My sister called and said she needed to have her knee replaced. After thinking about it a while I decided that I would travel to Oregon to help her. I thought about it a lot and decided I would book a train trip and see the country. I spent several months preparing for this trip, and deciding what I was going to do. I'm sure my friends were tired of hearing about my pending trip. I finally left Omaha on September 17, heading toward Denver and then the Pacific Northwest.
My friend Melissa dropped me off at the Amtrack station around 10 PM. The train was due around midnight but was a little late. I was guided into the train car and thankfully got a window seat all by myself. Everyone was pretty quiet on the ride into Lincoln. It seemed like most people were sleeping. We pulled into a small town east of Lincoln about a while later and onboarded a few people. The woman seated in front of me turned around to talk with me. She was quite a Chatty Cathy. I learned she was going to the Denver terminal then North to go back home. She had been visiting her parents in a small town for the last few weeks. Her Dad is dying from cancer and she wanted to be with him as much as possible. She lugged a huge suitcase with her (the stop was so small she could not check her luggage). She got into her suitcase several times to pull out a Mountain Dew, or a sandwich, or a candy bar that her Mom had packed for her. Apparently that huge suitcase held mostly food for her trip. I had planned to sleep until daylight when I could see the scenery, but she wanted to talk, so talk we did.
Along the way we picked up more people. A woman who was always suffering from "I need a cigarette" got on. She tried to get off the train at every stop to have a smoke. The conductor got very frustrated with her and stopped opening the door on our car so she could not get off. I learned along the way that this woman spent most of her life addicted to drugs and alcohol. She lost custody of her children when they were quite young. She has been estranged from her parents and siblings for many years. Thankfully she has kicked the addiction and was traveling to California to meet her brother. She was very nervous. When we got to Sacramento, I had a long layover and she had to wait for her brother. We spent some time one on one talking and I had the chance to pray with her and hopefully help her feel a little calmer before the big meeting. When her brother got there they hugged, cried and talked like nothing had ever happened. She looked back at me, waved and gave me a big thumbs up sign!
Another woman I met on the train is Tess. She is a little older than me and has been widowed for 10+ years. Her husband left her with plenty of money so she travels a lot. She loves traveling by train for short trips, but flies for longer trips. We spent hours talking about all kinds of of things, especially being widows, and our relationship with God. We exchanged contact information. I believe we will stay in touch with each other. At my stop, she was going on further, she asked if we could pray together. It was so wonderful to meet another woman I felt I could talk with and share my sorrow of loosing my Phil. She understood and shared her sorrow with me.
Friday afternoon we arrived in Sacramento, and an 8 hour layover. I had planned to call and meet with one of Phil's friends. They had been friends since grade school and I had talked to him on the phone many time when he and Phil were chatting. Phil had been trying to witness to Alan for months. Not long before he died he went to the Bible book store and bought a book on the gospel of John and another on Romans. He had intended to send both of these books to Alan but never got around to it. That was the perfect reason to meet up with Alan while I was so close to him. Alan picked me up and took me back to his apartment. It was good to finally meet him. I must say his driving scared me more than a little. I don't think I would like to drive in Sacramento!
My train left the station in Sacramento around 11 PM. I was finally on my way to Oregon to see my sisters, nieces and nephew. I was to excited to sleep ... ready to get to my family.
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