Day 288, 18 April 2013, Whitefish, Montana, We are exceedingly fortunate it seems. We are in the most popular roomette/sleeper compartment on the Empire Builder. When we were safely ensconced just prior to departure another couple arrived with a ticket saying No. 6 - just like ours. Aside from possession being 9/10ths of the law, our names showed up on the conductor's list for Room 6. They went to Room 5. At 2 am this morning, there was a loud knock on our door and huge shuffling and banging outside. A mother and (very) loud little boy, determined that they were entitled to Room 6. And they were. Just in the next carriage. Huge difficulties with the economy in the USA. And numeracy it seems. Bounced and jounced. Rocked and rolled and eventually the train put us back to sleep. We visited the dining car for breakfast and had a great view of Whitefish Mountain Resort - lucky those skis are safely stowed in the baggage car - looked stunning. Breakfast was a treat - British humour! Always refreshing not to have to explain every thing we say - met a software designer from Wales who was able to pronounce the longest place name in Wales for us. (We travelled through it on the train from Holyhead to London way back in November 2012.) The train route through Glacier Park took us through the Rockies (pictured) and onto the Great Plains. Amazing to think we'll be on the other side of America by tomorrow afternoon. Also incredible how many folks are travelling to Milwaukee. I know Happy Days was based there - but that's it. Obviously more to Milwaukee than meets the eye.
The farming country of the plains was a true change from the mountain scenery - so flat and dry. Even with the snow on the ground, I thought it looked quite warm in the brilliant sunshine - right up until I stepped off the train for some fresh, very chill, air. There was an ice machine on the platform - I don't think they needed to plug it in. We were in Shelby at that point - one of only three locations in the USA which have an antipode (land directly opposite them on the other side of the planet). Travelling from Shelby through the centre of the earth, one would arrive in the Kerguelen Islands, a scientific outpost. We never knew (or thought) about this concept before, but might have to have a closer look at a globe when the opportunity presents. We are enjoying the tidbits of history we've found in the route guide - for instance, passing through Wagner, Montana we found out in July 1901 Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid's "Wild Bunch" pulled off one last great train robbery - a hold up of the Great Northern Flyer near Wagner. After dividing the $65,000 in spoils, they split up forever - Butch and Sundance headed for Argentina and took the spirit of the untamed west with them. Seriously, what is it with bad guys and South America? Seems like in the past at least, they must have really laid out the welcome mat. Another amusing aspect of the trip is place names. So far today we've been through Essex, Malta and Glasgow and Rugby is coming up. When we reach Chicago we are planning to check out a gangster tour of Al Capone places of interest. Seems like the tour actually started today when we passed through Minot, North Dakota. It was known as Little Chicago during Prohibition and was a central hub for Mr Capone's liquor smuggling. Luckily Prohibition is long dead - because this afternoon we enjoyed a Wine & Cheese tasting event held in the Dining Car. All good - especially when they held an impromptu Trivia quiz. Trivia's a funny old thing and James did us proud by winning a bottle of wine from Washington State. The question was... who is the biggest distributor of toys in the world? Lego? Hasbro? Mattel? Amazon? Fedex? Tonka? Parker Brothers? Toys'R'Us? No, no and no again. In fact McDonalds! So many thanks to our friend Dale in Whistler, Canada who actually tormented us with this question a couple of weeks ago - you just never know when droplet from a font of information might be useful. Here's another brain teaser (James also got this, but was only allowed to win once). What is the name of a rock group all of who's members are dead - it still does tours and has nothing to do with music.... go on.... Beatles? (No), in fact.... Mount Rushmore! Moving right along (it being a train and all), our last stop in North Dakota was Fargo - The Big Bopper, Ritchie Vallens and Buddy Holly were actually heading for Fargo when their plane crashed - the Day the Music Died (made famous in Don McLean's song, American Pie). We enjoyed a superb steak dinner in the dining car before pushing our clocks forward another hour - started out on Pacific Time, moved to Mountain Time last night and now we're on Central Time. It sure does fly when you're having fun. We cross into Minnesota during the night - wonder what tomorrow will bring.