Jaunt ’24 g

Let me update my progress, since I write this from the middle of South Dakota, on a trip I’m enjoying immensely in spite of the cold and wind.  For the record, yesterday I left the motel around 0600 and the Wyoming temperature was  . . .  17 degrees F.

Also, thanks to a question from George Schneider, a clarification of terms.  This is a jaunt because it’s fascinating but sometimes tiring, not that I tire of it but transiting new territory solo is fatiguing.   Gallivants focus on the more whimsical, and a jaunt may include some whimsicality.   This is not a set of road fotos because that term supposes car travel only, and although I use rental cars of this trip, I also use trains and I shoot these photos with my phone because it’s the quickest snap, essential when I can’t stop my 80 mph conveyance.  

With all those clarifications, let’s head out of the Amtrak station in Portland OR and cross the river, where Maritime Prosperity was docked.  She’s since left the Columbia, Japan bound.

Within a half hour of departure, we pass Cape Horn, this one , and 

a bit later Bridge of Gods.  Here’s the native story.

From Amtrak, the scenery is fabulous but fleeting. 

ACL’s American Harmony was docked at the Dalles. 

Above the dam there, Shaver’s  Clearwater [I think] was made up to a barge heaping with sawdust.

 

We pass Goldendale during the golden hour.

It’s dark by the time we pass Plymouth and this unidentified tugboat.

Daybreak finds us with the peaks of West Glacier, and although the train never stops for a shot of a belle vista, neither do the belle vistas.  I believe the river is the Kootenay.

 

I’m glad Amtrak speeds through, because it would take another lifetime to visit all the intriguing places along the train route like Cut Bank, 

Shelby, 

Kremlin, and more.

I got off the train in Havre, MT [pronounced like a slurred “have her”], rented a car, and sped down to a destination, Fort Benton, once the head of navigation on the Missouri River.

Imagine steamboats of long ago, leaving St. Louis MO for Fort Benton.  An unusual record of these boats can be seen thanks to the displays in Nebraska and Missouri  of Bertrand and Arabia, also seen here and here.

All photos, any errors, WVD, who’ll continue these updates some day soon.