Sleepless in Seattle
Wow. The adventure is under way. It’s exciting, exhilerating and is always keeping me on the edge of my seat. I hopped aboard the Amtrak on Thursday evening in Wisconsin for a 42 hour ride to Seattle. You read that right. The ride was just as long as it sounded. In fact, it actually ended up being longer. With the time change, and about an hour delay, I arrived in Seattle after 45 hours aboard the train. Thankfully, they had great leg room.
All in all, the Amtrak experience was a unique one. Would I recommend riding on a the train? You bet. It was a great experience. I met some unique and friendly people. I spoke with a gentlemen traveling to visit his family in Whitefish, Montana. I talked with another family who was traveling back from a spring break weekend in Wisconsin Dells. All sorts of individuals climbed aboard the Amtrak to their desired destinations.
As for me, I slept pretty well the two nights aboard the train. The ample leg room definitely helped. I could stretch my legs out fully, and the train wasn’t crowded so I had two seats to myself. I’d wake up throughout the night far more often than usual. That’s to be expected with the stops and bumps of a train expedition. I traveled through six states on the train. Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and Washington. Besides Wisconsin and Minnesota, I’ve never been to any of the others. The first leg was awfully flat. Nothing wrong with that, however, aboard an Amtrak for hours on end it gets a bit boring. Unfortunately, when the train finally was pulling into Glacier National Park, it was starting to get dark. Which meant that I only was able to see a few minutes of it. However, when I woke up, I was blown away by the beauty of Washington and the Cascades. Rushing river after rushing river, snow covered peaks that reach for the sun. It was spectacular.
When I awoke before the sunrise, I was even able to catch the lunar eclipse! Ironically, I had absolutely no clue it was happening. I remember when the moon rose, that I was impressed by the full moon. Then when I awoke, it was suddenly only a half moon. Using my detective skills, which are second to only Sherlock Holmes, I was able to determine that it must be a lunar eclipse! A pretty cool sight to wake up to.
Upon pulling into Seattle I met up with Jon Fehrenbach who helped me in reassembling my bike from the bike box I had shipped it in. All I needed to do was reattach the handle bars, my handlebar bag and put the pedals back on. Simple. In a few minutes we were ready to ride. Jon took me on a great bike tour of the city. I was able to check out Centurylink Field which still brings back bad memories from the NFC Championship game back in January. That game will haunt me for years to come.
The ride then took me to Safeco Field, only a block away. Stadium number one. Only 29 more to go. To my surprise there was actually a ballgame going on. I didn’t think the grounds crew would be letting anyone touch the field this close to Opening Day. It looked like a high school tournament of some sort was taking place. We snapped lots of the pictures outside the stadium. Plenty of them. It made me even more excited to see Felix Hernandez take the mound for the game on Monday.
Jon took me through a scenic tour of the rest of Seattle. With many rolling hills. I had done some hills in preparation for the ride, but there aren’t many in central Wisconsin. Thus, it was good to ride a few hills weighted down. Slowly but surely, I was able to make them up. This ride down the coast will be tough. It will be challenging. I will be sore, but I will complete it.
Later in the evening Jon took me back into downtown for the Badger game. I found a Badger bar, that was packed with red. Hundreds came out to cheer on the Badgers versus Kentucky. Not gonna lie, I was very nervous watching the game. However, watching with fellow Wisconsinites made it a ton of fun. I met Kate and Sam who graduated from UW back in 2010. Both were huge Badger fans and were quite superstitious. Kate refused to give any high fives. Being a B4B’er the concept of not giving any high fives is a new thought. But, hey, if the Badgers win, it works for me! After the excitement of the Badger victory, I lost my voice, and immediately headed back to Centurylink Field to catch the second half of the Sounders game. Jon had bought me tickets. I have never experienced the excitement of professional soccer, despite being a fan for many years. The game was enthusiastic, and I still wore my Badger red, which brought cheers from my section inside the stadium. After the game, which the Sounders won 1-0, everyone was congratulating Wisconsin on the wind. An unbelievable night I will not forget.
I’m pretty pumped for Monday. First, in the afternoon, I’ll be heading to Safeco Field for the home opener ballgame. Then in the evening, I’ll head back to the pub to join my fellow Badger fans for the game. Let’s go red! On Tuesday, I’ll head out of Seattle to begin my trip down the coast for San Francisco!
Just keep pedaling, Hi5!
Matt
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