* Kraken are going to have the most travel time by a chunk this year. Also, we are heavily front-loaded with divisional games. Hopefully, its manageable and the individual games are well spaced. The amount of roadie back-to-backs last year sucked.

* Still waiting for the contracts to pop for Melanson, Prokop and Tolvanen. Melly is RFA so I am not worried, but it's weird he'd unsigned at this point.

* Since Dunn and Canner are in promo images for the Kraken season opener, I assume that it would be a violation of hockey laws to trade them between them and now, so I can stop worrying.

Freemont Troll! There is a cute little park nearby.

Portland also has a troll bridge, but it's, uh, a bit different. I should revisit it and see if it's still even a thing.



Gas Works Park spotted in the distance. I'd gotten off the bus at Freemont because my brain went 'wait, Freemont Bridge... is this where the troll is?' and hopped off. (BTW Buoy, the sea troll who is the Kraken mascot, is canonically that troll's nephew)

( More pics and wanderings )

Day started out odd. The porters were trying to get a guy in a wheelchair onto the train using a sort-of mobile elevator that was hand-cranked. It was not going well. The guy was being jerked back and forth by how it was rocking as it was cranked, and he was in one of those wheechairs where the back is slanted and there is head-support. So someone who presumably can't even sit up unassisted is just being knocked around. One of the porters got frustrated and walked away loudly saying 'Guess we're not going anywhere today, folks!' He projected his voice like it was an actual announcement.

But, the employee he went and got fixed how something was jammed. We weren't even that delayed. I wondered how that guy felt, and if he was worried that they'd be able to get him back off the train at his destination.

On the train there was an announcement saying that it was Friday, crew was tired... and sarcastic. Don't take anything they say seriously, unless it's an emergency.

Interesting start to a trip.

Soon, using mobility devices on the Cascades line will be easier because of the new cars! Upgrading rail lines is a long process. The cars were ordered years ago. They arrived in America this year. They've been tested on east coast lines and are now in Washington. They are still finishing tests, so we don't know when they'll come online. But, they will have ADA accessible bathrooms! Also, instead of having to climb like 5 feet to get into the car, the new ones will be at almost platform level, so I assume boarding with physical difficulties will be easier.

Also, capacity is going up! they've been unable to meet demand for rail travel between our cities for years. It's about to become cheaper, easier, nicer, etc. Trips wont have to be booked as far in advance.

Ooh, actually, just grabbed a screen cap from a youtube video about the new trains. Boarding will look like this:



I wish I had a comparison pic, because if you've never tried to climb aboard old rolling stock, it's a challenge. I found this on google:



But the stairs for the current Cascades cars are way steeper and the floor of the cars is much higher than the car shown in that pic. The current Cascades cars are older. The wheelchair guy had to be cranked to a height like level with the top of my head to be able to roll in. That janky hand-cranked thing really needed to be seen to be believed, but also taking pics would have been creepy.

Now I wish I'd taken a few pics of the old rolling stock as I'm unlikely to be on it again before the new stuff is in. Before and after pics would go hard.

Anyway, actual Seattle stuff later, I need to head out for the afternoon