Writing from the Heart, Reading for the Road

Au Revoir, Portland, Bonjour Seattle!

October 23, 2023 at 6:47 pm Leave a comment

After a 36-hour trip across the country on the Empire Builder –two nights on the train, and one full day–I arrived in Portland, Oregon.*

I boarded the train in St. Paul (Minnesota) at 11:00 pm on Friday night, and arrived in Portland Sunday morning shortly before noon. I had been warned that Amtrak trains are notoriously unreliable in terms of on-time arrival: nevertheless, this train was not only on time, but a bit early. Therefore I had plenty of time to get cleaned up and rested up enough to be the guest of honor at the book party my friends Ginnie and Rick hosted for me in their lovely home the following evening.

This party was a great success! The guest list was composed of a nice mix of Ginnie’s friends and mine–including one friend from my first neighborhood in St. Paul, a woman I had not seen since before we were even women, still just girls (we figured out that the last time had been when we were about 14 years old!). Another was a dear old friend from my time of living in New York. A third was actually someone I had never met, the friend of a mutual friend. And the fourth was Linda Witt, who served as moderator for a couple of panel discussions I organized about Demystifying the French–with Linda’s help–for the Fédération des Alliances Françaises USA.

I enjoyed meeting with this group so much! The questions they asked, and the comments they made proved to me yet again that there are many ways into the story I tell in A Long Way From Iowa, and each individual reader tends to find the path that is most interesting for him or herself. Therefore, as usual, when there is the opportunity to discuss a book with a group of readers, all kinds of interesting and alternative ways of reading it tend to be discovered.

The next night, Ginnie and some of her friends and I went to a Barbara Kingsolver event sponsored by Literary Arts. Kingsolver was discussing her latest novel, the Pulitzer prizewinning Demon Copperhead. Prior to this event I had had no opportunity to learn anything about the book, but I was very interested to see that it has strong connections with the theme I am exploring with my students in my current online class for Politics and Prose bookstore, “Bootstraps.” That is, poverty in America. I’ve since started reading Kingsolver’s book and it is very compelling.

The next day was spent on some furious catching up on reading and preparing for class. Being three hours behind most of the students in my class meant that this time I had to be ready to teach at 6:45 am. It also meant that once class was over, I had a good deal of daytime ahead of me in which to explore Portland, and happily it worked into my friend Larry Kirkland’s schedule. He invited me to join him and some friends on a trip to Portland’s famous Japanese Garden, which was amazing!

By Friday my friend Ginnie and I were finally caught up enough on our various professional responsibilities that we were able to do a little bit of sightseeing. Ginnie’s husband Rick generously offered to be our chauffeur and tour guide on a drive to, and through, the beautiful Columbia River Gorge. His knowledge of both the geological history of this amazing area of protected natural beauty, and the political history of how it has been preserved made the trip so much more interesting than it would have been without him.

Saturday morning it was time for me to say goodbye to Portland and get back on the train–this time for a short and very pleasant three-hour ride to Seattle, with lovely forest all along the coast. (The train was once again right on time, yay Amtrak!)

I’ll have a few days here in Seattle and environs, staying with dear friends; and one visit to a book club hosted by another friend–then it’s onto a plane and on my way back to France, with a layover in Calgary.

Stay tuned for my report from Seattle. So far it is a very interesting town!

*I’ll comment on the name of that train–(the Empire Builder?!)–in a future post, when I report on my Amtrak experience. Teaser: Mostly it was a good experience. 🙂 )

Janet Hulstrand is an American writer, editor, writing coach, and teacher of writing and of literature who lives in France. She is the author of Demystifying the French: How to Love Them, and Make Them Love You, and A Long Way from Iowa: From the Heartland to the Heart of France, and coauthor of Moving On: A Practical Guide to Downsizing the Family Home.

Entry filed under: A Long Way from Iowa. Tags: A Long Way from Iowa, books, demystifying the French, Janet Hulstrand, Oregon.