We're on the 3rd day of our travels, and are now in Denver, Colorado. As we move or rest, we still feel the movement of the train, the swaying, rumbling, rolling, action. When we were on the train we got used to the rocking and even enjoyed it. Although there were times we lost our balance and were grateful for the chair backs or handles to hold on to, to keep from falling! Jonathan says "it's entertaining when you go to sleep" Chris thought the train trip was "never boring". Russ and I agreed. We could always look out the window and see something new. The scenery seemed to change everyhalf hour of our travels. And at times, I couldn't get a picture of the interesting topography before it changed, never to be seen (by us again!)
I just loaded the first set of pictures and realized they were uploaded backwards. So looking at them from bottom to top, it shows us leaving Martinez, California on July 4th, the next is the boys playing on the train, then, my family in Concord at my mom's house; (seated) Kevin Loftus, my sister Lorraine Loftus, my mom,, my sister Dagmar Franklin, and me. standing neice, Lisa Loftus, nephew; Jacob Loftus and our sons Chris and Jonathan. Russ took the picture. The next up is us waiting for the train to Denver but of course, we're in Martinez and finally boarding the train.
Since we weren't able to blog on the train, I wrote these detail along the way and can only write on a separate file. This is copied, read on if you like a lot of details! :)
Day 1
We’re calling this Day 1, even ‘though we haven’t officially left on the big trip. We left Fresno by train I (Thank you Jacky Bertz for the ride to the station) headed to Martinez. Our train will take off tomorrow, but we were going to visit with my mom in Concord first. My sister from Arizona came up too, and we had a nice time visiting. What a fun way to start our trip
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Day 2
We’re officially off! We left Martinez (thank you Dagmar for the ride early in the morning!) and headed up to Sacramento, Reno, and Salt Lake City. We got two adjoining sleeper rooms which made it easy to move and not feel so claustrophobic. We didn’t get off the train other than to take a picture and that was it. If Russ had his way, we would have stayed in the rooms the whole time, even having our meals delivered! LOL We compromised and decided he can stay in our room with the boys and I could go to the Lounge/Observation car and meet people and come back with any news I find out.
We found out some GREAT news when we left. We were originally told that we would have to get off the train in Grand Junction, Colorado to be bussed into Denver since they were working on updating the tracks. Well the GREAT news is that they were taking us up through Wyoming on the freight rails and around from the north to come in to Denver. So no long 8 hr bus ride, and all the way on the train. Yay! We’ll even get in a little earlier than scheduled by 4 hours! Plus, there were no stops along the way other then to change pilot crews.
So life on the train is fun. We haven’t been bored at all, there’s so much to see out the window alone. And for Russ who is normally our main driver when we go on road trips, this is a treat because he can see it all. It amazes me the different land forms that we see and how in just a half an hour it can be completely different!. On the train, we, that is mainly I spent some time in the Observation Car. Windows everywhere, and comfortable tables and chairs.
The food comes with the room, so we got to choose anything on the menu, which always is fun when you don't have to think about the cost. I love meeting people and when I was in the observation car, I met others who were traveling for different reasons; Molly who was going to Wyoming for a month long backpacking trip, Ryan who was traveling all around the USA - more extensively than we were, just to see it while he had a break from college and Melanie who was a teacher who decided to move back to NY to live with her parents so she could travel to other countries. It's fun to meet people with whom we share this Earth! Even if our paths cross only once!
Day 3
When we went to bed last night, we had just barely entered Utah, but we slept right through it all as when we woke up, we were in Utah. Somewhere in Salt Lake City, we heard people boarding and leaving but it faded into dreams as we dozed off. The first part of
Wyoming was what we expected it to be; farms, ranches, fields, wide open land. We even say praire dogs, antelope and buffalo along the way! But then, the topogaphy started to change. There were those erosion towers that showed the evidence of water erosion from thousands of years ago, and the land forms seemed to change every half hour. We were facinated by all we could see out our window. When I have time tomorrow, I'll post some of those pictures of those views.
So life on the train is fun. We haven’t been bored at all, there’s so much to see out the window alone. And for Russ who is normally our main driver when we go on road trips, this is a treat because he can see it all. It amazes me the different land forms that we see and how in just a half an hour it can be completely different!. On the train, we, that is mainly I spent some time in the Observation Car. Windows everywhere, and comfortable tables and chairs.
The food comes with the room, so we got to choose anything on the menu, which always is fun when you don't have to think about the cost. I love meeting people and when I was in the observation car, I met others who were traveling for different reasons; Molly who was going to Wyoming for a month long backpacking trip, Ryan who was traveling all around the USA - more extensively than we were, just to see it while he had a break from college and Melanie who was a teacher who decided to move back to NY to live with her parents so she could travel to other countries. It's fun to meet people with whom we share this Earth! Even if our paths cross only once!
Day 3
When we went to bed last night, we had just barely entered Utah, but we slept right through it all as when we woke up, we were in Utah. Somewhere in Salt Lake City, we heard people boarding and leaving but it faded into dreams as we dozed off. The first part of
Wyoming was what we expected it to be; farms, ranches, fields, wide open land. We even say praire dogs, antelope and buffalo along the way! But then, the topogaphy started to change. There were those erosion towers that showed the evidence of water erosion from thousands of years ago, and the land forms seemed to change every half hour. We were facinated by all we could see out our window. When I have time tomorrow, I'll post some of those pictures of those views.
We arrived in Denver 4 hours early because of the detour which cut out the stops at the regular stations along the way. So we took our luggage and walked the 8 blocks to our hotel. Russ is so good with the research he did for this trip. He kept checking for discounts and deals on the places we had planned to visit, and found this hotel, a 4 star one, for one third the price!! And originally we were going to have to go about 2 miles out of town to get a decent price but now we're in the center of downtown. It's even cheaper than the other out of town one! I love getting bargains!!! So now we're heading for bed, and ready for a day of touring the US Mint and other places downtown. yawn, it's time to get a full nights rest!
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