Why I'm visiting an oil boom town in North Dakota next weekend
This coming Friday, April 12, I will take Amtrak to Williston, North Dakota. The plan is basically to make it a weekend trip. If there are no delays (which is always a big if with Amtrak), the Empire Builder will arrive at Williston the following day, a little before noon. I’ll then catch the Chicago-bound Empire Builder at 7:21 PM, and it will return to the city the following afternoon.
Now, many of you are wondering why I’d do something like that. I’m not visiting friends, it’s not a work thing, and I’m not even doing research for my novel. Which is fair.
I first started toying with the motion last fall, when things at work got difficult. I wanted to take an Amtrak train for a day trip, just to disconnect from everything for a weekend. As long-time readers of my blog know, the two-story Superliner train sets usually come with lounge cars that have big windows and nice window-facing chairs. It’s the best way to see your surrounding while traveling by Amtrak, bar none.
Problem is, while those used to be automatic on all Superliner-using long distance trains, Amtrak took those out for Superliner routes that are on the rails for less than two days, so Capitol Limited and Texas Eagle were out.
The City of New Orleans,still had them, for reasons too long to get into here - and my original plan was to take it to Jackson, Mississippi or somewhere a bit closer. Except the schedule didn’t really give me a whole lot of time to hang out at any of those places and actually get to ride the Sightseer Lounge in daytime and enjoy all those views.
This Christmas, annanov and her husband gifted me a $400 Amtrak gift card. It was at this time when I started to consider Empire Builder. I’ve never rode what is arguably one of the most iconic trains on the North American continent and, because it made its journey in a little under three days, it had a Sightseer Lounge. But Empire Builder was also notorious for its delays, even by Amtrak standards, thanks in no small part the North Dakota oil boom.
On December 22, 2023, things at Growing Community Media deteriorated to the point where I made up my mind to leave no later than May 2024 - assuming I didn’t get fired first. The gift card meant that I didn’t have to worry about dipping into savings to make the trip happen - but I still decided to hold off on the trip for the time being.
I did get fired on January 14, so that really went on the back burner - at first. The thing about leaving a stressful environment is that it gives you the time and perspective to process it. And, while the stress of being in that office, under that editor, I now had to deal with the stress of trying to find a job,. While my savings gave me a cushion, I was keenly aware that, even with freelance gigs I was able to pick up, I was spending more money than was coming in. At this rate, it’s only the matter of tire before the savings drain completely.
I visited my sister’s family on the first weekend of March. It was nice to get away from all of that, even if for a two days and a change. And I kind of made up my mind then. I was going to take that Empire Builder trip.
I looked at several destinations, trying to figure out the balance of enough daylight hours to get some good views from the lounge, finding a train station where I wouldn’t have to book a hotel and stay overnight, and try to give myself some breathing room in the event of delays. That narrowed it down to Minot, Williston and Wolf Point, Montana. I picked Williston because I’ve never been to an oil boom town before, and a reporter in me was curious about what that looks like.
How will this actually work out in practice? How bad will the delays be? Will the weather ruin the views?
Stay tuned!