his mastiff to break off cans from a six-pack of Coors and bring them to him while he watched The Jay Leno Show.Īnd in the dining car I found myself seated opposite Arlene and Russell, German Baptist Brethren from Ohio who were travelling to visit their daughter in Idaho.
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Photo via Wikimedia CommonsĪs we snaked through Wisconsin, a father of two from Fargo told me how trains reminded him of journeys with his late father, a railroader who taught him how to spot wildlife lurking by the tracks “the only place you aren’t allowed to hunt, so they know they’re safe”. Portland, Oregon's Union Station, one of the train's many stops.