Romancing the Rails: A Trip on the Empire Builder

Writer Barbara Morrow; Photographer John Noltner

Sampling the magic of old-time train travel, a couple riding west finds time to relax, reconnect and experience an almost bygone era.

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A journey west

Editor Barbara Morrow and her husband took the Empire Builder train from Chicago to Seattle. This is Barbara's story as published in the September/October 2011 issue of Midwest Living.

Wisconsin bluffs, pointy and dark as slouchy witches' hats in the dusk, rise almost straight up from the wide, flat Mississippi River turning silvery in evening's light. My husband, Ken, and I sip wine and watch as the almost surreally beautiful scene unfolds beyond the windows of the Empire Builder's dining car.

We hate to look away, even to slice into steaks prepared in the lower-level kitchen. Perfect -- the food, the moment, the prospect of time together unfurling just like the 2,205 miles of track ahead on this journey west.