Must be getting used to train travel – I had heaps of sleep last night; but admittedly the carriage wasn’t full so we could stretch out. So far we have met many interesting people and gotten into long conversations. David from Washington DC has the same camera as mine so we started from there. We met on the train from L.A. and again on this one to Chicago.
Coming out of Portland and crossing into Washington state we were surprised to see so much water and ‘beachside’ houses. Further along we saw luxurious houses with manicured gardens closely to sawmills. Even saw three tepees at a building site – perhaps they’re camping out during the construction.
It’s hard to describe the forests – never seen so many trees. It was magical to wake up to a pink streaked sky over rocky mountains and down below – rushing water. Now we’re in high prairie plains in Montana. We’ll be staying here at Havre (pronounced hav-a as in hav-a-heart) a small town in the middle of nowhere – we wanted to experience small-town America.
Spent the morning with a Democrat-voting Christian couple who stand firmly on the centrality of the cross – Doug and Linda. You wouldn’t believe the sight out of our window – reminds me of an Andrew Wyeth painting. Bare fields but for clumps of muted colored grasses + some black cattle; and far off in the distance: low mountains. From time to time the train has to stop for freight trains to pass because they have priority on this line.
We’re in no hurry and all is well.
The last couple of hours we’ve been crossing Montana – a vast empty land of plains with the occasional cowboy hut, corralled wild horses, hay bales, and isolated houses. We’re now at the Great Western Motel in Havre. It may be a small town but there was a courtesy bus to pick us up and a warm welcome from the driver.
In My Life 
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