My first experience of Amtrak Rail was a coach(BUS)!  BUT it did arrive 1 hour early from Vancouver to Seattle!
BUT
I  needed that hour extra because Seattle Train station had never had one of my special rail vouchers to deal with before!  Eventually after much frustration the gentleman succeded in getting all my Amtrak rail tickets printed out without any further cost to myself. But it took 1hour & 20  mins.
Then Maggie met me at the station and the start of my USA  trip was underway!.  Maggie & her friend Joy took me to the Seattle maritime museum and had a very interesting philosophical discussion,  Alao I had to buy a new wheeled suitcase as my old had given up!   Maggie took me on to Teri (With Joy's help) and there I met my friend who had introduced me to "Raw Food"  living, and I am most grateful to Teri for that.  I loved Teri's house & garden where she had many wild birds feeding off her bird tables, as well as 6 four legged animals!  No NOT squirrels, but DEER.   Two families of mother and two children fed hungrilly of the seeds  etc, and even let me get as close as three yards (meters) to photograph them.  That was such a beautiful experience.  (You will see  photos soon).    Teri's pets are rats!  Teri very kindly took me to the train station at Olympia, and there I met for a short time Sandra from Stamp addicts (Yahoo Group).  Had a talk that could have gone on a LOT longer.  Very pleased to have met Sandra.  Now began my first long journey on Amtrak by TRAIN! Yes they do run ttrains as well as  coaches!  LOL)  After two nights and nearly three days I arived in Chicago having passed through the States Rockies, but mainly over night, worst luck!  My poet friend from a Yahoo group, Jela (or Jeanne, her real name) met me at Elmhurst station, Near Chicago,  with her husband  and took me to my hotel.  The following day they took me round a  LOVELY park with beautiful gardens, many photos taken. Including my first sighting of a chipmunk!.  It was a lovely day.  The evening before though They had taken me to an Art exhibition in which Jela had three items on display.  I must thank Jela for the lovely Chicago welcome  gifts she gave me.
Next stop was to Bay City (Which gave the name to the English pop group Bay City Rollers, and was the birth place of Madonna!  Mari, from Newts Beatles group was at the bus station to meet me, and the following day as she was at a teachers meeting all day I wandered round Bay City Downtown, and found a  LOVELY  cafe which used LOOSE  tea!  and had VEGAN foods!
On the Tuesday & Wednesday I attended Mary's school and talked to several classes about my trip and about how some words in England are quite different to those used in USA (& other English speaking countries)  They enjoyed this.  Some of the kids even gave me hugs on the last day.
Now I had a long day trip overnight taking up almost two days to reach Fort Worth in Texas.
One of my friends, very unfortunately was unable to come and meet me so I had almost three  days here on my own. I went to see if Zoos had improved since I was a  boy (Fort Worth was better that those I remember as a  boy), but the space alotted to the animals was still FAR  too small. But they are doing some good work helping to preserve some endangered species.   Thanks to Suzanne I found the most WONDERFUL ALL VEGAN restaurant in Fort Worth.  In case anyone is in Fort Worth it is called SPIRAL DINER, you MUST try it!.  Suzanne was able to me me but not at this restaurant as it was closed on the day she could meet me.  Suzanne is a lovely young person, and I was so pleased to have met her in person.
From Fort Worth by train I then travelled by Amtrak to Oklahoma, who managed to take an hour longer for a four timed trip!  Reggie, my first meeting up with a Zorpian friend very kindly met me at the station and took me to my hotel. I was pleased to learn that she and Joey had JUST (that weekend)  become engaged,
Reggie & Joey took me to the Memorial to a terrible bombing that occured in 1995, and to the Botanic Gardens.  Took many photos of plants and a  lizard!  In the evening I attended her Church's meeting which was very interesting and though provocing.  Nice to meet some of her friends too.
The next day Reggie took me along to two of her university classes! (With the approval of her lecturers of  course)  and in one I used my UK/USA  word differences chart for  a bit of interesting fun! (But it was relevant to the lecture!
I also made Reggie & Joey one of my stir-fries.
Reggie was a such a lovely person to meet, and I am so grateful to her for keeping me occupied for three  days.  Thanks too for taking me to Tulsa, where I am now at waiting to meet Ruthie.!

So there is my third part!

It is so much fun meeting my friends and making new ones too.

*SMILES*

Chris
Am so looking forward to meeting up with all the rest of you who are on my trip list