Train Part 1

Waiting to cross another hilled Seattle block I hear from the young couple beside me “I don’t know why. I don’t feel comfortable. It’s different without the car here. It seems like we are so much further from home.”

She’s right. With immediate access to a vehicle the trip from Portland to Seattle seems so much closer.

The precise reason I took the train.

Waking up at 6:30am to do anything is a laughable if not impossible task for me. I have made my family almost miss a flight to Europe, missed final exams, work…you name it. But maybe it was resisting the temptation to go out the night before or the excitement of getting on the west coast train for the first time that made me get up, get dressed, pour my water bottle of mimosa and head to Oregon City to get on a train at 7 FUCKING AM.

Oregon City may be a mere 18 minutes from SE Portland, but don’t be fooled. It is another land, another era. My Google maps app kept telling me I was only .7miles away this way or .35 miles away that way. Even the freaking gas station agent (who by the way wasn’t even sure the train in Oregon City still ran. GREAT) was petty sure it was only a quarter mile, then to the left. 20 MINUTES LATER…I finally find the station and run as fast as I can, to the amusement of the people waiting, to try to get to the platform in time…for the train to be a half hour late.

All said and done, I found a comfy single seat in the dinning car, plugged the ol’ laptop in, got a screwdriver and some breakfast, and made myself at home.

I have to say, there was nothing more peaceful and beautiful that morning than “passing through” my own city a half hour later. It was funny to feel like I truly was coming through a new city on the way to my exotic destination. That was the whole point of taking the train. I wanted to feel out of my element. I wanted to feel like I was really traveling. Not taking the same old 2 ½ hour trip from Portland to Seattle, but really getting away. It worked. It was amazing.