Thursday brought me to Whitefish after my morning yoga and Kripalu stuff, and I decided to do the bike ride first. I was able to get the bike shop to put on my good seat (which cost 10 extra) and the recommended ride along Whitefish Lake was really a ride along the road next to WL with almost no views of the lake and pretty heavy traffic. Still, it was a very good ride of at least 6 miles and after returning the bike I checked into the Downtowner and took a needed nap. After that I had to head out to the UPS store to send my stuff back to Virginia and that took over an hour (and I still ended up with a jar of fish oil). Next I vacuumed the Traverse and washed it and it looked much better after I was done. I set up a tee time on the Whitefish course for 6:36, but when I got back to the rood I wasn’t feeling 100% so I lay down again and figured I could cancel if I wasn’t feeling better later. When I awoke I was fine so I headed to the course and after waiting for a good half hour to start, I teed off with John and Aaron and Dan. Dan was very good, close to scratch, and Aaron wasn’t bad but John was not much of a golfer though we all had fun together. I shot a 47, even while shooting 7, 7 on the last two holes when I teed off from the blues with the other 3. We then played two more holes and that was also fun. It was now time to drop off the SUV and I did but I had forgotten to fill it up so I am sure Hertz will charge me plenty to fill it up. I then had a mediocre meal at the Mackenzie River Pizza restaurant and walked to the Downtowner to drop off my stuff and then return for a brief walk around town.
I called Amtrak at about 10:30 and they said the train was already 3 hours late and that if I called after 11:00 I would be given a better idea of when it would get to Whitefish. However, when I called I was told by Melinda, the supervisor, that they could give me no guarantee of when the train would be in Whitefish, but she was pretty sure it wouldn’t be there until 10am. I was very restless so I took ¾ of a valium and I slept pretty well until 7:30. I did my yoga and Kripalu stuff, then walked around town for a few minutes and was finally told by the station master that I needed to get to the station by 10:30, which wasn’t far off since we left around 11:30, over three and a half hours late.
Now my real concern is whether I am going to make my connection in Chicago. If the train stays 3 and a half hours late, then we will arrive in Chicago at 7:25, which would miss my connecting train by an hour and 15 minutes. I’d imagine if we were only that late they might hold the Capitol train. I was told by the room attendant that we will have a pretty good idea at Winona, MN. I really don’t want to stay in Chicago overnight, especially if they have to bus us to some motel in the suburbs. Staying in town has some attraction, but I would still rather be home on Monday.
I had a good talk with Rob yesterday and he talked with Fay and told her she wasn’t going to win (which I agree with fully) but he was upset because she said a ton of negative things. He has been doing things with Raechel and last weekend Noah stayed over so things are still pretty fluid. I hope to go for a walk with him on Monday.
With the stock market tumble (roughly 2000 points in two weeks), I thought about started Fear II, but the summer is almost over and I don’t think I want to commit to a project this late in the summer.
Overall, I had a lot of fun this trip even though I do feel a little guilty spending so much money (over 6000 for a three week trip) while others are having to cut back. I was happy that I was able to do a lot of biking, a lot of walking in cities (Vancouver was first with Victoria a close second, then Spokane and Coeur D’Alene), plenty of golf and a little fishing. I don’t think I will go back to Freda or the Eldred, but I did enjoy Kerr Creek and the St. Regis. I do love the West very much and I hope that I can travel out to Colorado next year, especially if Amtrak gives me a big voucher (I am really hoping for 1000).
I have been alerted by Josh Gibson that there are several questions remaining but most involve Jim Shortt, the lawyer. I should be able to take care of things rather quickly when I return. My big concern is whether the much more restrictive easement will really affect the price I sell the hollow for. I know I am going to lose more money but I do hope that the increased tax break will compensate for some of the loss.

By Saturday morning the train was 6 hours late so there was almost no chance of making my connection. I napped quite a bit since I didn’t sleep well the night before, and had some fun conversations with people at breakfast, lunch and dinner. By the time evening arrived, the train was almost seven hours late and a little later the staff told us that we not going to make our trains. I asked but no one could tell me if I was going to be bused out of town or given a room in town.
When we finally got into Chicago, I didn’t rush out but I ended up being first in line and got my voucher for a room in town at the Crowne Plaza Metro and 48 dollars in cash for taxis and food. The Crowne Plaza was fancy and the bed was wonderful, and I slept till almost 8:30.