Arriving in Portland was extremely exciting. (2,263 mi, 7 hrs) Destiny picked me up from the airport and we immediately drove to avery's work to bring him lunch (they do this every single day). It was a gorgeous day! 68 and sunny... quite different from the 98 and humid as crap that I am used to. I think I said "it feels amazing" approximately 40 times the first two days. After unpacking and repacking the next day I boarded an Amtrak train headed to Whitefish, MT. As soon as I boarded the train I knew I was in for an adventure. I walked in and a middle-aged woman who was, well I'll just put it nicely by saying she was homely, approached me and asked me to sit with her. I suppose I can be a pushover because I just smiled and sat next to her despite the 30 plus empty chairs around me. She proceeded to tell me how she gets nauseated and extremely anxious on trains. Perfect. Just what I was hoping for on a 14 hour ride... By the grace of God, I looked down at my ticket and saw that it had a different train number than hers and everyone else's around us. I made the excuse of going to ask the attendant and managed to find a seat all to myself as far away from her as possible. (call me a jerk, you know you would've done the same thing) After an hour and a half delay and reserving my two seats by faking sleep as another train transferred onto ours I finally started my trek to Missoula.
Now, I expected a peaceful ride of listening to my music and reading while sipping on the wine I hid in a water bottle, but luckily that was not the case. A 31 year old, already drunk lady wearing green way over-sized sunglasses, and the hairiest armpits ever sat across the aisle from me, but quickly headed to the lounge area once the bar opened. A 30 year old creepy man (Anthony) who brought his own bottle of vodka (which was quickly confiscated as he was giving 19 year olds shots), and wore a "trendy" grandpa hat to cover his balding head sat diagonally from me. Then there were the sweet and normal 18-20 (Lizzy, Jake, and Kevin) year olds around. Somehow we all started talking and laughing and getting to know each other. It's funny how God works. One of the things I've been challenging myself to do recently is more openly share my faith. He swung a door wide open for me on this train. Kevin came over to sit by me (mainly to make fun of how Anthony kept trying to hit on me) and we struck up a wonderful conversation. Without even meaning to I was pushed to talk about my faith. I don't know that I made a huge impact on Kevin, but he seemed intrigued and encouraged by what I had to say. I'll come back to this topic later on. Anyway, around 1am we arrived in Spokane, WA where everyone in our group except Anthony was getting off the train. However, Anthony and hairy armpit lady were singing and being belligerent right before we arrived and actually were kicked off the train in Spokane. It was kind of awesome.This is where the journey to Missoula goes downhill... We were forced to transfer to buses in Spokane which meant attempting to get my night's sleep on a cramped bus. And this bus made young life and youth over night bus trips seem like a first class resort bus. We arrived in Whitefish around 730am, and I was plenty grouchy and greasy. Now, maybe you will consider this irresponsible, but I just think it was faith and spontaneity... I had no idea how I was going to get from Whitefish to Missoula. I found out there was a bus station about 20 minutes south of Whitefish that would put me on a bus to Missoula so I simply asked the bus drivers that were dropping us off in Whitefish where they were headed next. Conveniently enough they were headed south and graciously offered to take me to the bus station. So once in Kalispell, MT I spent an hour in the lobby of a super 8 waiting for the bus station to open and then 3 and a half more hours in the bus depot waiting to leave for Missoula. After another 3 hours in a bus
finally I see this cute girl in a tie-dyed shirt and patagonia shorts jumping up and down as the bus pulls into the Missoula bus station. Ahhhhh.... Missoula, MT and my best friend in the world (736 mi, 22 hrs).I definitely forgot to express how MAGNIFICENTLY BEAUTIFUL it was everywhere. It was awesome looking out at the Columbia River from the train. A beautiful river in front of snow-capped mountains. Breathtaking. The bus ride from Whitefish to Missoula was also gorgeous, but at that point I think I was more focused on getting off the freaking bus.
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