Random Public Thoughts #7 - Trans-continental train trip
In my previous post (#6), I talked about a trip that I did to Scotland when I was 19, and mentioned the kindness of total strangers.
After wandering around Scotland and Europe for about half a year, I decided that I wanted to go back to school again. It was now early November, and I had gotten back across the Atlantic and was now staying with someone (which meant sleeping on the floor in a dorm room) at Swarthmore. Obviously I couldn't stay like this for long, and I decided to return to Hawaii until it was time for Swarthmore's spring semester to begin in January.
Somehow, I had found out about a trans-continental train trip from Montreal to Vancouver, that was supposed to be very cheap if you were under 21. I was now 20-1/2! My Swarthmore friend Cathy (whom I roomed with in San Francisco) had moved to Seattle and was living there with another Swarthmore temporary drop-out, Georgia. So, I had a plan: hitchhike to Montreal, take the train to Vancouver, drop down to Seattle to visit Cathy and Georgia, and then fly back to Hawaii!
I was very lucky and got a "good" ride from a lesbian couple while still on the New Jersey turnpike. One woman talked with me in the bathroom at a rest stop. When she learned that I was trying to get to Montreal, she offered me a ride as far as Boston, to her parents' house, which I happily accepted!
When we arrived at her parents' very proper home in the Boston suburbs, they didn't blink or lose a beat when their daughter asked if I (total stranger, Asian girl with huge rucksack) could spend the night there. They were happy to see their daughter again, greeted her partner as a family member, and were kind and hospitable to me in their proper East coast Yankee manner.
Thus, I had a safe ride with good company, and a good night's sleep in a real bed to boot!
Since it was November, the days were short, and there weren't a lot of cars on the road north of Boston. Thus, I remember having some trouble hitchhiking to Montreal, and when I arrived, it was already dark. Whoever it was that gave me a ride on that final leg to Montreal dropped me off by the youth hostel. However, when I walked up to the door, I found that the hostel was closed!
So there I was, on a chilly November night, with no place to stay!
A young man, perhaps in his 20's or early 30's, was walking by. He noticed me staring at the sign and he confirmed that the hostel was indeed closed. He saw the dismay on my face, hesitated a minute, then told me that I could stay at his house for the night until I figured out what to do. He must have noticed my own hesitation so he added that I had nothing to worry about - he lived with his girlfriend! So, OK, it was settled!
I ended up staying at their apartment for several days - when he found out that I wanted to buy that special train ticket, he took me to the station and helped me get it. It turned out that the train didn't leave for a couple of days, but he said no problem, I was welcome to stay with them until it was time to go. He gave me a little tour of Montreal, and helped me to buy groceries for the train trip - it was 3 days and 2 nights, and although it would stop to drop off and pick up passengers, I obviously would be unable to leave to buy anything.
His girlfriend was French Canadian (he was English Canadian), and even though she understood English perfectly well, she pretended not to understand anything that I said. I tried my high school French but I wasn't fluent enough to have a meaningful conversation. She probably was annoyed to have me staying there, but she was polite and hospitable even though we didn't talk much.
The train left Montreal some time in the afternoon, I think. I remember passing over glaciated, boggy terrain - quite interesting. Then it got dark. When we crossed the midwestern plains, I remember there was an ice storm - all the trees were coated in ice and it was beautiful!!! I didn't drive and have a house there so I didn't know how dangerous ice storms can be. From a warm train, for a 20-year-old from Hawaii, it was great!
I was anxious to see what the Canadian Rockies looked like, but nightfall came again just as the foothills were in the distance. I was SOOO disappointed!!! I pressed my nose to the window to try to see what the mountains looked like, but it was pitch dark outside - no moon, nothing to see!
And what was it like being on a train for so long? I brought a book to read, but spent most of my waking hours either looking out the window (I found this fascinating) or chatting with a young black artiste-type man who sat with me in our little booth. He was good company for the 3 days and 2 nights, but like so many other people that I met while traveling alone, we never met again. We shared our food (he had better food than I did; I think I only brought a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter to eat for 3 days!), talked about books and this and that.
The best part of the trip was the last leg of the trip. Daylight found us still in the mountains (probably the Cascades or the coastal range), and very spectacular ones at that. We were following a river gorge which cut through some spectacular scenery. I had no camera and made quick sketches in a futile attempt to try to hold on to and "keep" some of the beauty. When I looked at my sketches later, they just looked like pencil marks. Too bad! But definitely it was "the best for last."
I think we arrived in Vancouver in late morning or early aftenoon. My erstwhile travel companion wanted to maintain contact and hang out together but he made me uneasy, and he was gracious enough not to press the point and went on to wherever he was headed.
Instead, I tried to hitchhike out of Vancouver to Seattle, but had no luck. Because the days were now so short, it was growing dark. A young girl saw me hitchhiking and offered me a quarter for the bus! I hope I didn't take her quarter, but I did end up taking a bus.
An older lady eyed my backpack and asked me where I was going. I told her I was trying to get to a bus station since I wasn't able to hitch a ride to Seattle. She said that if I was able to get a bus, it wouldn't arrive until quite late, and then what would I do? Also, it might have already been too late to get a bus. So, she suggested that I come home with her!
So, a total stranger on the bus invited me to stay at her house. When we arrived at her house, I could tell that her husband was NOT pleased at her bringing home a stranger with a backpack, but he was too polite to protest, though he eyed me suspiciously. She put me up in a nice guest bedroom, and thus I was able to head out to Seattle in the morning.
It was a good thing - I didn't realize that it was a fairly long trip from Vancouver to Seattle! I arrived in the early evening, called my friend Cathy's house, and her brother gave me Cathy's new Seattle address and told me how to get there. Seattle is a fairly large city so it did take me awhile to find Cathy's place. But I finally found it, and had a nice haven for a little while with Cathy and Georgia.
So many nice people... I wonder sometimes, would I do something like that, offering to let a stranger stay with me? I'm not sure...
After wandering around Scotland and Europe for about half a year, I decided that I wanted to go back to school again. It was now early November, and I had gotten back across the Atlantic and was now staying with someone (which meant sleeping on the floor in a dorm room) at Swarthmore. Obviously I couldn't stay like this for long, and I decided to return to Hawaii until it was time for Swarthmore's spring semester to begin in January.
Somehow, I had found out about a trans-continental train trip from Montreal to Vancouver, that was supposed to be very cheap if you were under 21. I was now 20-1/2! My Swarthmore friend Cathy (whom I roomed with in San Francisco) had moved to Seattle and was living there with another Swarthmore temporary drop-out, Georgia. So, I had a plan: hitchhike to Montreal, take the train to Vancouver, drop down to Seattle to visit Cathy and Georgia, and then fly back to Hawaii!
I was very lucky and got a "good" ride from a lesbian couple while still on the New Jersey turnpike. One woman talked with me in the bathroom at a rest stop. When she learned that I was trying to get to Montreal, she offered me a ride as far as Boston, to her parents' house, which I happily accepted!
When we arrived at her parents' very proper home in the Boston suburbs, they didn't blink or lose a beat when their daughter asked if I (total stranger, Asian girl with huge rucksack) could spend the night there. They were happy to see their daughter again, greeted her partner as a family member, and were kind and hospitable to me in their proper East coast Yankee manner.
Thus, I had a safe ride with good company, and a good night's sleep in a real bed to boot!
Since it was November, the days were short, and there weren't a lot of cars on the road north of Boston. Thus, I remember having some trouble hitchhiking to Montreal, and when I arrived, it was already dark. Whoever it was that gave me a ride on that final leg to Montreal dropped me off by the youth hostel. However, when I walked up to the door, I found that the hostel was closed!
So there I was, on a chilly November night, with no place to stay!
A young man, perhaps in his 20's or early 30's, was walking by. He noticed me staring at the sign and he confirmed that the hostel was indeed closed. He saw the dismay on my face, hesitated a minute, then told me that I could stay at his house for the night until I figured out what to do. He must have noticed my own hesitation so he added that I had nothing to worry about - he lived with his girlfriend! So, OK, it was settled!
I ended up staying at their apartment for several days - when he found out that I wanted to buy that special train ticket, he took me to the station and helped me get it. It turned out that the train didn't leave for a couple of days, but he said no problem, I was welcome to stay with them until it was time to go. He gave me a little tour of Montreal, and helped me to buy groceries for the train trip - it was 3 days and 2 nights, and although it would stop to drop off and pick up passengers, I obviously would be unable to leave to buy anything.
His girlfriend was French Canadian (he was English Canadian), and even though she understood English perfectly well, she pretended not to understand anything that I said. I tried my high school French but I wasn't fluent enough to have a meaningful conversation. She probably was annoyed to have me staying there, but she was polite and hospitable even though we didn't talk much.
The train left Montreal some time in the afternoon, I think. I remember passing over glaciated, boggy terrain - quite interesting. Then it got dark. When we crossed the midwestern plains, I remember there was an ice storm - all the trees were coated in ice and it was beautiful!!! I didn't drive and have a house there so I didn't know how dangerous ice storms can be. From a warm train, for a 20-year-old from Hawaii, it was great!
I was anxious to see what the Canadian Rockies looked like, but nightfall came again just as the foothills were in the distance. I was SOOO disappointed!!! I pressed my nose to the window to try to see what the mountains looked like, but it was pitch dark outside - no moon, nothing to see!
And what was it like being on a train for so long? I brought a book to read, but spent most of my waking hours either looking out the window (I found this fascinating) or chatting with a young black artiste-type man who sat with me in our little booth. He was good company for the 3 days and 2 nights, but like so many other people that I met while traveling alone, we never met again. We shared our food (he had better food than I did; I think I only brought a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter to eat for 3 days!), talked about books and this and that.
The best part of the trip was the last leg of the trip. Daylight found us still in the mountains (probably the Cascades or the coastal range), and very spectacular ones at that. We were following a river gorge which cut through some spectacular scenery. I had no camera and made quick sketches in a futile attempt to try to hold on to and "keep" some of the beauty. When I looked at my sketches later, they just looked like pencil marks. Too bad! But definitely it was "the best for last."
I think we arrived in Vancouver in late morning or early aftenoon. My erstwhile travel companion wanted to maintain contact and hang out together but he made me uneasy, and he was gracious enough not to press the point and went on to wherever he was headed.
Instead, I tried to hitchhike out of Vancouver to Seattle, but had no luck. Because the days were now so short, it was growing dark. A young girl saw me hitchhiking and offered me a quarter for the bus! I hope I didn't take her quarter, but I did end up taking a bus.
An older lady eyed my backpack and asked me where I was going. I told her I was trying to get to a bus station since I wasn't able to hitch a ride to Seattle. She said that if I was able to get a bus, it wouldn't arrive until quite late, and then what would I do? Also, it might have already been too late to get a bus. So, she suggested that I come home with her!
So, a total stranger on the bus invited me to stay at her house. When we arrived at her house, I could tell that her husband was NOT pleased at her bringing home a stranger with a backpack, but he was too polite to protest, though he eyed me suspiciously. She put me up in a nice guest bedroom, and thus I was able to head out to Seattle in the morning.
It was a good thing - I didn't realize that it was a fairly long trip from Vancouver to Seattle! I arrived in the early evening, called my friend Cathy's house, and her brother gave me Cathy's new Seattle address and told me how to get there. Seattle is a fairly large city so it did take me awhile to find Cathy's place. But I finally found it, and had a nice haven for a little while with Cathy and Georgia.
So many nice people... I wonder sometimes, would I do something like that, offering to let a stranger stay with me? I'm not sure...
posted by Gaye Marasaki | 6:17 PM
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