A little late, but a review of my train trip across country:

Last time I went through Kansas and across the Rockies via Denver, but this time I headed up north to Portland to see Paul. I remember years ago mom saying we should turn North Dakota into a national park because no one lived there, and wow she was right. All of it was just an empty flatness. If I had to describe Montana, it was a slightly bumpier North Dakota. Unfortunately we passed through the most fascinating parts, the Rockies and Glacier Park, at night. Thankfully Washington and Oregon are gorgeous and I was able to view some of that in the morning. If you're taking this route, I recommend heading east instead of west and during the summer with longer sunlight hours; you'll be able to see all those sights. So yeah, I preferred the other route but this wasn't horrible. The wide, open sky was beautiful and I feel I have a taste of other parts of the country I hadn't grasped before. When I read about people on the Oregon Trail or people trying to explain America's Great Plains, I'll have a sense of it now.

Dad: You know, after you eat a huge dessert the French say, "En finir avec la sucre."
Harlan: Does that mean "Give up to Hitler?"

First impressions of Portland:

The cars will let you cross even if they have the right of way. It's led to many awkward situations where I stare at the drivers thinking, "What the fuck are they doing?" And the drivers looking at me thinking, "Why isn't this bitch moving?"

There are no trash cans anywhere. I fucking walked three or four miles today trying to figure out how to dispose of my hot chocolate cup and the only one I found was the sanitary napkin dispenser in a public bathroom.

They think giving grocery bags without handles is OK.

OK, I'll admit it: I was secretly delighted to skip Halloween this year. We always got lots of kids being the only houses in the area, but in the past five years or so it's completely exploded. My neighbors reported that they've seen people actually drive to just trick-or-treat at our block. We're guessing it's the influence of one particular neighbor who's been promoting Halloween with pumpkin pageants and such.

Also, it's interesting to see how the generations change. Back in my cousin's day (this cousin used to live in the house with us), the kids would just go out by themselves without parental supervision for about an hour or two and traverse the neighborhood by themselves. Nowadays not only are the parents there, but they have better costumes than the children.