Riding the Rails Across The Midwest
At this moment, 4:27 PM Central Time on March 28, I’m riding on the California Zephyr. That doesn’t scan nearly as well as “Riding on the City of New Orleans,” but as it’s the only passenger rail line to serve Denver, I’ll take what I can get. Train 5 stops at Denver’s Union Station once every morning on its way west to Emeryville, California, and Train 6 stops once every evening on its way east to Chicago. It’s about 18 hours to either end of the line.
My eventual destination is Toronto. The one in Canada. Brace yourself for several days of train blogging.
There is no Internet on a cross-country Amtrak train. My plan had been to write this en route and upload it during my 5-hour layover in Chicago. When the train is on time and the weather is nice, the public library is a pleasant place to spend quality time with the laptop. If the train’s a little late and a half-hour walk isn’t feasible, there’s half a dozen cafes nearer-by that’ll do the trick. (Did you know Cereality had wi-fi? Did you know Cereality existed? It does, and they are very picky about what you take pictures of in there.)
My train is not on time. Due in part to masses of construction on the tracks out west, it’s more not-on-time than I’ve ever seen it before. I will either spend five minutes in Chicago at top speed running over to the imminently departing Lakeshore Limited, or I will spend far, far too much time in Chicago on Amtrak’s conciliatory dime. I bet you thought a 5-hour layover was excessive, eh? Think again, I’m thinking.
Ah, well. The bright side of being 5 hours late is arriving in Lincoln and Omaha (Nebraska) in broad daylight. Lincoln has a little red caboose outside the station that begs to have its picture taken, and an enticing little brew-pub down an alley behind the station parking lot, and something at the end of the block called “Crawdaddy’s.” In Omaha, the architecture was interesting and there was wi-fi within reach. I spent the duration of the station stop gabbing via AIM with a long-distance friend from way back.
Also, the snack bar, suffering from guilt over our increasing delayment, just announced complimentary snack packs, water bottles, and coffee. They serve surprisingly yummy coffee (Green Mountain). So there are concessions.
We’re just getting to Mount Pleasant, Iowa. Depending on what’s floating around on the airwaves, you’ll see this post earlier than planned. Or rather, you might see it at the time I had originally planned to upload it when I assumed I’d be in Chicago by now.
Next post: Various checklists to make your first 18-hour train ride a rewarding, or at least an interesting, experience! Don’t miss it!
March 29th, 2007 at 10:42 am
Awww… I wish your checklists were up. I am boarding the Zephyr tomorrow evening heading West all the way to SF, returning the day before Easter. Think I have it covered but I would love to know some helpful tidbits.
March 29th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
The checklists are up! No guarantees as to how useful they might be to you specifically, though. There’s perhaps more tongue-in-cheek going on than is helpful.
I hope I’ve beat your departure time–you said “evening”, so does that mean you’re starting somewhere in Iowa on the 30th? The trip West is a beautiful ride, and the steward has a lot to say about the Moffat railway line. It’s an education.