Lexi Rides the Empire Builder—Toot!
Toot!
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Hi, my name is Alexandria. Call me
Lexi. Grandma took me on a train from Seattle to Wolf Point so I can spend time
with my cousin, Antoinette. Call her Toni. I am six years old. Toni is eight.
Grandma asked me to write about the
trip. So I took notes. We left Seattle from the newly restored King Street
Station. Grandma told me to write that. It is beautiful. I told Grandma this is
my story and she should write her own story.
In fact, I had to teach Grandma to
give up all thoughts and illusions of control over this trip. It wasn't easy
but she eventually took it gracefully. That is a polite way to say she didn't have a choice.
We were at the King Street Station
early so the first thing I did was make friends with Ella. She is also six. We
colored and played games and chased each other in circles around the grown-up
people. We agreed to a play date on the train. Ella was not in the same car as
me and Grandma but her Dad brought her to our compartment. Ella and I played
Crazy Eights and Go Fish.
Did you know there are lots of
flowers on the train? Grandma said the flowers are really Phillips screw heads.
They look like flowers to me. Se we will call them flowers. I like that the
train is held together by flowers.
(Note from Grandma: Give a child a
bit of information and she instantly is an expert.)
(Note from Lexi: Like an adult is
different?)
There is a huge white mountain we
went to on the trip. Grandma said it is Mt. Baker. She said we were really not
going to the top of the mountain. I could see that we were going to the
mountain. I named it the Mountain in the Clouds.
Ms. Veronica is our car attendant.
She helps us with lots of stuff. She told us where to find the dining car, in
front of our sleeper car. She made our beds at night. She brought us water. Ms.
Veronica has four children and knows all the Berenstein Bear Stories.
For a snack before dinner, me and my
Grandma ate salted-in-the-shell peanuts. We ate a lot of peanuts. We were really
careful to put the shells into the little garbage can next to the teeny little
closet. Ms. Veronica would appreciate if train travelers did not bring peanuts
in the shell for snacks.
When the train goes around a curve
on the tracks, we can look out the window and see the front of the train. The
front is the engine. Grandma said she had not noticed that before. Why didn't she just look?
Water on the train comes in little
short bottles. Water tastes better in little bottles. We drank a lot of bottles
of water.
Tunnels are fun. There are lights in
tunnels. Grandma said she hadn't noticed the lights before. Why didn't she just
look? Grandma said most of the lights in her tunnels were lights from oncoming
freight trains. I don’t know what she meant.
The dining car is really fun. I got
to talk to lots of adults. Grandma sat quietly and held her breath. I don’t
know why she held her breath. The people liked to talk to me. The laughed a lot
and asked me lots of questions. I told them everything.
I especially liked to smack the
button that made the doors between cars open.
When night came I climbed up into
the top bunk and went to sleep. In the night the train went over what Grandma
called a rough patch. It scared me. I thought I might fall out. So I climbed
down to the lower bunk and snuggled with Grandma. We slept really good.
(Note from Grandma: Sleep-Ha!)
When the train stopped in Havre,
Grandma took me into the station to meet the woman who sold her our tickets
last April. She was really nice too. She and Ms. Veronica are friends. They
gave me a bag of train goodies, books and coloring books.
(Note from Grandma: When we were
within ten minutes of Wolf Point, Lexi, who had never before been in Montana,
said to me, “This is terrible. This is just terrible. Some people don’t take
good care of their fences. Wire is broken and missing in places. It’s just
terrible. This is nothing like how it used to be.” Who knows what she meant!)
I LOVE the train. I want Grandma to
take me on a train trip every year to play with my favorite cousin.
Sondra
Ashton
HDN: Looking
out my back door
July 31,
2014
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