amtrak pt ii - by vincent huang - a slice of my mind

i rode the (46-hour) empire builder from portland to chicago! having taken the (52-hour) zephyr from sf to chicago last year i thought i knew what to expect, but this train experience was significantly better for a number of reasons: the route is more scenic. montana is probably the most gorgeous american state i’ve seen outside alaska (and i have visited 44 states), especially the parts near glacier national park which are just endless mountains / valleys / streams / forests / fog. the washington portion of the trip is pretty too as you follow the columbia river for a few hours, and same with the minnesota / wisconsin portion which follows the upper mississippi. (the zephyr route has some nice sections too, especially portions of utah and colorado along the colorado river, but large sections of it are quite boring, namely nevada / nebraska / iowa) another consequence of the route is that there are less delays. in fact we were so far ahead of schedule that i spent an hour walking aroun

i rode the (46-hour) empire builder from portland to chicago! having taken the (52-hour) zephyr from sf to chicago last year i thought i knew what to expect, but this train experience was significantly better for a number of reasons: the route is more scenic. montana is probably the most gorgeous american state i’ve seen outside alaska (and i have visited 44 states), especially the parts near glacier national park which are just endless mountains / valleys / streams / forests / fog. the washington portion of the trip is pretty too as you follow the columbia river for a few hours, and same with