On the Open Track

(This post consists primarily of random thoughts on my journey to Fargo including: reflections of home, reflections on train travel, and random ramblings).

Well, coming home again has been an amazing experience as it was back during Winter Break. I’ll give a quick recap of all I did in the short amount of time I was back in Washington:

I first arrived in Spokane via airplane thanks to my friend Jim Lundy giving me a ride to Little Rock, so special thanks to Jim. I got into Spokane around 11 Monday night and immediately left for the West side the next morning to meet up with my friends Chad and Jilian to spend the Fourth of July on Orcas Island. It was amazingly beautiful, and I spent a couple of nights on Orcas in near perfect weather at a house literally on top of a mountain with an amazing view of the sound, the Olympics, and the neighboring islands. Upon returning to Seattle I stayed at Jilian’s and helped entertain some of her friends that came into town from Minnesota who turned out to be really cool and I enjoyed seeing the touristy sights of Seattle (Pikes Place, Snoqualmie Falls, etc.). I also learned I don’t have the guts to cliff jump to this day, which is unfortunate as I missed an opportunity to really show off my latent masculinity: “Look at me! I can jump off of high cliffs into water! I’m really cool!”

Jilian and I hit the road after that to visit Aunt Annie and our friends in Walla Walla. I didn’t get a chance to head to campus but I did have a great time visiting our old favorite bar, the “Green” and partaking in Aunt Annie’s famous breakfast.

After that I headed back to Harrington for a few days. While home I got to catch up with my two good friends Brian and Adam, and invariably found myself staying up entirely too late with Adam playing Wii sports. Whenever I come home to visit Adam very few things change, and us staying up late playing video games will probably happen until we’re both old men. Anna, Collin, Mom, Dad and I all went out to the bars on Wednesday night and Jilian had to return back to the west side via Amtrak. I also got to meet up with Mr. Peterson and talk about education and my old high school. Apparently we’re getting a new principal and a few of the older teachers from my school are starting to move out or retire.

I then got the urge to head back to Seattle one last time to visit a certain someone, which I did again and enjoyed. Highlights included seeing my friends Gareth, Tyler, Gracielle, and Andrew, most of whom I haven’t seen since Christmas. We watched Harry Potter at the Imax in 3D as well, which was a lot of fun. The screen and surround sound system definitely make a difference, although I wasn’t a big enough Harry Potter geek to dress up in costume or get all of the jokes in the movie.

Upon returning back to Harrington I got a warm welcome from my parents and we had a picnic at the park with all of our close proximity Fitzpatrick relatives featuring Dad’s burnt barbeque chicken and mom’s famous ribs. All in all a great time.

And now I’m currently typing this blog in the coach car of the Empire Builder on my way to Fargo, N.D. where I’ll take a cab to the Concordia College campus for my choir director’s school. So far my impressions of the train have been good: the staff are very friendly, but the people who actually take the train are rubbing me the wrong way. Well, maybe just the guy behind me anyway. At around 2 a.m., when I boarded the train, everyone in the coach was asleep except for the guy behind me, who decided to answer his cell phone and reply, quite loudly, “Hey, F you! I’m in Fin Spokane, mother F’er.” Great. Later this morning apparently the dvd he was watching on his laptop was funny because his giggles kept me from sleeping the extra four hours I probably needed. Lastly, the man talked to himself. Now granted, I talk to myself quite a bit, especially when driving and let a few expletives out especially while I’m driving, but I look at a train as sort of a public place, and try to keep that behavior to a minimum. I guess he’s been the only eccentric one so far, but I’ll keep my eyes peeled. Oh, right now he’s listening to System of a Down’s number one hit, Toxicity. How do I know? He’s singing it! I hope he’s getting off at Whitefish.

The land around the train is beautiful though and the weather is great. We’re going through the best parts of Montana at the moment though I’m kicking myself because I forgot to get headphones. There’s got to be a spot somewhere to pick them up.

I’m now writing probably about 120 miles or so east of Glacier National Park, the most scenic part of the journey and also the part that I decided to sleep through. My raucous train-car neighbor had been replaced with two gossiping 14 year olds but now a quiet lady sits behind me so the stars have finally aligned in my favor.

Another neat thing that they’re doing on the train is allowing a band of wandering musicians to play in the lounge car. No kidding. They have a fiddle player and a guitar player that play bluegrass and country, right in the car. I’m now hanging out in the lounge car waiting for more hits as we cruise through the flat Montana prairie. The sky isn’t very clear due to all of the forest fires, but it’s still a nice day.

Cheers,

-Nate

“Well I’m driving out west on I-90, yeah I’m going to see my baby. She’s waiting for me in the land of sea and rain.”-Me