BUS/ TRAIN TRIP

 

Train Depot in Whitefish,Montana

Besides moving from Helena, Montana to Everett, Washington when I was a little girl, I have been in Montana one other time.  Clayton and I had not been married too long.  Clayton wanted to go to New York and see the Hill Comorah and the pagent they do there. Clayton wanted to go on the train.  He loved trains. Donna went with us, which was certainly a blessing.  Clayton could sometimes be a handful to manage.
           We got on the train in Seattle and got all settled in.  The next thing that happened was there was an announcement that there was a rock slide right before Spokane.  We had to gather all our things and get on a bus.  We were bussed all the way from Spokane to the train station in Whitefish, Montana.  I looked it up on mapquest and it says 255 miles, 4hours, 26 minutes.  I am sure it was all of that and maybe more.  We saw miles and miles of nothing but land and dead cattle in ditches.
           Finally after the grueling bus trip, we got on a train in Whitefish.  Everyone was tired and the people at Whitefish were not happy because their train was delayed because the train had to wait for our bus.
           At last we were on our way.  We got as far as Havre, Montana and the engine on our train broke down.  It was hot and people were complaining.  We had to wait until another engine could get to Havre. We did get to get off and go into the station. That helped a little.  Anyway, since the engine was'nt working we couldn't have any meals on the train.  They sent out for Kentucky Fried Chicken for all the passengers.  I will never forget that.  They brought these meals in huge garbage bags and we had warm pop to drink. One lady was very upset because she was a vegetarian.  There was Cold Slaw with the meals and Donna and I did not eat ours and I grabbed Clayton's because he ate anything.  The Cold Slaw was warm and I am sure we would have gotten food poisoning. It is a miracle we didn't get sick on the Chicken.
           Finally, we did arrive at our destination. We rented a car and we were able to see so many great things.  We stayed near Niagara Falls.The Falls are so fascinating. We even took the walking tour. We even went to the Canadian side.  We saw the Sacred Grove and many of the Mormon sites. The Pagent was so wonderful. We really did have a fun vacation.
           
         This was not quite the end of our problems. This happened on our way home.  There was a problem that only affected Donna and Clayton and the others that were in their car . I had paid for a sleeping car for Clayton and me and Donna paid for Coach.  When I saw how high you had to climb up into the upper bunk, I asked Donna if she would trade with me. Clayton had to have the lower berth because of his knees. She was happy about that, at first, because she wouldn't be sleeping sitting up.
          So bedtime came and I happily went back to the Coach and I slept really well.  In the morning I went to our sleeping car and Clayton was in a horrible mood because he was so cold and Donna had not had any sleep because of Clayton. The reason Clayton was so cold was because the air conditioning was stuck on. It was the only car on the whole train that it was stuck on. It would have to be the one we had. Clayton never could stand to be cold.  The porter had gotten every blanket he could find to put over Clayton including his own.  There was one handicapped room left on the train so I was able to pay extra and get that.  The rest of the trip went fine.

        All in all, it was a good trip.  Clayton loved to go places so I was glad we could do that.