What? You call this a room? We thought we were getting a room! We stepped onto the train about 10:50pm Thursday night in St. Paul. We were loaded down with luggage (too much if we were honest with ourselves). We were on the way to get a glimpse into our potential future. We were on the way to Havre, MT. We reserved a superliner roomette. It turned out there was nothing super about it! Except it was super small. We knew it would be small, but we thought there would at least be room to set our suitcases on the floor...but nope! It was bunks with a door and curtain. The bottom bunk folded up into chairs during the day. The top bunk could be put up also, but ours could not be because it was full of our suitcases! It was late, we were tired, overwhelmed, nervous, and had chicken strips from Legends (that we stopped off at before going to the train station to see friends)to eat! We finally got all of our luggage into the "room" and took a few minutes to eat and be in awe over the size of the small thing we were sitting in then we started moving. Here we go! So so so surreal. Words cannot describe just how surreal it was.
I don't want to say only bad things about this little room though (we do want you all to come visit us in MT...via plane, train or automobile!). Sure, it shocked us at first. But the next morning, as we woke to a glorious North Dakota sunset, and heard the first announcements for breakfast things started looking up. Then we put the little bed into two chairs and we had sitting room! And all we could drink fresh coffee, juice and bottled water...you can't beat that, to buy this stuff from the train cart is expensive. It was finally "arriving in Montana" day. A day we had anticipated for a while...so with nerves running high we listened to another breakfast announcement and we were off...to make new train friends...!
When you get a superliner roomette, or any room on the train, your meals are included in the cost. On the train you eat with other passengers, unless you have your own party of 4. At breakfast Joel and I sat next to each other, as directed, and our new friends across from us. It was the morning of our 5th wedding anniversary and they shared that they had been married for 52 years! Wow! Wonderful! They were quite chatty and interesting to talk to. They hail from Willmar, MN where they make over a 100 dozen jars of jam for farmers markets in the area each year! The guy, James, shared that when he was a teenager he was stocking shelves at the local grocery store for 50cents an hour when one of his coworkers one day said "the navy is coming to town, I'm going to visit them, do you want to come?" "Sure" James said and off they went. Within a couple of hours he had quit work, joined the navy and was on his way to Duluth, MN with the recruiter then the next day on a bus to Michigan to begin basic training! Fascinating! We talked with them for over an hour. Then we stopped by their roomette after lunch to visit some more (we had lunch with a retired amtrak worker and his wife from Portland Oregon, we also sat with them at the afternoon wine and cheese tasting!).
We knew as we stepped off the train in Havre that all of our new friends, who we'd probably never seen again, and who we didn't say goodbye to, were thinking about us and wishing us well!
Pics: Joel in the superliner roomette (we were trying to capture the smallness of it) and then the pic of us is our anniversary pic...on the train!
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