2020 Road Trip - Day 5

 

Going on a Choo Choo Train!

Breakfast at the hotel was modified due to COVID, as is everything in the world right now. The tables were wrapped with yellow caution tape, and a masked employee behind Plexiglas dished up our order for us. After we checked out of our room, we drove the streets of Hood River enjoying the views of Mt. Hood, Mt. Adams, and the beautiful, clean, and tidy town. All the cities we’ve visited this week, and every freeway we’ve driven on, has been so well taken care of. We've been grateful to be surrounded by so much beauty.

We stopped by a local Dutch Bros. for coffee because our daughter, Ali, is a “broista” at a Dutch Bros. back home, and we know we’ll always get great customer service there. I ordered a drink that Ali recommended and told the employee that my daughter works at Dutch Bros. in Washington. He was so excited about that (Dutch Bros. customer service is at a level where they’ll be happy for you no matter what you tell them), that he said, “I’m gonna buy your drink for you today, okay?” The girls that served us were so genuine and kind, they just brightened our morning.

We continued on to the Mt. Hood Railroad train station because we had tickets for the Hood River Valley Excursion. Today is the final day of the season for this train ride, and up until last night we didn’t know it existed. Modified for COVID, the train runs at 50% capacity and is only 1 hour long. We picked up our tickets at the will call booth in the train station, and 15 minutes before the excursion began our conductor stood at the door and yelled, “All abooooard!” I squeezed Chad’s arm because I’ve never actually heard someone yell that who wasn’t Tom Hanks on The Polar Express and, suddenly, I was over-the-moon excited.

We handed the conductor our tickets and he directed us to our parlor car and told us we would be at table 16. We skipped along the track like school children and boarded the car, excited because we bought 1^st class tickets and couldn’t wait to snuggle up for our train ride. We climbed the stairs of the last car and found our table. It was directly across from the bathroom. We sat down facing each other and got situated. I was busy watching the passengers find their tables when I heard Chad say, “Seems like they would use glass that you could see out of,” and I looked up to find the window at our table appeared to have been washed with mashed potatoes instead of Windex. We laughed because I had to double check our ticket to make sure I didn’t mistake “1^st class” for “21^st class."

A freezing Chad averts his eyes as
people come out of the bathroom
to avoid making it awkward.

The train ride began and we found some windows that weren’t opaque, so we were able to enjoy the absolutely stunning views of Hood River and the surrounding trees in all their autumn glory. The ride was nice and slow as we meandered through the forest and up switchbacks. I noticed my fingers were stiffening from the cold, and Chad pulled down his mask and his breath was visible, reminding me of Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic when Kate Winslet refused to share the door with him. Weather.com indicated it was 39° outside, but inside we were enjoying temperatures of... 39°. There wasn’t a single cloud in the dazzling blue sky, and the fall leaves were so bright that, at times, they seemed to actually glow. We couldn’t hear the conductor over the shuddering sound of the screeching metal of our parlor car, but his voice sounded like Jude Law which was soothing. I made out the following words along our tour, “1846,” “The Oregon Trail,” and “hog crossing.” I also heard him say, “There are Dutch terrorists on the train enjoying pumpkin pie and dryer lint,” but it’s possible I misunderstood him. Because we couldn’t hear the narration, I read the script of the Disneyland Railroad out loud to Chad as we reached the halfway point, and began our return to the train station. It was surprisingly fitting, “We’re traveling along the Rivers of America and into the American Frontier as it looked more than a century ago…”

We loved the adventure of our Hood River train ride, and when it was over, we walked across the street to Pietro’s Pizza for lunch. When I was a kid, we had a Pietro’s Pizza in Olympia, which eventually closed and became a Boston Market or Kenny Rogers Roasters and then an Indian restaurant. But in its prime, it was the place to be. The restaurant was also popular for kids’ birthday parties, and if you were lucky enough to have your party there, you got a t-shirt that said, “I partied at Pietro’s.” Chad and I ordered pepperoni pizza and salads, and I was thrilled to find that Pietro’s pizza still tastes like it did in the 80s. They also still serve drinks in those tall, hard red plastic cups and it was fun to reminisce about our childhood for a while.

We walked back to car and settled in for the drive home. Tucking my new blanket around us, we turned on the heat, and drove west along the Columbia. I dozed off for awhile because I was so cozy and content, and when I woke up, the Columbia was gone, and we were stuck in heavy traffic. Our first real traffic jam in 1,000 miles. Chad said there was an accident ahead, so as we crawled along the freeway, I looked out the window and saw empty Old English cans, crushed Mountain Dew bottles, and piles of garbage everywhere. I directed my gaze upwards about 30 feet and saw a homeless camp under the overpass. The tenants just threw their garbage down the embankment onto the freeway. Graffiti covered the next overpass which housed even more camps underneath. 

“Where are we?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“Just outside Portland,” Chad said.

And within 2 hours we were back in Olympia, driving down Martin Way, and looking above all the homeless camps at the electrifying beauty of the leaves. We just had to work a little harder to appreciate them.

-Rachel