PASTOR DAVE’S MUSINGS FROM THE HEARTLAND

September 28, 2022

MAKE NEW BEST FRIENDS

Bonnie from Elite Travel Inc. arranged with Amtrak Vacations the travel for our tour of the northwest.  The package included riding coach between Chicago and South Bend, having a sleeper for the trip from Chicago to Seattle which included a stop for two nights at Glacier National Park on the way, a dinner at Glacier Park Lodge, and all of the meals on the train.  Breakfast and lunch on the train were come when you want; dinner was by reservations only.

When the waiter who was in charge of the diner would call for reservations several times he said “Come and make new best friends.  We only have community seating.”  At one dinner we made the acquaintance of a young couple from Stuttgart, Germany.  He was an apprentice engineer and she was in school.  They were in America visiting family and friends.  At another dinner we sat with two ladies who work in the hotel industry and were from England.  They said they were surprised that in America trains tended to run through the middle of town.  We ate we kept running into one couple with whom we ate at Glacier Park and on the train.

On all of my major trips I keep a diary. It helps to keep my memory correct and is useful when writing newspaper articles.  The head waiter on the train from Glacier Park to Seattle and Seattle to Chicago noticed my notebook on the dining table with the inscription “Seattle Train Trip.”  I told him that it helped me write newspaper articles that emphasized the importance of social capital.   When I explained that social capital has to do with networks that bring people to live and work together, he said the train surely fit that description.

When I was looking at the scenery and working on my Sudoku puzzles I met a young Amish man who was on his way to Montana.  He and his sister who I met later were going there to be teachers in a community the Amish are establishing.  He will have eight students and she will have six.  We met a number of Amish traveling on the train.  Our travel agent said that she has a number of clients who are Amish.

In the second chapter of the Gospel of Luke we read about Jesus and his family traveling to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover (Luke 2:41-52).  It was on this trip that Jesus becomes separated from his family and they find him in the Temple among the teachers.  The Passover provided a network for Jewish people to come together.  Jesus and his family traveled with a group from their home town of Nazareth.  In Jerusalem there were Jews from all over the known world.  The holiday helped to build solidarity among Jews from all over the world.

Diane and I found our train ride to Seattle a wonderful time to get to know some new people, learn about other parts of our country and hear stories of other persons’ adventures.  Several people noted that on the train you get to see America’s backyard. Our car attendant on our return trip was Tibetan; we had dinner with people from Germany and England; we learned a little more about the Amish culture; and we had great meals.  These are experiences that one would find hard pressed to have while traveling by air.

Diane and I are thinking about our next train trip.  It will not be as extensive as our trip to Seattle. Next summer we will be taking two of our grandsons on a scenic train trip in Wisconsin.  I wonder who we will meet and what experiences we will have.

(This article was originally published 9/8/2019 and is the second of a series of articles about my train trip to Seattle, Washington.)

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