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AAHHH, my own bed, my husband, and my kids. Not on the slow moving train anymore. YIPPEE!!

If it could go wrong on this train trip, it did. We started out being bussed from Portland OR (I from Pasco, WA) to Spokane WA so we could catch the train that was waiting for us t here as it would have started out at 10 hours late. They were trying to get the train back on schedule as many trains had been up to 22 hours late going across the Northern half of the country due to adverse weather conditions (supposedly and I beg to differ that not all were weather related).
Somewhere between Williston ND and Stanley ND, the baggage car froze up, so we ended up stopping for about 2 hours while they unfroze it. The problem with that is that they initially did not tell us anything. We were just stopped at 2:00 am in the middle of the black night in the middle of the open prairie leaning sideways. We could not find any train personnell anywhere and no one answered the call lights. There is no emergency number for the train, so there was this eerie feeling in the pit of the stomach as though something isn't quite right.
Before this, we were stuck behind a freight train that had some engine trouble, so we were waiting there for an hour while they changed the engine on the freight train.
Station stops seemed like they took longer than the scheduled time, so every little thing added time onto the train ride.
By the time we reached the Wisconsin state line we were 7.45 hours late (apparently picking up that 15 minutes in the twin cities helped a little) and I knew that I would not make the last bus to the destination city from Chicago and had to prepare to either have my ride pick me up in Chicago at 12:30ish AM or come to a different destination to pick me up. We chose the latter and I am so glad I did. I was happily in bed before the train ever reached Chicago.
Needless to say, I did call the train company this morning just to let them know that it would be nice if they would communicate with their passengers a little better because we are in their hands while we travel that mode of transportation.
I still think it is a fun way to travel if you are patient and have the time and are aware that you may be late (my total wait time was 14.75 hours -- 7 going west bound and 7.45 going east bound).