USA Rail n Road Trips

I arrived in Sandpoint in the early morning after a 14 hour train ride. Since it is such a small town, there were no rideshare services available, nor taxis, so I walked to my AirBNB, which was about a mile and a half from the train station. Since there were such significant delays in North Dakota, I did not have to worry about check in times, because I was supposed to check in the day before. This was very fortunate because by the time I reached the BNB, I was exhausted. After sleeping for several hours, I wandered around the town.

My first impression of Sandpoint when I got off the train was, “Wow, I do not belong here.” That sentiment was only reinforced by the “Keep Calm and Carry” sign in my AirBNB and as I perused the shops and downtown area. I felt like an outsider and I did not feel like folks were particularly friendly. That being said, I was only there for two days, so I made the best of it.

I went to a wine bar in town that offered tastings, so naturally I had to try it out. One of the wines I tasted was a huckleberry wine, which was a little tart, but tasty. The winery was named Pend d’Orielle, after the lake that borders the town, which happens to be the largest one in Idaho.

The upper left picture is a statue of David Thompson, a British-Canadian explorer who surveyed and mapped much of the Northwest in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s. Next to him is a 6ft tall replica of the Statue of Liberty that can be found along one of the trails following the lake.

Sandpoint was very much a small town for boat people in the summer and ski people in the winter. The streets were very empty, but the waterways were hustling and bustling with water taxis and dinghies. The shops were quite expensive and all targeted to a certain audience. There was one cool space that was an old bridge converted to a shopping center.

The one redeeming quality of Sandpoint: Ice cream. At Panhandle Handmade Icecream I ate some of the best ice cream I have ever had in my whole life, one scoop of honeycomb and another of coconut. It was so rich, creamy, and delicious, I had to go back for more the next day.

Naturally, I could not leave Idaho without eating a POTATO. Can you even see it in the picture below? This was the vegetable potato option at Spud’s. While it was delicious, I was way too full afterward.

Upon leaving Idaho, surprise surprise, my train was delayed. I was supposed to leave at 1:00 AM but ended up leaving at about 6:00AM. I had to sleep in the train “station” with a few other folks in the same situation. You can see below for a sample of the alerts the Amtrak app sends out, and they are never good.