Day 1 and 2: train ride from H-E- double hockey sticks

Getting ready to board our 30 hour train ride to Oregon. Cheerful and happy and have absolutely no idea here what we are in store for. 

My thoughtful pose. Probably beginning to suspect we haven't fully understood how long 30 hours really is. 

Matt here is entertaining the thought of retiring early and staying on vacation permanantly. 

This is a shot of our caboose (not that one)

And here is a pic of us 20 hours later.  Still on the train. Still in California, delayed an extra 7 hours because two drunk dummies in the early a.m. decided to play chicken with a freight train that was ahead of us and one aforementioned dumdum ended up losing a leg. We had already dealt with a bunch of crazies on the train, 2 guys got kicked off and arrested for getting inebriated 3 hours into the ride, there was a lady sitting in front of us who was dying to have a conversation with anyone and everyone and if no one wanted to she was quite happy to have one with herself, and there was a bajillion kids playing tag up and down the rows for hours on end. I think the conductor himself was about to have a breakdown from all the chaos. Well on the bright side we can cross "riding a train" off our list of to-dos. Thankfully my parents were nice enough to drive an extra 2 hours from Portland where they were scheduled to pick us up at 3 p.m. to Eugene where we practically jumped in their arms! We wouldn't have gotten into Portland until after midnight so it worked out better that they came and rescued us. Thanks Mom, Dad, Ben and Chantal! We owe you big time! How about a slice of Tillamook cheese?