This picture of me walking into the motel in Portland, OR was taken by my friends on Saturday just after they dropped me off and we said good-bye. I recall the moment precisely. Although I'd already had a number of "starts" and "firsts" on The Voyage, this one somehow felt like "the real thing." No more familiar territory, no more support of being with friends, no more pre-arrangements. The Voyage of Macgellan was beginning "in earnest" in a whole new way. With this in mind, I walked in, checked in and got online to "report my findings." As you can probably tell by the changes to this website, I spent most of Sunday working in iWeb on my beloved MacBookPro. Fortunately, the motel had a fast, stable internet connection and I made the most of it. On Monday, I caught the shuttle to the Amtrak station in Portland and headed out of town. On the train, I had a "Superliner Sleeperette" which is a little "room" (about 3.5 x 7 feet overall) that is configured with two large, comfy seats facing each other during the day that convert into a pretty decent bed at night (I didn't try the upper berth, but I doubt it is as nice as the lower). Dinner was pretty good, and I was able to converse with some folks of drastically different "world view" from my own without pissing anybody off. See... I'm learning! I woke up Tuesday morning about 30 minutes before the train pulled into Whitefish, MT so I had enough time to gulp a cup of coffee, gather my belongings and reflect fondly on my first overnight train ride... All in all, a good experience that I found to be a fine alternative to flying!
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Logbook: Portland, OR - Whitefish, MT
This picture of me walking into the motel in Portland, OR was taken by my friends on Saturday just after they dropped me off and we said good-bye. I recall the moment precisely. Although I'd already had a number of "starts" and "firsts" on The Voyage, this one somehow felt like "the real thing." No more familiar territory, no more support of being with friends, no more pre-arrangements. The Voyage of Macgellan was beginning "in earnest" in a whole new way. With this in mind, I walked in, checked in and got online to "report my findings." As you can probably tell by the changes to this website, I spent most of Sunday working in iWeb on my beloved MacBookPro. Fortunately, the motel had a fast, stable internet connection and I made the most of it. On Monday, I caught the shuttle to the Amtrak station in Portland and headed out of town. On the train, I had a "Superliner Sleeperette" which is a little "room" (about 3.5 x 7 feet overall) that is configured with two large, comfy seats facing each other during the day that convert into a pretty decent bed at night (I didn't try the upper berth, but I doubt it is as nice as the lower). Dinner was pretty good, and I was able to converse with some folks of drastically different "world view" from my own without pissing anybody off. See... I'm learning! I woke up Tuesday morning about 30 minutes before the train pulled into Whitefish, MT so I had enough time to gulp a cup of coffee, gather my belongings and reflect fondly on my first overnight train ride... All in all, a good experience that I found to be a fine alternative to flying!
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