October Trip 3.1: Davis->Portland (Oct 16)

This phase of our October Trip brings us north of California to Portland and the Columbia River Gorge/Mt. Hood area. Portland wasn’t in my travel plans six months ago but I included it because I want to walk in a temperate rainforest and see waterfalls. Furthermore, my labmate Billy who lived in Portland praised it so much that I…well, I guessed I should go see some place wet and humid after spending some days in dry Grand Canyon.

So Portland, here we come!

And then we got stranded in the middle of nowhere in the Oregon forest on Amtrak.

For four hours, our train didn’t move an inch.

Thanks to the Union Pacific freight train ahead of us that got into ‘emergency’, twice.

We boarded the train in Davis at 11.33pm Friday. We were supposed to reach Portland at 3.40pm Saturday. A trip of about 16 hours.

In the end we reached Portland at 10.30pm Saturday. A trip of 23 hours!

The downside of the stranding:

1. forced to pick pay $20 for taxi to get to our B&B instead of rental car pick-up
2. having to find our way in Portland in the dark instead of in the day
3. the forest started to look boring after 2 hours

The upside of the stranding:

1. I finished writing my paper
2. We had an extra free meal (dinner)
3. We are forced to relax and enjoy our time
4. I got to finish watching "Singing in the rain" and most of Brokeback Mountain.

Fortunately we were really in no rush at all, so the delay certainly turned out to be a good thing after all.

I mean…I managed to finish writing my 3^rd paper!!!  By the time I wrote the last word, I passed out and zzzz~

Quite an adventure to start our Portland trip.