A journey to Seattle I am making
Always thought a train trip would be neat.
Check my bags, and ask which track we're taking
The redcap smirks and points out to the street.
I stagger out with carryons
And find the bus to get upon
And wait there while the cabin slowly fills.
The rain and snow had come in gales
And fishes swim above the rails
And they don't make no railway cars with gills.
Hello, Wisconsin, hey, how are you?
Got some nice string cheese for me to peel?
We're the bus they call the Amtrak Empire Builder.
We'll be gone 400 miles 'fore we ride on steel!
Well, it's raining in the town of Minneap'lis;
It's raining in the city of Saint Paul;
We will rendezvous all happy, wet, and hapless,
And continue westward at a mighty crawl.
The puddles by the tracks are deep,
The stationmaster's short on sleep,
But the yard crew has been doing wondrous things
Burning up that midnight oil,
Rigging up a hydrofoil
And fitting all the cars with water wings.
Hey there, Minnesota, how's it going?
We may be soggy, but we're having fun
Going westward on the Amtrak Empire Builder,
As ten thousand lakes are merging into one.
They tell me when we get to North Dakota,
We'll go slow (or maybe reroute) 'round Grand Forks
'Til the track maintaining crews have met their quota,
'Cause these railroad cars, they ain't exactly corks.
We will cross Dakota in the night
Montana in the morning light,
In the afternoon, and in the evening too.
Rolling toward those Rocky Mountain peaks,
Singing songs and dodging leaks
And scandalizing mountain goats and crew.
Hey, North Dakota and Montana,
Hello there now, historic Glacier Park,
We're the train they call the Amtrak Empire Builder,
Squelching westward through the mountains in the dark.
We will pull into Seattle after breakfast
(Or lunch, or dinner, if we're running late);
Delay makes certain people wild and reckless,
Which is why four hundred verses are your fate.
Though skies are grey just like the rails
And the windowglass and the raindrop trails
And the many mucky miles we left behind,
Neither rain, snow, flood nor bus
Can hinder or discourage us
When we have a convention on our mind.
Singing hello, alt.polycon, how are ya?
Pass me down a Tim-Tam and a drink;
'Cause I came here on the Amtrak Empire Builder
And it'll be Sunday 'fore I'm dry enough to think.
And it's a lucky thing that railroad cars don't shrink.
And we will make it home again (unless we sink).
Authors:
Cally Soukup
Elise Matthesen
Apologies to Steve Goodman