Mundo-Taxi to our Amtrak adventure!

While planning our trip to Portland, we were perplexed by the problem of how we get to the train station car-free. My parents had left a day earlier with Little Brother so we only had one child to deal with. A taxi wouldn't work unless we had a car seat for Big Brother and he's not big enough for a booster, yet. I didn't want to drag around a giant car seat and all the taxi services we called said they didn't have car seats available. We decided that we would all head downtown via light rail and hang out until the midnight train. Then Jose would take a taxi home. However, by 7pm we were all tired and fussy, it was cold outside, and the idea of hanging out downtown for 4+ hours was less appealing. Jose finally conceded and offered to ride us over on the Mundo later that night. He hadn't wanted to because he was worried that riding downtown around midnight would be dangerous. I assured him that he would be safe riding the 4 miles back home. 

Around 10pm, we piled on the layers and loaded up our gear. Most of our things rode up with the g'parents but Big Brother and I each had our train supplies--a blanket, books, extra set of clothes, and lots of food. 

I love seeing all the reflectiveness of our Carsick Designs bags! They certainly made riding at night feel safer! 

Big Brother and I rode on the deck and I wore the giant backpack with my things in it. Big Brother's bag and our food fit nicely in the panniers. Our long stoker bars were perfect for me to reach around the big guy. I tried to sit as far forward as possible to make it more comfortable for Jose and I offered to walk on the hills but he rocketed up them like a champ! We chatted along the way, really enjoying the peaceful night ride. 

It wasn't long before the late night caught up with Big Brother. I was very glad that I was behind him because he felt so comfortable on the Mundo that he set his head down and fell right to sleep! 

And he stayed that way until we got on the train! 

The Mundo really came in handy as we were walking around the station platforms because it carried all our bags like a luggage cart. Finally, it was our time to board. We waved good-bye to papa and he rode home safely. 

I'm not sure I would feel comfortable leaving any bike at the station if we were all going on a trip. However, with a few solid locks and stripping off anything that was removable, it'd probably be pretty safe. Unfortunately, Amtrak doesn't allow oversized bikes aboard their trains. If they did, we'd travel much more often. We have taken normal-sized bikes on this train before but you have to box them. 

Riding the train was an interesting experience. Big Brother slept pretty well and I slept okay. The people behind us had some interesting conversations and swore like sailors. At one point, one of the guys was bragging about his latest DUI (my guess is that's why he was on the train instead of driving). They also all seemed to smoke and there were at least a couple of people who were sneaking cigarettes onboard--one was caught by the conductor and almost got kicked off the train. The smells in the train car was probably the worst part of the whole thing, followed closely by the lack of wifi (which they have on commuter trains but not their long-distance ones!?). My only other complaint was the lack of fresh, healthy food options. 

However, peacefully riding up the mountains without having to worry about traffic and paying attention to the road was unbeatable! 

Good morning! Big Brother was up right at 7 am so we caught a beautiful sunrise.

Big Brother was free to move around so he didn't get too antsy on the long journey and he even made a new friend! 

The weather was constantly changing and it didn't bother at all! 

One of the many rainbows.

You can't cuddle in a car!

The train wasn't very luxurious but it was an adventure. I was exhausted by the time we got off, 15 hours later. I made my dad come pick us up because I didn't want to navigate the walk to the Max station and spend another 45 minutes riding another train to get closer to my brother's house in the country. It cost $147 for the two of us (Big Brother was half-price). Traveling with our whole family, especially if it was roundtrip, would have been prohibitively expensive but it worked well for what we needed. 

If train travel was less expensive and didn't feel as dingy, I'm sure many more people would chose it over driving. It's a shame that we don't subsidize mass transit to the same degree as we do for personal vehicles. Train travel is far superior to driving in my opinion but we need to get it up to a quality in which people see its value--more frequent trips, more destinations, more train staff, cleaner facilities, cheaper tickets. The benefits of train travel--safer travel, less carbon output, community experiences, more efficient use of time, and better options for households to become car-free or car-light, make me want to continue exploring by train.