California Zephyr Day 1

I DoorDashed some stuff, but forgot to get a UBSC to USBA cable because I had issues with the plug last night, although I finally got it to work. I had another nice meal at the hotel. I had an egg-white omelette.

I had my session with the therapist. She's glad that I'm getting help dealing with the place. She said that grief will really tire you out. It was good to talk to her. She said to email her to see if she had openings in November.

Then I checked out and Door dashed the cable. Success. Then I called an Uber.

Now I'm in Union Station. I checked one of my suitcases. I'm in the lounge for sleeper car passengers. Trip is getting real! I hung out in the Metropolitan Lounge until they called the train. We followed the Amtrak person like a gaggle of geece to the place to board. I boarded, but they said that I was on the wrong car, and to go one back. Then I got settled in my "roomette". It's a nice cozy place for one person and a bit of a squeeze for two, as I remember when my mom and I took the City of New Orleans.

The first day was mostly Chicago, corn, and soybeans. I told the person who was taking care of the sleeper cars that I wanted to order room service, and he kind of took me under his wing and popped up for each meal. He asked me "what time did I want to eat," and I asked when we would go over the Mississippi River, and I said, "after that".

I had been getting the GoPro set up as soon as I got on the train and got settled. Nothing like waiting until the last minute! The GoPro is almost absurdly easy to use. At first, I was videoing everything. But the GoPro started overheating and shutting down. I made a bargain with the GoPro to please let me video the crossing of the Mississippi River, and I would shut it down, and it cooperated.

It started getting dark in Iowa. I was videoing the sunset for a while, but then put the GoPro away. Dinner was excellent--I had roasted chicken breast with some excellent lemon cake--but it was way too much food. I left half of it.

My phone was getting low and not charging, so I shut it off. I kept on trying to charge it while it was shut off, but the intermittent pulse from the bad plug just drained the battery. By the morning, it was completely dead.

The guy came by to set up the bed around 9. I had planned to take a shower, but someone was in there, and I was dead tired, so I just went to sleep.

California Zephyr Day 2

Given that my phone was dead, and I forgot my travel alarm, I had no way to set an alarm, but I woke up around 6 AM. This time, I was able to take a shower. It's set up for navy showers in that the water only runs for a set period and shuts off. I kept on hitting the button and got a decent shower.

There was a mirror in the roomette that I used for my makeup, so I didn't need a mirror.

We were stopped in Denver for a long time. Over the PA, someone asked if the sleeper cars were ready for the people getting on yet, and the guy who had been taking care of me said that people hadn't gotten off yet. (I made a mental note to scramble off of the train at Reno, but OTOH, it's less than a day to San Francisco, so no one is likely to get on the sleeper cars.) So I started over to the dining car. The guy taking care of me saw me and set that he would be right down to take my order. I asked if he would have time for it, and he said something like "anything for you, darling" so I went back down and waited. Breakfast was scrambled eggs and sausage, and a really good croissant that I shouldn't have eaten but did.

The landscape turned scenic shortly after Denver, when we entered the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The scenery was spectacular. I wound up rationing my GoPro time because the batteries weren't charging well either, and kept going, "this is nice but not GoPro worthy". LOL. I especially liked the area in the canyons by the Colorado River. The conductor warned us that people might "moon" us, but all I saw were people waving to the train.

One item of interest was some wires that run along parallel to the train. They are avalanche signals. If rocks fall on them, whoever maintains the tracks gets a signal where to look and trains get a caution signal. It's a little sobering as to how much of the trip had those wires.

I fell in love with a town near the Colorado River called Glenwood Springs. It oozed charm and also had great scenery. I want to go back there and spend some time.

Overall, I liked Colorado a lot more than I had expected. (And Day 2 is mostly Colorado.)

We stopped at a town at which Amtrak had a store, and the conductor mentioned that they sell phone chargers, so I bought a plug and a USB-C to USB-A cord. The plug didn't work for me, but the cord did! I now had a working cell phone again! I called Dad from the middle of Utah and told him that the train was running on time, so I should be in Reno at 8:30 AM tomorrow. I offered to wait and hang out if he didn't want to leave so early (it's a 1.5 to 2 hour drive), but he said that he'd be there.

Utah? Meh. I know that there are pretty parts of Utah, but this part didn't impress me. If you like desert with jagged rock outcroppings, though, it might be for you. There was some interesting light late in the day, so I spent my time playing with the DSLR.

Some More Zephyr Pictures

( More California Zephyr pictures )

At My Dad's House

The time on my phone hadn't updated when my alarm went off, so I got up at 6 AM. Got myself together and my suitcase closed quickly. The guy who was keeping an eye on me showed up early and got my breakfast. I was done in plenty of time before getting to Reno.

At Reno, I had to wait for my bag. When I got it, I was bending over one of my bags when someone peered into my face and it was Dad. We ran an errand to a liquor store and then he drove back to his house. I said hello to my dad's wife Sue and we chatted a little. Then I took a nap. We had dinner here and watched Jeopardy. I ordered my bicycle to be shipped to a bike shop. Now I'm yawning again and am slightly peeved that it's only a little after 8 PM local time.

Dad is being kind of forgetful. He seems more "with-it" than Mom was though.