Thursday, June 16, 2011

From the Road: Seattle to Oregon & the train

Well we are in Oregon now...and let me tell you, it was an adventure.

First, I think that 5 lanes of traffic is a lot. Most times when I was driving on the I-5, it felt like I was a little fish caught up in a rushing river and I was just going along with the current. But with that, most drivers on the mainland (that I've experienced) are pretty nice (freeway) drivers. If you blink, they will pretty much let you in. Not like in Hawaii, where if you blink, somehow it translates to other drivers in the islands that you would like them to speed up into the spot that you were wanting to go to. Like instead of "I'm moving into this spot" it means "LOOK, here's an empty space in the road. YOU should speed up and take it.". Anyway, that's just a rant about driving.

Now with that out of the way, I have to tell you this story. So on Wednesday, we were catching a train (Amtrak) from Seattle to Portland. Now the plan was to take my family to the train station and then check in. After that, my dad and I would drive back to the rental car place to return the cars. My Uncle would then pick us up and drop us off back at the train station and we would all have a lovely little train ride to Portland. In order to shorten the story a little, let me just say that we had a lot of little delays that pushed us back and my uncle, my dad, and I found ourselves stuck in traffic on the I-5 seriously doubting we would get to the train on time. BUT while doing my bible study, I read Philippians 4:6 which says don't worry about anything; instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need & thank him for all he has done. So in spite of my doubt, I was just thanking Him for the little miracles (that I felt occurred) which even gave us a chance to make it...and I started to believe that we were going to make it! Traffic started to open up a bit! We are going to make it! My uncle took a different off ramp and it seemed we were going to make it! Red lights were switching to green! I think we are going to make it! I'm texting Tiana telling he where we are and she's texting that they hadn't left yet! We ae going to mske it! We get to the station, jump out of the car and sprint to the terminal. We get in and ask where is the train to Portland...the workers point us in the direction...IT IS RIGHT THERE...but say that the doors are already locked and the only person that can let us on is the conductor on the other side. That's okay, I just have this feeling we are going to make it. We get to the door...my fist pressed against its glass...ticket in hand...I ask:

"Can we get on that train?"

He looks at us and says...

No

Okay, it's gonna take a little more coaxing I guess. He can't say no after I say with a little more desperation in my voice:

"But my family is on that train..."

He moves...

hesitates...

then...

"Sorry," he says.

1 minute later, the train pulls away from the station.

Not exactly the "romantic comedy movie ending" I envisioned.

My dad and I ended up catching the next train which left 3 hours later and we made it safely to the rest of the family in Oregon.

And while my dad and I did miss the train, we also got to spend some time together...just me and him...and I felt like we hadn't done that in a really long time. Maybe a blessing in disguise? I would say, Yes.

Lesson learned: Just have to make the best out of every situation.
Primary lessoned learned: Give myself more time in travel situations so I don't miss my train/bus/plane/etc.

If you're curious, I documented some of the stuff we did while we were waiting in Seattle for the train in my twitter feed. Just click on @jaredmiyamoto in the twitter widget on the right to see.

Fun Times

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