Still not a morning person, even for Glacier National Park

I realized that yesterday I didn't give as much context as I should have. As I wrote, I bought a 30-day Rail Pass from Amtrak. After leaving Seattle, I was taking the Empire Builder (I love Amtrak line names!) to Chicago, where I'd transfer to the Capitol Limited to Pittsburgh, my first destination.

So, before I went to bed in my awesome sleeper car Saturday night, Noelani, my sleeper car attendant, recommended I get up really early for breakfast so I could get a seat in the observation car as we went through Glacier National Park. I tried, I really did! I got up at 7:30am, went to breakfast (pancakes and bacon -- yum!), but I was so tired. So, so tired. So...I went back to bed. So long, Glacier National Park! Maybe next time.

That breakfast was also where I met one of the only cranky passengers. All he could do was whine and complain about Amtrak. Then you know what, Mr. Crankypants? Fly!

When I finally got up, I used the little shower. Let me tell you, that's an experience on a rocking train!

Then Noelani surprised me. There was a wine and cheese tasting that afternoon for sleeping car passengers! It was hilarious. Noelani was the hostess, and as she said, "It's less about tasting and more about drinking." Ha! After the "tasting," train employees asked trivia questions, and passengers who answered got a bottle of one of the wines. Eventually, passengers got to ask the questions. It got very riotous as the wine "tasting" went on.

That evening, things got interesting. I was sitting in my sleeping car when we stopped really hard, and there was no station. The conductor came on the PA saying that some idiot tried to cross the railroad tracks in front of the train. We had to put on the emergency brake. We didn't hit the person, but after an emergency stop, the train and the tracks need to be inspected because such a stop puts a lot of pressure on both train and tracks. Then, not a half hour later, we stop again. The conductor announces that yet another asshole tried to cross in front of the train ahead of us. Really?! So that train and those tracks had to be inspected. Finally, the conductor got on the phone and asked that people just be patient when a train is coming so things like this wouldn't happen. The silliest part was that these were only passenger trains! About 10 cars long! These weren't freight trains with 10,000 cars.

So here's a trivia question for you: What city in the United States has the most millionaires per capita? I bet you'll never guess...

...Williston, ND! No joke. I guess they have big oil up there. But who would have guessed? A town in ND, more than DC, more than Beverly Hills, more than Manhattan. Huh.

The result of all this stopping and starting was that we were running three hours behind when I went to bed that night. How did this bode for my connection in Chicago? Find out...