One of the wonderful things about traveling is the people you meet. To be fair, this isn’t an everyday occurrence for me because I am so self-contained that I don’t necessarily look for connections. However, on the train from Los Angeles to Portland, I made two fabulous new friends.
Amtrak has a policy of community seating in the dining car and so, if you are traveling alone, you will be seated with other people. I’ve had some interesting chats that way but this particular evening we just totally clicked.
One traveler from Santa Barbara traveling north to visit her son-in-law and one from Florida investigating retirement homes to be closer to her sons. A little bit of an age difference but sometimes that really doesn’t matter. We sat down to dinner at 6pm and didn’t stop talking till the train arrived in Oakland (their stop) three-and-a-half hours later. Three solo female travelers with different life paths but stories to share. And I learnt a lot – there are things I didn’t know you could do with botox.
It was just one of those moments in time where a simple meal becomes something meaningful. I may never see either of them again but it was a sparkling moment which made my 29-hour train journey easier.
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