Sarah and Reed

Well, we're back now and I thought I'd wrap this blog up with a few interesting statistics about the trip - Over the course of 18 days from June 11th to the 28th we travelled by train (3060 miles) and car (1478 miles) a total distance of 4548 miles through 9 states (Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, and Utah) occupying an area (904,055 square miles) that is 29% of the area of the 48 contiguous states. We crossed the Atlantic/Pacific continental divide 4 times, utilized 8 different forms of transportation (train, automobile, streetcar, ferry boat, subway, taxi, ski lift, and feet), and passed 6 major bodies of water (The Arkansas River, the Rio Grande River, The Pacific Ocean, the San Francisco Bay, The Great Salt Lake, and the Colorado River). We stayed ... read more

Let's see, so much to write about. It's funny, when you set out on a trip and intend to do one of these blogs you figure you'll make an entry pretty much every day. What we've found is that you find yourself otherwise occupied during the day and pretty tired at night. Nonetheless, here is what could be the final entry before we get home. The first day in Salt Lake was pretty low-key. We were so late getting in we just crashed in the hotel until about noon, then picked up the rental car. We went downtown and had lunch at a cool brew pub called Squatter's in SLC. The thing about SLC is that you can only get a drink at a few places. Brewpubs serve beer as long as you order food. ... read more

Let's get the important thing out of the way - the Cards won today, 10-6. Now that that's settled we can talk about everything else since our last update. The train ride up the Califronia coast was amazing. I've heard the trip described before, but it's really something you have to see to really know how tremendous the landscape is here. You'll go along past beaches on one side and mountains on the other. At times you'll look into the distance at the ocean, not realizing that you're actually on the edge of a cliff that's 40 feet above the water. Along the way Sarah claims to have seem dolphins, and we both definitely saw some sea lions lazing on the mud flats in Monterrey Bay. What we've seen of San Francisco and Tiburon is ... read more

Well, one night and the better part of the next day later, we finally rolled from the train station in Newton, KS. Since we were leaving around 5:00 we knew we’d be traveling in the dark for much of the 14 hour ride, so when it started to storm nearly immediately after we boarded we knew there was only one thing to do - get a drink. We stowed our stuff, and made our way back to the lounge and viewing car. Even though we were going through South-Central Kansas the views were, at times, interesting. We saw a few small towns resulting in a lengthy lament of the decline of small-town America - literarture and John Mellencamp came up - we saw some rolling prairie lands, and at one point I saw a cattle processing ... read more

Well, the great train trip to the West hasn't gotten off to the best of starts. I suppose it hasn't really gotten off to a start at all yet. The lead engine of our train, which runs from Chicago to Albuquerque to LA derailed (really) in Fort Madison, Iowa yesterday. Not surprisingly, this resulted in a bit of a delay in our departure. Now, rather than leaving Wichita at 3:25 this morning, we'll be departing around 4:30 this evening. That means we'll be going through Southeast Colorado and Northern New Mexico while its dark, making the sights significantly more difficult (read "impossible") to read. Let's just hope this doesn't happen every time; it would get old pretty fast. ... read more

Sarah and I thought it would be fun to keep everyone updated on our travels through the West this summer, so we've set up this blog. We'll try to update it somewhat regularly as we go from one town to the next. For those who don't already know - here's a brief itinerary: Albuquerque, NM San Francisco Salt Lake City/Park City, UT Denver/Ft. Collins/Winter Park That's all for now, but expect more sometime in the middle of next week.... read more