From the Second Floor Penthouse

Early morning in Atlanta, and everyone is asleep on MARTA. I’m heading to the airport for the flight back to New York.

Made some great friends at Outlantacon this weekend.

Tomorrow will be a quick day of meetings, then flying to Oregon Wednesday morning.

Anyone else traveling this week?

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My sister, who takes frequently vacations to Hawaii, Europe  and all over North America, not to mention last year’s Alaskan cruise or the weekend in the Bahamas, writes me acknowledging I’ve become “quite the jetsetter.”

I will gladly admit that this hour in first class would appear to be lavish, but the upgrade was a free fluke, the plane is smaller than the matchbox apartment in New York, and peanuts taste the same whether I’m  sitting in row 2 or row 12.

What IS totally coooool is the cause for the journey: A weekend meeting new sci fi loving friends and the exciting opportunity to see GOLIAD UPRISING screen for the first time.

Maybe I shouldn’t say ‘exciting’ since the real feeling is absolute terror the audience will hate the movie  or even worse, feel indifferent about it. Since the screening is Sunday, I have two days of morbid anticipation.

Another airport. This one is Washington International.

No matter what the reaction, it’s been a good ride  and I’m grateful for the journey. Today Atlanta. Tuesday New York. Wednesday Sweet Home and back to digging post holes for the garden.

I’ll let you know if they throw chairs during the screening or snub me as I slip out of the hotel.

If anyone needs a bar of soap let me know and I’ll snag you some.  Stealing souvenir soap; I am a jetsetter.

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They held the Coast Starlight for us.

Crossing the Willamette River

And now I’m settling into the lounge for the 90 minutes to Albany.

We’re heading south, following the river, slowly gaining elevation.

In Salem.

Arrived safely in Sweet Home.

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After a smoker’s stop in Pasco we’re rolling like a bat out of hell.

Cowboy stretching his legs in Pasco.

Cowboy

It's been more than 145 miles...

The next three hours will be along the Columbia River.

Columbia River

This is my new buddy, Jennifer, who boarded in Richmond, VA on Sunday and we’ve been riding in the same car the past four  days.

Trucker is still here in the lounge and he’s been holding court with a young hipster couple, talking ignorant politics.

Americans are so easily manipulated. Hmmmmm, I made a movie about that. And we must sell ten more tickets to the premiere today to hold the theater. Google Goliad Uprising Brown Paper Tickets and take this worry off my plate. Please.

Heading into the rain.

We’re about forty minutes from Portland. I missed my Amtrak bus connection. They are supposed to be holding the Coast Starlight for us and transferring our bags. I’ve got four boxes of hard drives in checked luggage. I’m trusting everything will arrive in Albany with me.

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Wednesday morning, 4am.

I’m awake. We’re sitting in a siding waiting to meet a freight train coming toward us.

We’ve been here awhile.

It’s just one sleeper car, two coaches and the lounge car behind an engine. A dinky little train in the huge Washington savannah. If I could see us, we’d look lost.

Best sleep yet last night. I had several vivid dreams, and feel more rested. None of us have seat mates (unless you brought one with you).

I’m sitting in the empty lounge car, staring into the dark, my dimly illuminated ghost stares back. I see a few trucks zipping along the distant horizon, and at the top of my picture window half a gauzy moon breaks cloud cover.

A couple hours later, we’ve gone a few miles and are in another siding. The clouds are glowing in the east and my ghost left with the morning light. 

A trucker talked my ear off for an hour before sunrise. When he came ’round to devine destiny and spreading the gospel I realized the only way out of the conversation was to simply leave.

Cowboy is awake, acting perky. Got himself some coffee, navigating the stairs to the lounge car by himself. I gave him a fruit bar and will leave him alone since he seems able to do for himself.

Beginning to make the transition to Oregon living. A lot of bearded country boys, doing country jobs.

8am. Moved to the next siding, and sitting again. Freight train in front of us has a mechanical. 

Four strangers gathered in the lounge, all men, start gossiping about the cause of the delay. Maybe our train is broken and they’re lying to us. Yeah, cause something went wrong yesterday, so that must be what’s happening now. And we stayed in Spokane so long…

I couldn’t take it. I interrupted. Yesterdays problem was minor and we don’t have that problem. The signals are red. We’re waiting for clear track. We left Spokane on schedule.

Bored men stir up shit. The human condition.

I went back to my seat, and am listening to music on the laptop. “One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble…” 

Three nights on a train makes a hard man edgy.

Started to roll at 9am.

Pasco, WA in about thirty miles.

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It’s 6:10 Tuesday evening and we’re leaving Cut Bank, MT and continuing our climb to the mountains.

Which is not to say we’re in the mountains, cause we ain’t.

You know  I could have taken one prairie picture and it would have referenced the whole day. I should make a movie for these people: the Prairie People. I don’t know what it would be about, but there would be a lot of grass.

Zonked out in the seat across the aisle is a rodeo cowboy older than I am who boarded this morning. Come to find out he was just released from the hospital with broken ribs, bruises everywhere and no pain meds. I’ve been getting food for him and offering him some relief from my dop kit. He’ll be asleep a couple hours. He missed the steer and lost the job. He’s going to Portland to look for work because “it sounds nice.”

Glacier National Park ahead. It’s 6:30. We might get there before sundown.

This android camera isn’t getting a good shot. The mountains are completely covered in snow. Quite spectacular.

It’s clouded over, and we’re going into dark.  We were able to see all the park from the train. Gorgeous. Hadn’t been here since my family hiked Grennel glacier when I was a kid.

Tonight will be a sliver of Idaho, a long stop in Spokane to break the train into two sections, and then eastern Washington state as we roll to the Columbia River Gorge.

Goodnight.from Whitefish, MT. 9:10pm.

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