A long row of Humvees at the Tacoma train station

photo: Chris Keam

Sept . 12, 2008 – 7:35pm, somewhere between Eugene and Klamath Falls, Oregon.

Can one stall a train? Apparently, yes. The scheduled stop at Eugene lasts longer than expected when the locomotive decides it’s more loco than motive. We wait, and wait. Of course, mere minutes after the conductor says we can disembark to stretch our legs, the engine comes back to life and we are hurried back aboard to continue our journey. Traveling south, the forests change. For a life-long resident of the B.C. coast, the abundance of deciduous trees are a novelty, as are the pine forests — when one is more used to the firs and cedars that characterize the Wet Coast. It grows darker earlier too, the moon already up and about, moving across the sky, watching over us.