The Great Railroad Adventure

---

Kirsten kicks me out of bed early saying get up sleepy, we have a train to catch. I roll out of bed asking wh.. wh.. what time is it, it’s time to get up silly. By the time, I’m out of the shower Kirsten has everything packed and is ready to go. No wonder Darden misses her, she is out the door and heading down stairs for breakfast. You coming she ask? Well, I will miss this hotel, sleeping in a bed that’s not moving like a roller coaster will truly be missed.

Breakfast is delicious, of course, it’s hard to mess up scramble eggs and sausage. We finish breakfast and check out from the hotel. Kirsten is out the door pulling her suitcase, while I’m putting the receipt in my backpack.

We make our way over the elevated bridge, three flights up, three flights down. We walk into the train station Kirsten stops, stands straight up and looks around. I ask what are you doing, I was just seeing if I recognized anyone. You never know when you’ll run into some from Winter Haven. Yeah right, as I walk past her onto the check-in window.

We check in at the Amtrak window, I think the attendant is more excited than Kirsten is.

NOT!

Kirsten asks, where do we go? The attendant cocks her head toward the doors and winks. First timers, Yea! She smiles and says I’m glad to have you on our train.

We grab our stuff and walk toward the doors, no TSA, no Security checks just plain folks traveling. WOW! Finally, something that is all American Apple Pie.

We walk toward where I was told to stand, Kirsten looks at me says, Are You Sure this is where we are to go? I tell her yes, but she over rides me and we go in the opposite direction. Yes, I followed her…...

As the train pulls into the station our sleeper car pulls past us and comes to a stop where I was trying to get us. Kirsten looks up at me and grins and says …..Sorry!

I just laugh and follow her toward our sleeper car.

Yeah, I’ll follow her anywhere. In fact, I followed her to Winter Haven, LOL.

Lonnie, our Cabin Steward, greeted us at the door, Welcome I’m Lonnie. We introduced ourselves as he grabbed our luggage and loads it onto the train. Lonnie took us to our cabin and we settled in. He told us he would be back to go over all the rules, do’s and don’ts after he had welcomed everyone onto his car.

Lonnie returned as the train began pulling out of the station. Imagine Lonnie standing in the hall way of our car and folks up and down the hall having their heads sticking out of their sleeper cabins. Lonnie begins to tell us where the restrooms are located. In addition, he gives us Amtrak’s welcome speech and finally he tells us he makes the best coffee on the California Zephyr. At least that’s what he’s been told.

No sooner than Lonnie has finished his talk, Kirsten is out the door exploring the train. Me…. I’m looking for the bar, yep what’s better than riding a train you ask? Riding a train with a drink in your hand. I find the bar and get two Bloody Mary drinks one for me and one for Kirsten …if she makes it back in time.

Kirsten finds me sitting in the observation car with two drinks. She slips into the chair next to me and picks up one of the drinks and asks, “traveling alone?” I look over the top of my sun glasses, not any longer.

We follow along the San Francisco bay, beautiful views out both sides of the observation car, bridges, fields, forests. As we’re moving along, Kirsten is monitoring our progress using the California Zephyr Route Guide. All along sipping on our drinks.

After leaving Sacramento the California Zephyr starts to gradually climb. We’re heading North East toward Sierra Nevada west of the Donner pass. While we climb, we’re leaving California’s 80-degree weather. You ask how I know this? Snow, Snow is everywhere all along the route on the mountains and in the valley. The further north we travel the deeper the snow gets. I see 10-foot snow drifts. Houses still covered in snow. WOW! I had no idea California had this much snow. It’s all over the place, we stop in Truckee, the highest point in California. It’s a ski resort, No Duh! Kirsten and I step off the train for some fresh air and I immediately return to the warm observation car.

I strongly suggest following the link to California Zephyr Train Route Guide below. Amtrak does a very good job describing our journey. Yes, better than I ever could.

https://www.amtrak.com/ccurl/692/258/Amtrak-California-Zephyr-Train-Route-Guide-2014.pdf

Around 5:00 PM our conductor makes the announcement that the dining car is open. When you get a sleeper car on Amtrak all meals are included. Since we’re having a good time, Kirsten and I wait until the rush is over and make our way to the dining car around 7 PM.

Now the link below is the menu we ordered from. I know, I know you’re thinking what the…. Just look at, its impressive and we could order whatever we wanted.

https://www.amtrak.com/ccurl/331/568/California-Zephyr-Dining-Car-Menu-0417.pdf

When we arrived at the dining car we’re seated with others, like on a cruise ship except you can’t sit alone. I asked, not that Kirsten and I don’t like to socialize, we just don’t talk much.

We had six (6) meals on the train with others. I will only describe a few.

One of our meals was with a couple from Sacramento, he looks like a band member from ZZ Top and his wife was his groupie. Now Kirsten and I are sitting across the from them and you know me I can’t resist. I just dive in and start interviewing ZZ Top Boy like he’s applying for job at Darden.

Turns out this couple is pretty cool, they own 10,000 acres north of Sacramento. They have cattle and horses, but they mainly make their money on harvesting the lumber. My interest is spiked and I’m asking all kinds of question from property taxes to how often he harvests his land. Turns out ZZ is doing quite well and this trip was his Christmas gift from his wife.

After dinner, we return to the observation car and have a glass of wine while watching the sun going down.

It’s dark now and we’re off to our sleeper cabin. We slide open our door and our room has been transformed into bunk beds. Yes, I’m on the top bunk and Kirsten is on the bottom bunk. Of course, I’m whining as I’m climbing up knowing that I was going to be rocked to sleep like a baby. NOT!

One thing working in my favor is I haven’t adjusted to the time change. My phone said it was 9:30 PM but it was 11:30 PM in Winter Haven.

Good Night…..



It’s 7 am, I rollover and hear Kirsten rustling in the bottom bunk. I look over and see her sticking her head out smiling. Good morning sleepy head. Wha… I think I slept good, as I roll back into my bunk. I feel this kick from under my bunk, it’s time to go and get some breakfast. Ok, Ok, as I unstrap myself from my bunk and rollout.

Kirsten and I are trying to get dressed in this closet with bunkbeds. Finally, Kirsten pushes me onto her bed and is able to finish getting dressed. She’s out the door and I rollout out of her bunk and half-dressed and finish getting dressing. I think prison cells have more room than this. I find Kirsten by the coffee machine fixing us a cup of coffee. Isn’t this fun, I’m having so much fun. Oh YEAH!

I follow Kirsten down the hall toward the dining car. Now I would like to explain the finer points of moving from rail car to rail car. When you leave one car, you push this big button and the door opens, sort of like on Star Trek. You step through the door into this no-man’s area where the cars are latched together. Now imagine the car your standing on is moving up, down and from side to side, all the time the car your wanting to enter is doing the complete opposite. All the while there are red signs saying don’t touch. So, your goal is to cross this area, get to the other door and open it without tripping and falling.

Good Luck.

Kirsten floats through, leaving me standing there in total fear. Now I’ve had open heart surgery, yes that sacred the you know what out of me. Crossing from car to car is in that category. Just saying…..

I made it to the dining car, Kirsten is already seated and wondering why I’m taking so long.

We were early and we have a table to ourselves, while our coffee is being served this guy appears in the door. Kirsten jabs me and says don’t make eye contact, maybe they’ll seat him at another table. Oh No, he wants to sit with us. This guy, we’ll call him Earl, sits down and begins to talk and talk and talk. He asks us questions, but before I can even begin to answer Earls continues talking.

Kirsten and I are eating our breakfast, it becomes a race to see who finishes first. Kirsten wins. She is out of the booth faster than hot butter on a croissant. Yes, Kirsten leaves me there with Earl. So being the good Southerner that I am, I sat back and began to Lie. I keep lying until Earl finally excused himself. I then sat back and finished my breakfast enjoying an extra cup of coffee.

As for Earl, he avoided Kirsten and I for the remainder of the trip. Toward the end of our trip Kirsten asks, “so whatever happened to Earl” beats me.

After breakfast, I found Kirsten in the observation car sitting with her new-found friend. Donald who is 2 years old and his mom are traveling from San Francisco to Denver. They’re from Scotland and traveling the United States.

Donald runs up and down the aisle with his mom following. He would get tired and climb up at our table and look out the window for a while and then he would return to running up and down the aisle.

Starting around 10 am our conductor joined us in the observation car and as we were traveling through Utah he pointed out sites. For the next three plus hours we received a personal guided tour. Kirsten and I enjoyed this unexpected portion of the trip very much.

We saw parts of America that I’ve only seen in movies, books and magazines. The train was going through areas where no cars could be seen. Yeah, we were in the middle of America where cowboys and Indians roamed. That’s a song I think. At any moment, I expected to see John Wayne ride up next to the train or see Geronimo sitting on his horse on a distant cliff. Kirsten and I were glued to the window looking and pointing for hours on end.

Around 3 PM we returned to our roomette and had a mid-afternoon snack of wine, cheese and salami as the train glided along the tracks. I’m sure there is a nap somewhere in that roomette.

Throughout our trip, the train would pull into stations stopping to pick up or drop of passengers. The conductor would always announce how long the stop was. They would encourage us to hop off the train and stretch out legs and get some fresh air.

Evening rolls around and yes, I found that nap…. interesting that the train does seem to rock you asleep as you roll along.

It’s 7 PM and Kirsten and I make our way to the dining car. As we go Kirsten has been waiting until tonight to have Amtrak’s Signature Steak. Me …I’m having Shrimp.

Our guest tonight is a retired couple, Carl Morrison and his wife. As usual I start grilling our dining guest and in our conversations, Carl tell us that he blogs his trips. Well, now you have my attention. It turns out Carl is a retired high school teacher, he and his wife love traveling on trains and he blogs his trips. The website http://www.trainweb.org pays his expenses and he blogs away. Yes, I shared my blogging info with Carl and he with me. Our diners were delicious and very enjoyable with such good discussions.

As Kirsten and I return to the observation car Kirsten asks, “why don’t you find someone to pay for our travels expenses and you blog for them”.

Great idea, anybody out there wanting to support our travels? Going to France this fall. Contribute early and I mention you in the first blog….

Once in the observation car, Kirsten and I realize this will be our last night on the train. We smile and snuggle up together and enjoyed a glass of wine while watching the sun setting out the windows.

We returned to our roomette and found our beds ready for us to climb into. I went to the restroom, when I returned Kirsten was on the top bunk smiling. This is neat, I had no idea the top bunk could be so much more fun. I laughed and rolled into the lower bunk. Looking out the window trying to see the moon and stars.

Good Night……



Slam! Screech! Slam!

I instantly sit up in my bunk, narrowly bumping my head. Wha…T, Kirsten is standing by the door fully dressed.

Wha..t time is it, It’s almost 8 am you’ve slept all night get up I’m ready for breakfast. Wow, I can’t believe I slept so good. I’m out of the bed and getting dressed. Kirsten is standing outside the door sipping on a cup of coffee watching me get ready. These rail cars aren’t very private, like a locker room in high school.

Off to breakfast we go, I wonder who we’ll be sitting with today? As we enter the dining car I eye two young women sitting at a table the attendant motions for us to sit with them. Kirsten and I sit down and introduce ourselves, they are extremely quiet. Not making eye contact only answering question with single words. I notice one of the ladies is wearing a sweat shirt that reads Bed & Bud with a picture of a Bong. Not that I know what bong is, just clarifying. I jump at the opportunity and start talking and asking question like Earl. They are so stoned, it turns out Denver had some Pot fest. For all the folks that don’t know what Pot is that’s Marijuana. It’s legal in Colorado, these girls got on at Denver and were heading home somewhere in Iowa. Within minutes they were gone, I’m sure they ran back to their seats/room wherever and were hiding their stash.

Kirsten and I enjoyed a nice leisurely breakfast all by ourselves. Later, Kirsten asked about the shirt the girl was wearing. I explained, Kirsten’s jaw was dragging the floor.

No Way!.... Way!

Kirsten and I decided to finish the trip in the observation car. We were rolling through America bread basket. As far as you could see fields ready to be planted, farm houses, grain silos in every direction. Hugh tractors plowing the ground in synchronization. The fields looking manicured to perfection, it truly is a beautiful sight.

After lunch, we returned to our roomette and packed all our stuff. The conductor had announced we would be arriving in Chicago within 30 minutes.

Our adventure is coming to an end and we both had a wonderful time and will be doing it again soon.

See you later…….

---