Saturday September 20th, 2025 - Fall trip to oregon - Days 7-9, Central Oregon, back to Portland and the train to North Dakota - no hiking to speak of

The rest of our time in Central Oregon with family went well enough.  It's always tough when you just have 2 days since there is only so much that can be done in that time.  We ended up walking around Sisters again on Thursday (with my mom) and she had fun browsing and buying a few things.

Friday we headed over to Portland.  The drive was ok overall but the pass over Mount Hood was crowded and annoying.  When we got the car returned at PDX airport we had to decide between transit or a Lyft to get downtown to the train station.  We ended up using Trimet and it was totally fine.  We got off on the East side of the Willamette river and walked across the Steel Bridge rather than walking from Old Town on the West side of the river.  There really weren't very many people (homeless or otherwise) around but it was quite warm.

Unfortunately our inbound train was very late so we left about 2.5 hours late.  In the end the train made up half of that time on the way but it was never clear when the train would be boarding or when it would get anywhere in particular which was unfortunate.  We had put in a bid for an upgrade to a full bedroom and our bid was accepted.  Having the more spacious room was a big help and I even used the tiny bathroom a few times.  Everything in our room worked well and our doors didn't rattle incessantly as sometimes happens on Amtrak.  Sleep was challenging though.  Since it was almost dark by the time the train left, we were ready for bed while we were still in the Columbia River Gorge.  The tracks were pretty rough and curvy so it wasn't easy to drift off to sleep.  Later, past Spokane, it got a lot better and Brian in particular did get a fair amount of sleep overall.

 

Dining on the train was a mixed bag. After spending time with a bunch of friends and family in non-stop appointments, we would have been happy to have minimal polite conversation with the people we sat with in the dining car. Unfortunately, for breakfast, we sat across from Mr and Mrs save the world from plastics who live in Monterey California. I actually share a lot of the concern about the amount of single use packaging we consume as a country (plastic but also paper) but it was a long single topic conversation.  Then at lunch we sat across from a retired couple from the UK.  It was challenging understanding them but seemed nice enough.  Then, after one of the two went back to their room the other one launched into a never ending series of wandering stories about how miserable his childhood and family were.  That he eventually (and literally) escaped from his abusive and controlling family was great but it's clear that even in his 70's, he spends a LOT of time tormented by those memories.  As the stories went on and on about how awful his family was I tried asking several times how he got out but he kept plowing ahead detailing all the controlling and abusive things his parents did to him.  Finally I started saying it was time for me to get back to my room but he kept trying to keep us there longer and longer.  On about the third time I tried to wrap up the conversation I had to just get up and leave muttering goodbye as I walked away.  Brian didn't resent his rambling and refusal to wrap up a conversation as much as I did. It really made me crabby because I don't think unloading your 60 years ago wounds on strangers in a dining car is reasonable behavior and I'm VERY sure that refusing to give people a way to end a conversation gracefully is not ok.  We had our room attendant bring us dinner to eat in our room, I just had no appetite for risking a third marathon conversation.  The actual food was consistently fine and the dining car attendant that served us made a point of remembering our names between Breakfast and Lunch.

 

Overall, the train trip was just ok.  Other than being late to leave Portland, there was nothing really so wrong with it but it just lacked any memorable redeeming qualities.  If our windows had been cleaner it would have helped us enjoy the views better.  Our room attendant was sassy and checked the boxes for what we expected but also a little condescending.  There were sometimes weird sewer gas smells in our room.  Compared to past long train journeys it just lacked a bit of something. 

In Williston we were picked up very quickly by an interesting Lyft driver.  He took us to the airport and we arrived about 9:40 pm. Unfortunately the terminal was absolutely empty.  You could go in, wander around baggage claim and check the in area but there weren't people at the rental counters, security offices or TSA people nor any airline employees. It was absolutely bizarre.  The Enterprise counter did have a note saying they would be back for 'the' 10 pm flight.  We ended up in a Honda Odyssey van which is very low-mileage and nice.

I'm writing this Sunday morning as we prepare to head out on our first of 5 (!) days in the Dakotas.  Williston is interesting to see again.  We went through on the moving to PA trip years ago when the oil boom was just taking hold.  Now it's had some time to grow and mature but there is still a lot of road construction and everything has a certain boom town haphazard look to it.  Having so many new apartment complexes, eateries and stores should be making living here more civil but probably more expensive than the old work camp days.