Amtrak and Amish across America

We're writing this safely from the beautiful Alleghenny Mountains of Pennsylvania - the foothills look a little like Gippsland with extra autumn leaves - it's beautiful! Janet and Ken have made us so welcome, and none of us have stopped talking in 24 hours, except when we fell asleep after midnight.

After travelling so long, we were looking forward to catching up with our mail, but somehow Webmail is showing (yet again) that we have no mail - if you have mailed us in the last week, could you please resend it?? Thanks!

Travelling for so long? Yes, we just spent six days on the train - fortunately with two all-too-short overnight stops to sleep in hotels. We caught the Coast Starlight from San Luis Obispo to Emeryville near San Francisco last Wednesday, being thrilled to see Californian deer, mule deer and wild turkeys on our way. The next morning we left Emeryville for Chicago on the California Zephyr, and travelled from 10am Thursday until 5pm Saturday, through California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska (our 43rd state), Iowa and Illinois. Travelling through the Rockies was a never-to-be-forgotten experience, but the rest of the trip was wonderful too, and we really appreciated the loudspeaker commentary that told us the history and interesting aspects on the way. The glass-roofed viewing car was a wonderful place to view the scenery, and when we retired to our much-bigger-than-airline-style seats, with reclining backs, extendable leg rests, and pillows provided, we found that we slept soundly, too.

On Saturday morning, in Nebraska and Iowa, we picked up a number of Amish travellers - a family travelling to a funeral in Missouri, and a grandmother, her daughter, and children who had travelled west for medical reasons, and were now returning home. The eldest relatives in the funeral group were a couple who had never been on a train before - they lived 80 miles (120 km) from the Amtrak line - and who ket standing around looking totally dumb-founded! I had great fun teaching Martha the tricks of train toilets! The other family, Ellen - a 57 yo mother of ten children, and her daughter Rose, wore plain coloured dresses, not black, and white caps. They became friendly with us in the viewing car, and asked if they could sit with us when we transferred to the Cardinal in Chicago, for the 28 hour trip to Philadelphia. Ellen left in Kentucky, where relatives were waiting to bring Rose's eldest daughter to the train when Ellen left. That left Rose with three small children - Kayla aged 4, Amy aged 3, and Davon (a boy) who is nearly 2 - a big job for anyone to look after.

Sunday was a glorious day - we travelled right across West Virginia, beside the Kanawha River and its tributaries for much of the day - river boats, rapids, autumn leaves, steep mountain gorges etc - it was like a picturebook. Frances spent almost all day with two, or even three, delightful little Amish children (the girls in plain blue or green dresses, black boots and black bonnets, Davon in grey trousers with broad crossed straps, and a dark red shirt like his mother's dress) on her knee ... it was a delight. Davon called John 'grandfather', because of his beard, and his eyes twinkled as he lay back on John's lap and looked up at it. We were SO exhausted by the time we helped them disembark at Wilmington Delaware, and we slept like logs in Philadelphia.

Yesterday we went to see the Liberty Bell before catching the Philadelphian to Johnstown. We travelled through Lancaster, the area which most people link with the Amish, watching farmers plowing with a hand plough behind a horse, an Amish Wagon delivering visitors to a farm, long lines of Monday-morning washing reaching from the second-story to the ground (unusual in a country where everyone else uses electric driers). It was wonderful to see Janet again, and to meet Ken.

Today we went to see the place where Admiral Peary first to reach the North Pole (there's some controversy about that, but it seems right) was born. a few miles from Janet and Ken's home in Portage PA, and visited a mansion now owned by the Franciscans, to enjoy the beautiful gardens, before feasting on pumpkin pie icecream at a dairy farm that has a Halloween fair every year - the pumpkins were worth seeing. All of Portage, even the funeral directors' office, is decorated for Halloween - it's great fun!