Rocky Mountain High: Riding the California Zephyr ~ September 27

All Aboard the California Zephyr

September 27-29, 2018

Thursday, September 27, 2018

We checked out of our Chicago condo at about 11 a.m. and headed to Union Station to begin our adventure on the California Zephyr. We managed to find a bite to eat and then made our way to the Metropolitan Lounge to await the All Aboard notification.

Here is Peter in the Metropolitan Lounge watching a bit of the Kavanaugh hearing as we waited.

Walking toward our sleeping coach #0532

The hallway outside our sleeping compartment

Here is Jeff sitting on our sofabed

We have adjoining sleeping compartments with Peter and Betty Lou, so we can open up the adjoining doors and chat! It's nice during the day, but unless we get our steward to lock the doors, it slides open and shut as the train undulates along the tracks.

Most of our trip so far has had us passing through farmland -- miles and miles of corn fields punctuated by a stand of trees around a farmhouse.

We did pass over the Mississippi River shortly before sunset.

One of the benefits of the sleeping car is that all meals are included, so at 5:45 Central time, we made our way to the dining car to select our first meal -- dinner! The girls ordered the "Land and Sea" which was a lovely piece of steak topped by a seafood cake made up of crabmeat, scallops, and shrimp. The guys ordered the sirloin steak. We started with salad and ended with desserts -- a yummy flourless chocolate cake for Peter, Betty Lou, and I ... and a New York cheesecake for Jeff.

I think everyone was tired, so we had our steward, Benaya, make up our beds and retired on the early side.

Friday, September 28, 2018

We woke this morning to grey skies and a stopped train in Fort Morgan, Colorado. What we thought was a longish station stop has turned into a significant delay! Well ... we said this was going to be an adventure, and so it will be! We are told that we will be sitting here in "beautiful" downtown Fort Morgan for about 12 hours due to a 123 car derailment! Yikes!

Above is the view of the grain elevator outside our sleeping compartment window, and below is a photo of a freight car full of panel tracks heading to the derailment site. Jeff tells me that these will be used to build a "shoe fly" to take our train (and all the others) around the "wreck" so that we can continue our journey to Denver and beyond.

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Many passengers are distressed about the delay, and I can hear folks trying to make alternative plans - trying to find car rentals, a bus ride, etc. A few minutes ago they announced that Amtrak is sending a bus (or busses??) for those passengers with a Denver final destination. As for us ... we're "stuck" on board for the duration. We will definitely miss a day at least in San Francisco. I did purchase "trip insurance" but who knows whether it will cover losses of hotel.

Saturday, September 29, 2018

Good morning from Grand Junction, Colorado! It's bright and early, but worth the effort to get up and take a look at some scenery. Unfortunately, we went through the Rockies at night, so we missed seeing a major part of why we took this train to begin with. Next time, we will fly to Denver! No matter ... it is still a good time.

This morning we went through a little "ghost town" - population 38 called Thompson (also known as Thompson Springs). It is best known as a location for the film Thelma and Louise. It does have a cafe (photo below). It is a dying little town out in the middle of the desert.

Every time we travel in the United States I am struck by the wide expanses of desert land with thousands of acres and not a single building to be seen! And then, out of nowhere, there will be a cluster of homes or a community of trailers in the middle of the desert!. This trip is no different. Communities look different out here with lots of wide open spaces. There is peace in a way, and yet I have an overwhelming feeling of isolation and loneliness as I contemplate what life must be like for the hardy souls who choose to build a life in this starkly beautiful, yet barren place!

After our bleak day yesterday, it is really wonderful to see high wispy clouds, blue skies, and warm sunshine. It is good to be alive and great to have the means to explore the world.

As far as I can tell, we are about 12 hours behind schedule which means we won't get into Emeryville until after 4 a.m. tomorrow. We will somehow make our way into San Francisco -- how we manage that remains to be seen. Another adventure for sure!

As we had lunch, we passed Great Salt Lake, a 1699 square mile body of water. All around the salt lake are fields of salt. It stretches for 74.56 miles in length. According to Wikipedia, The Great Salt Lake is a remnant of a much larger prehistoric lake called Lake Bonneville. The barren land around the lake lends to a very strange landscape. We passed the Morton Salt company, surrounded by huge piles of unprocessed salt. Fascinating.

Further down the tracks we ascended into the high desert and were treated to a few stands of golden aspen trees and other trees displaying autumn colors. Even here in the desert west, we still were treated to some autumnal finery!

While we were at lunch we learned that they will be serving a special meal of beef stew over rice to everyone on the train. Sleeping car passengers will be invited to eat first - at about 5 p.m., and then they will give Coach passengers a free meal. They fed coach passengers a free meal of pizza last night.

A beautiful sunset concluded our day!

The conductor just explained that barring anything more unforeseen happenings, we should get to Emeryville at about 5 a.m. (about 13 hours late). This will put a bit of a crimp in our visit to San Francisco, but we will have an afternoon and a morning before we have to make our way to the airport for our flight to LA on Monday. I truly hope that our Coast Starlight trip is pleasant and uneventful.

Sunday, September 30, 2018

We had set the alarm for 5 a.m. and woke in darkness, gathered our belongings and stepped out in Emeryville without really knowing how we would manage to get to our hotel in San Francisco. Last night our conductor told us that there is a bus that goes into San Francisco, so we managed to find it and take it into town. From there we found a taxi to our hotel and checked in at about 6:30 this morning.