travel journals, part I

June 4th, 6:51am. Woke up just past six o'clock this morning despite its being the first day of this year's summer vacation, and despite not getting home till past 1:30 last night from an amazing, incredible, gorgeous Dave Rawlings Machine show at the Bowery Ballroom. Now, coffee brewing and thoughts of foul language running through my head.*


(Dave Rawlings Machine, Diamond Joe)

June 5th, 10:47pm. Feeling a little bit like a kid on Christmas Eve. Also, packing. And pretty much ready to head out tomorrow for three days on a train and then strawberry season in the Skagit Valley and Nate's graduation from Portland State University and ice cream in Idaho and barbecues in Anacortes. Oh yes.

June 6th, morning. Brunch with Dan, dear friend and cat-sitter extraordinaire, after stopping by Andrew & Jessica's to drop off their wedding gift and look in on Dusty. (Who apparently is now quite fond of said wedding gift.)










(Picture c/o Jessica C.)


(Hudson River, heading for Albany)

June 6th, 9:39pm: Almost half way to Chicago and feeling fine. Lovely dinner in the dining car with an elderly couple heading back home to Colorado. Gorgeous sunset half an hour out of Schenectady and getting on towards time to sleep. Breakfast at 6 and arrival in Chicago just before 9. (Queries about how far we'd gotten, what and how are people reading (E-book readers, the real thing, etc.), how full is the train and what are our fellow travelers like, and memories of train travel in the '60s)

(Yes, that is a toilet in our wee 'roomette')










(Quirky instructions on how to properly use the bunk bed)





















*Italicized bits were Facebook status updates.