We came around a curve coming down the Fraser Valley as Barak Obama was being sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. The locomotive made the bend alongside the river. At 10:00 am, we raised a toast to the new administration. The lounge car, the living room of the Amtrak train, was not that full...being an off, off season. An Afro-American family traveling from New York to Salt Lake, at least one of whom was going to "make a new life." Karin Waltin, a friend, on her way to Portland to be grandmother to a new grandson. Charlotte and I making out way to the Hot Springs for a few days of soaking in the mountains. So what could be more appropriate, if one were not on the mall in Washington, DC, than to celebrate a new political era by riding on the the rails through the valleys and canyons of the Rocky Mountains.
We came around a curve coming down the Fraser Valley as Barak Obama was being sworn in as the 44th President of the United States. The locomotive made the bend alongside the river. At 10:00 am, we raised a toast to the new administration. The lounge car, the living room of the Amtrak train, was not that full...being an off, off season. An Afro-American family traveling from New York to Salt Lake, at least one of whom was going to "make a new life." Karin Waltin, a friend, on her way to Portland to be grandmother to a new grandson. Charlotte and I making out way to the Hot Springs for a few days of soaking in the mountains. So what could be more appropriate, if one were not on the mall in Washington, DC, than to celebrate a new political era by riding on the the rails through the valleys and canyons of the Rocky Mountains. 
