Cross-country train rides with and without kids, dining cars with and without meat, and making travel part of the vacation.
To ride a train across America is the most sublime tension you will ever encounter. You are lazily rocking detached from cell signal, exactingly scheduled where minutes missed can turn to hours of delay, and still barreling safely through the most beautiful landscapes the continent has to offer. It is a push-pull that too few Americans experience.
Amtrak’s Empire Builder train route is a two night, 2,200 mile trek across the norther tier of the country. Leaving every day from Chicago at 3:05pm, the train takes 40 hours to go through Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana and Idaho. Then the train splits in half in Spokane, with one train headed to Seattle and the other Portland. They arrive at the end of the lines just before noon. Attendants and porters clean and restock, then they’re back going the other direction by 4:45pm.
This summer, I rode the Empire Builder route in both directions. First I went eastbound solo from Portland to Chicago on the 4th of July. At the end of the month, I returned with kids in tow starting from New York. We first took the Lake Shore Limited to Chicago, then continued westbound once again on the Empire Builder. The first two trains – both headed to Chicago – hit their station times to the minute. The third train from Chicago west ran 12 hours late leading to a cascade of changes and surprise pizza in Wenatchee. More about that in a moment.
Eastbound: From Portland to Chicago
On July 3 at 4:50pm, I stepped into my Superliner Roomette from Portland’s Union Station. From a central hallway, the room had a sliding door that opens to two recliners facing one another, a big window, and small folding table between. These rooms are built for two, but I was traveling solo this first portion of the trip.
My room, Number 12, was on the lower level along with a half dozen other rooms, shared bathrooms, and showers. Upstairs, the entire length of the car is private rooms and a connection to the next car. The train leaving Portland had two such sleeping cars as well as two coach seating cars. There is also the view car with panoramic windows and a coffee shop/cafe in the bottom level.
I booked tickets for our July travels back in May. By that point, the cross-country trains were full enough that there weren’t any sleeping berths left leaving Seattle. I didn’t expect to leave from Portland originally, but I took the hint and did Portland stuff for a couple days before the train left. Including the Portland Craft Beer Festival, which I couldn’t have planned better if it was on purpose. We were scheduled to come back through Portland in a month for the same reason of no sleeping cars to Seattle. But there would be less beer fest.
Here’s where some of the peculiarities of the Empire Builder pop up. While we left Portland, a train with similar setup simultaneously left Seattle. But instead of the view car, it has a full dining car. We would meet them in Spokane somewhere around midnight. Because meals are provided to folks in the sleeping cars, the Portland train without the dining car got a box dinner. I took the chicken option, which ended up being a gummy pita and some flavorless coleslaw. The cookies were good, at least.
From Portland, the train goes to Vancouver, Washington and turns right for the winding path along the Columbia. As the train rolls, you see the river sink between rising banks of trees, then those banks turned to gold cliffs as we got into to the Gorge. Even at mid-summer, the sun does go down. It was dark at midnight in Spokane where we met the Seattle contingent. The train slept through Idaho and into the mountains of Montana.
In the roomettes, sleeping is a compact affair. The two seats that face each other during the day slide together to create a lower bunk. From the ceiling, a second bunk folds down. Elbow rests double as steps to the top bunk and a net made from seat belt material hooks to the ceiling to prevent roll outs. As a single rider, I elected the top bunk and doubled up the mattress instead of putting in on the lower bed.
Amtrak has advertised that linens have been upgraded. They are comfortable, if not plush. And the ventilation was such that it wasn’t hot, but I didn’t need more than a thin sheet. From the top bunk, power cables get fished through the edge to get at the single plug labeled “electric razors only.” The rooms were not designed for multiple electronics. That’s fine because there was no wifi and only cell service in the brief stops in towns. I had some shows downloaded in advance.
My Independence Day was entirely spent on the train, moving through Montana and North Dakota. As important as the scenery, the dining car joined the train. I was enjoying an omelette at 8am when we left West Glacier, Montana. The train then circled the south edge of Glacier National Park between US 2 and the Flathead River. The tallest of the park’s mountains occasionally peaked over the ridge we traveled against. At East Glacier, the terrain opens and so does the throttle, and we were off into North Dakota.
There’s a car commercial that talks about seeing America on the 4th of July. They can pound sand. The day should be for rolling through the high plateau of Montana and North Dakota as experienced from rail. The landscape is a patchwork of earthy colors with tufts of green shrubs and rocks along the layered and soft hilled countryside. This evens out to waves of grasses and meandering rivers in the high prairie. The long straight roads marking sections and townships in perfect checkerboard tapered into the far distance. As night fell, there were occasional bursts of single fireworks close to the horizon.
