Part Two

Oh, goodness! I didn't realise that I'd left you all hanging for so long! I'm terribly sorry. I know how awful it is to be waiting on the edge of my seat, as it were, for the end of a story. So let's see, then....where was I?

Oh, yes. Lisping Hippie. My train left Havre, Montana at around two o'clock in the afternoon, and was scheduled to arrive in Spokane, Washington at around what-the-devil-am-I-doing-awake o'clock. Spokane at two a.m. What fun! But before I got to Washington, I got to spend hours and hours sitting next to Lisping Hippie. He told me all about Jesse James and how misunderstood he was. He told stories of his bike-riding adventures. He stole my camera and took a picture of me with it-- I kid you not. Thankfully, I didn't have to spend the entire ride with him. God was merciful to me and for a while, I got to sit in two empty seats out of LH's sight. I think he was one of those people, you know, the kind that have your insides shuddering and trying to run away? One of those.

Another one of God's mercies is that trains serve alcohol. It tends to dampen the shuddering-and-running feelings for a while.

When I finally (and forever!) got away from Lisping Hippie, I had a nice long wait in the Spokane bus/train station. It was there that I slept(ish) on a very uncomfortable bench (they try to make it as uncomfortable as possible, you know) for a nine-hour layover. I met a nice(ish) girl there, Girl Who Can't Say Three Words Without Cursing. She had just had a miscarraige. She was a strange person. Sad and apathetic at the same time. It's odd to write this part of the story, after so much of it has been tongue-in-cheek, but there it is.

It was an uneventful (yay!) ride to Moscow from Spokane. I finally got to Moscow at about 11:30 on Saturday morning (the fourth). Claire Roise picked me up and she was a very pleasant person to meet after all of the crazy people I met while using public transportation.

I am going to stop once more, but I promise I will continue tomorrow. I promise. If I remember.

Just kidding! I really will. Really.