Friday the 13th travel to Tacoma

Here's some notes Keith jotted down on his epic journey via Amtrak to visit his in-laws in Tacoma, WA:

5/13/05 - Amtrak - Albany to Tacoma:
"A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving."
-Unknown
I found this in the Albany library while waiting for my late train. Amtrak, apparently, has no intention of arriving on time and as I've said in the lumber business, "A good eagle scout can run the railroad better than the railroad".

Other quotes I've found in a misc travel book:
"Too often...I would hear men boast only of the rides covered that day, rarely of what they had seen."
-Louis L'Amour

After a 3 1/2 hour wait at the train station, I am trying to see the light. I am now in the observation deck watching the backyards of North Salem go by.

"I have wandered all my life, and I have also travelled. The difference between the two being this: that we wander for distraction, but we travel for fullfillment."
-Hullaire Belloe

I'll save that one for later!

Another: "The real voyage of discovery consists onot in seeing new landscapes, but in having new eyes."
-Marcel Proush

Again, for later.

I finally used my old fraternity flask. A little rum and Coke on the cheap mixed in a Nalgene is tasting pretty good! Cell phones suck!....(the lady next to me on the observation deck is sleep deprived from being on the train for 18 hours up from LA and bored. She needed to get off the phone. "What are you doing....I'm on a train...yada, yada, yada".

Two hours later....I am the face in the window. I am peering out the window trying to see the towns but all I see is the reflection of my own face and a few city lights. The cars waiting at the cropped cross-arms see my blurred face go by.

There is an older Indian couple on the train. It does not appear that they speak or understand much English so everytime the conductor calls a city, they get up, pick up their bags and head downstairs. Vancouver then, and now Centralia. Several of us have tried to tell them that we'll tell them when Olympia comes up. I have new-found empathy for them as that will be Em and I in several months.