Planes, Trains & Auto Focus

I’m not sure what time it is, it’s either 4:30 or 5:30am. The reason I don’t know what time is is because I can’t figure out whether I’m on mountain or central time. I’m in the middle of North Dakota, on the Empire Builder Amtrak train traveling to Maine and about half way through the journey. This train is scheduled to pull into Chicago tomorrow or today I guess at 4pm. I’ve only slept maybe 3 hours the last two nights, but I’m in a good mood.

I’ve just seen my first shooting star.

I was so surprised to see it that I didn’t make a wish right away. Is that ok? I made the wish maybe three and a half minutes after I saw it. Is there a time period after seeing one when the wish becomes invalid?

I can’t sleep because the train is rocking back and forth so badly that I can’t relax enough ever to really doze off. I’m a light sleeper to begin with so this is just impossible. The view out the double window reminds me of my bedroom growing up. I pushed my twin bed up against the windows in the room so that the whole bed was aligned under the two windows I had. I liked looking up at the stars at night. The house faced woods so it got very dark in the back yard, great for viewing stars. Of course the Maryland night sky was not quite the same as a Montana or North Dakota night sky. I have been lying in my tiny bed on the train which has been cut in half by Bob, my suitcase that I have named because it weighs more than me. The nights on the train are almost as dramatic as the views during the day. It’s pitch black, the train is rocking and when it turns the view of the sky rotates making it appear like a kaleidoscope. Occasionally, another train running west rumbles by and nearly gives me a heart attack. I can never see them, but they’re impossible to ignore.

I think I mentioned in a previous post the reason why I’m taking a train which is that I have a horrible fear of flying. I haven’t been on a plane in ten years. I can’t believe it’s been that long, but I think it was my honeymoon that was the last time I got on one of those things. I always tell people that if man/woman/child/pet was supposed to fly, we’d have wings. Or some other kind of propeller attached to us.

This trip on the train is so grueling, it’s so long, and at times, dull. You feel every mile of this country and truly understand, in a different way than even driving affords, how significantly the American landscape changes from region to region. When I got on, I was thinking that I was going to be really happy to see some deciduous trees. It feels like all of the trees in Oregon are evergreens. And while they provide nice color during the dreary winters there, they never change. They’re static. I miss the dramatic fall colors. I don’t know why this should matter to anyone, it’s just something I’ve been thinking about.

I’ve left disposable cameras at various stops along the trip. So far, I’ve placed two on the train itself and one each in Whitefish, MT, West Glacier, MT, Havre, MT and Minot, ND. I’m dying to know who will pick these up and whether anyone will use them and be willing to share their images with me (us). I met a young girl on the train, Caitlin, who I would say is maybe 16. She heard me talking about the project to the nicest Amtrak employee I’ve ever met named Kevin, who has been working non-stop in my part of the train since I got on in Portland. When she first heard about it, she said, “That’s a great idea!” She actually came back later because she said she wanted to talk to me about it and see how it was going. I was so impressed by her. At her age, I NEVER would have gone up to a stranger and just started talking. I was way too shy, still am. She told me that she and her brother are on the train going to Michigan. She’s going to live with her grandmother and her brother with their mother. “Weird family stuff,” she said. She didn’t seem to know very much about where she would be living, and looked out the window a lot, as if she was wondering, “Will it look like this?” She never said that, but I gave her a camera and told her to start documenting her new home – that she would become acquainted with it much quicker by photographing and studying the images. I also told her to e-mail me and let me know how it was going. She appreciated the gift. All right…. so I broke the rule and gave the camera to someone I met. So sue me. I don’t know her, but I was proud of her, I think she’s very brave. I told her that life is full of different experiences, that this will just be another chapter.

I’m finally feeling motivated to take some pictures and start a new portfolio in Maine, possibly on the carriage roads of Acadia National Park. I took a few images while walking on them last year (the image “Acadia” which is on my website) and was amazed at how much the Rockefellers must have invested in order to build those gravel paths. What an amazing gift to this country.

Anyway, I’m scheduled to pull into Chicago today and I’m praying that the Art Institute will be open late. I arrive at 4, so I’m not sure I’ll be able to make it, but it’s become a ritual to go since I started taking this train trip. I get back on the train at 9 and then finally pull into Boston at 9pm on Sunday night. I have a meeting with a gallery on Monday morning and then I’ll drive immediately to Portland, ME to eat my annual fish sandwich on the deck of the Portland Seafood Company overlooking the water.

I see on my nifty new phone that we’re currently riding right next to the Mississippi River. It reminds me of St. Louis, where I went to college. I’m smiling. I’m getting closer to home.

Ok, so I didn’t talk about auto focus at all, but come on, you have to admit it was a great title for the post.

More later…

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 29th, 2009 at 4:53 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.