Returning home to Vancouver Washington

We returned to cool wet weather when we stepped off the train in Portland yesterday. It is now hard to remember the warm days which we experienced both in Richmond and Omaha! Our trip out east was good, but it is great to be back to our motor home and KC. Our cat survived our absence but I am sure he missed us. He has not left my side since we entered our home yesterday. If I am walking around he is underfoot constantly and when I sit down he immediately climbs into my lap. He gave me no peace this morning when I tried to sleep in. All this from a cat who usually ignores us and sleeps about 20  hours out of the day! Returning to the subject of our trip out east... I do have a lot to write about our trip and will try to accomplish that in several or more postings. Considering everything we saw, I did not take many pictures because we were on a moving train most of the time. We took Amtrak all the way to Richmond Virginia, a journey of about three full days. Starting out from Portland we initially went through the Columbia River gorge, and into the Yakima valley of Washington. We awoke the next morning to the vast plains of Montana where we quite often saw herds of antelope. The picture below shows that scenery quite well.

 A high point in taking Amtrak's Empire Builder through this part of the states is seeing the southern edge of Glacier National Park. And in the northeastern part of Montana we traveled through Wolf Point, a town located on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. I caught this picture at the quick stop we had there.

When traveling on the Empire Builder we can always count on a wine and cheese tasting party. At this event we were seated at a table with a couple from New Zealand. It was interesting hearing of their ten week tour of America. They have been to the states before and always enjoy coming here. They commented that they liked traveling in the United States as it is so much bigger than their country, which they can drive across in one day. Part of the enjoyment of train travel is the people we meet. We also met a couple from South Africa. The wife reminded me of the Queen of England with her pretty floral dress, pearl necklace and English accent. The couple come to the states quite often because three of  their children and families are located here. The last part of our journey on the Empire Builder took us into the mid western states of Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois. The mighty Mississippi river provided us more awesome scenery as we rolled along its shores. Below is a scene of the river just outside of Winona Minnesota.