Not so Heavenly...

Day 29, Mar 3rd

Pockets of sunshine could be seen over the mountains when we woke as the cloud appeared to be breaking up and it was looking promising.

Clive and I headed out at 8:30, jumping the shuttle for the short ride to the gondola base station where we needed to hire our skis. I'm not sure if my feet and ankles were a bit swollen due to the altitude, but I was having problems with my boots with the very bottom of my shin, just above the ankle, pressing hard against the tongue of the boot on both feet. It was a problem I first encountered in Big White on the right boot only, but after a few tweeks it was alleviated. By the time I left Big White the boots were fitting fine. This of course made walking very painful, but also made skiing painful as I found out later because when I flexed or tried to get forward in my boots, I was taking the whole pressure on that one spot.

We hired our skis at one of the dozens of rental shop at the base of the Gondola, Powder House Skis. The casinos and just about everywhere else is full of vouchers, 10% off this, 15% off that. Ski rental is no different and the concierge had given us a voucher for 15% off at Powder House, although there were similar vouchers in at least 3 coupon books I looked at. They had a pretty good setup and friendly staff and although busy, we were fitted out reasonably quick. They have an unusual setup because all they take is a credit card authorisation for $50 and you pay for the skis when you return them after you have finished your skiing for the trip. At less than $30 a day and every 4th day free, it is a pretty good deal.

As I said, the whole process was pretty streamlined, but we were in no real hurry. When we arrived, the line for the gondola was at least 150m long!! It snaked up one side of the mall, around the top and back down the other. Clive went and bought lift tickets for both of us and we were shocked when they cost $90. They were under $80 if bought in advance online, but as we were unsure just how much we'd ski we decided we would just buy daily's. Even though $90 is less than the $100+ we pay to ski crappy snow in Australia, by Nth America standards it is pretty steep.

The trip up the gondola is spectacular, no way else to describe it. It runs fairly flat for a couple of hundred metres before steeply rising to the summit. The views back over the lake and town are breathtaking. I didn't bring the camera, but when I next go up the gondola I will be taking lots of pics and probably shoot a video as well. It has a small mid station right at the top of the first summit where they have a viewing deck and a small cafe. It is accessible only on the trip up where you can get off, have a look around and then get back on a gondola going further up the mountain.

When we got to the top of the gondola, we were presented with about 20 or so steel steps to get down to snow level, however there was a lift which was used less than I thought it would be. We jumped the lift and arrived at snow level. We then head to the giant trail map board to work out where we could go. Amazingly, you have 2 choices. An almost 100m walk up a slight hill to a lift on the Nevada side or a 200m walk, push, skate to pick up the California Trail and ski on the California side of Heavenly. Already I was less than impressed.

We opted to go to the California side which was little more than a wide cat track leading down to some lifts. The snow was very nice however, so we just picked one of the 2 lifts and headed up. At the bottom of the lift was a small sign where they list which runs have been groomed. We took a look and saw which runs had been groomed. When we got off the lift at the top we discovered another thing that Heavenly doesn't appear to do well. The directional signposting of runs is pitiful. I guess for regulars it doesn't matter much, but for first timers, it was sadly lacking.

We skied down a few blue runs which were decidedly on the greener side of blue. In fact by the end of the day, we had skied half a dozen or more blue runs which were much less difficult than the green runs in Canada that we have skied in Big White and Whistler. We stopped at about 11am for some lunch because we hadn't had anything for breakfast in our rush to get out on the slopes. We both had a burger and a cold drink and it was definitely 'on hill' pricing.

My shins were now killing me and I was not a particularly happy camper. We did a few more runs but my skiing was not good. I could not get forward in my boots because the pain was terrible, so I'm sliding down like 'Sammy Straightleg', conscious not to get in the back seat but unable to flex my boot. I asked Clive would he be OK skiing a few runs on his own whilst I went inside to a cafe and took off my boots hoping the 30 minutes rest without the boots on may help. He was fine with that so I headed into a big cafe/eatery and was lucky enough to find a seat straight away. I was soon joined by a couple of 30'ish girls on holiday from Florida and later by their husbands. All 4 of them were here for the first time and all 4 commented on how poor the signage was.

Clive came in after a bit and we had a coffee. He told me of a few nice runs he had found so after finishing our coffee we headed back out to them. They were nice gentle runs, all blue but they were barely blue even by Aussie standards. My shins weren't getting any better and Clive knew I was struggling, so I made the decision to come back down the mountain on the gondola. Clive stayed out and skied the extra hour and a bit until the lifts were ready to close.

I hobbled back to the ski rentals and returned my skis as I knew I wouldn't be skiing the next few days. The cost is a daily cost, no discount for multiple days, so it was pointless keeping them when the process to go thru hiring again is pretty painless anyway. I have a decision to make now. At the hire place they told me that they have a master boot fitter who works at shop 5 (they have 7 outlets throughout the town) and they were sure he would be able to get me going. I'm worried if I get the boots 'blown out' a bit, when things return to normal they may be too big. I guess I could just try some hire boots until I find a boot that is comfortable for now. At any rate, my shins will take a few days to recover, so I'll see what happens over the next few days.

I then needed to get the 200m back to Harvey's. I seriously contemplated taking the boots off and walking in my socks, but that would have been agony in the cold as well...lol. I then remembered when we went to the general store the other day that they had cheap walking boots. I needed a pair, so I went in there and bought a pair, wore them out of the shop and threw the ski boots over the shoulder and walked back to the casino and room.

Diane and Lorraine were out shopping when I got back to the room, but soon enough they were back. They went downstairs for a bit of play, in the meantime Clive arrived back from the mountain. Clive said he finally found a longish run, but he was still unimpressed with the layout and infrastructure of Heavenly, as was I.

We had dinner at Hard Rock Cafe inside the casino before attending a show. It was a Comedy Central type show with 2 comedians and a comedian/MC. It was very funny and all the acts were quite good, although the final and main act, Rocky LaPorte, a New Yorker of Italian heritage was a class above.

There's really not much more to say about today, the mountain was disappointing, the skiing was even more disappointing from a personal view and I didn't remove the camera from it's case so I have no pics to show.

Let's see what tomorrow brings.

Later...

Settled in at Tahoe...

Day 28, Mar 2nd

The weather this morning was as predicted, wet and miserable. The Gondola was on wind hold, as were several of the other chairs. It made the decision to delay the start of our skiing by a day an easy one.

The four of us headed to breakfast in the hotel where Diane discovered she did not have her reading glasses and believed she must have left them in the restaurant at Harrah's the night before. After breakfast, I went in search of her glasses, Clive went to the hotel laundry to remove some clothing from the dryer after he and Lorraine had washed some clothes before breakfast and the girls went off to play the slots.

I found Diane's glasses at the restaurant, Clive did the domestics and we met the girls downstairs to plan the day. I thought it may be a good idea to do a loop of the local bus which runs the length of the main Sth Tahoe strip to have a look at the sights and get some bearings. Diane opted out of going outside in the cold, so Clive, Lorraine and I found the bus stop and waited for the 'GoBlue Bus' which allegedly comes every 20 minutes. At least 30 minutes later we jumped the bus and as Clive, who got on last, passed the driver he was informed it wasn't a free trip which we thought it was. Clive pulled $3 from his pocket and stuck into the drivers perspex cash holder and that was that. We are not sure what they spend the fare money on, but it certainly isn't cleaning the windows which were so filthy you could barely see out of them, seriously. It was a terrible day and it's impossible to keep windows of cars and buses clean in a snow town as we have found out touring the USA, but these looked like they hadn't seen a hose for a month.

When we came back, we found Diane and her and Lorraine decided to play the slots for a little while. I talked Clive into splitting $100 with me at the Craps table. I had given Clive, Lorraine and Diane a quick Craps lesson the previous day, so we went and put the lessons into practice. We had a little bit of success and were winning about $30 when they decided to double the table minimum, for reasons I still cannot fathom. This caused more than half the table to leave, including us.

A relaxing afternoon was followed by a very nice meal at Nepheles, a nice restaurant serving 'Creative Californian Cuisine' and about a 10 minute taxi ride from the casino. Clive and I both had broiled elk and the girls had fish. We all shared an appetizer which was seafood cheesecake. A bottle of wine, a few drinks and a nice night was had by all. The restaurant rang a taxi for us and we were back in the hotel around 10pm. We decided to call it a night there and then and not go up to the gaming floor, so it was an early lights out in preparation for our first day on snow tomorrow.

Some pictures of Tahoe, all taken from our hotel room in Harvey's...

AMTRAK over...

Day 27, Mar 1st

After 12 nights on trains and a few hotel rooms, the AMTRAK adventure came to an end this morning. As I noted at the end of yesterdays blog, we thoroughly enjoyed the experience and although I've had enough for now, it has certainly whet my appetite to buy a Eurail Pass sometime in the future and use the train as a viable option to navigate around Europe.

The last leg however was not without it's problems and the late arrival into Reno which I floated was a probability since we left Chicago late on Sunday, did eventuate although for a while we were close to making it.

We awoke early on our last morning to take in our final breakfast/meal before arriving in Reno. We showered and packed our belongings ready for what was shaping as a mad dash to the airport to pick up the South Lake Tahoe Express shuttle. I made a quick video of the Superliner roomette before leaving the train...



It appeared we were looking at a 9:40'ish arrival into Reno. If we got our bags and connected with a taxi real quick, we would probably just make it. The train pulled into Sparks, which is a sort of dual city setup with Reno. For Aussies, think Albury/Wodonga. It was about 9:30 and the train stopped just short of the platform where we waited...and waited. Finally the crew announced on the PA that they were having problems with the lead engine and were playing it safe by replacing it to ensure they have no problems climbing the pass thru the Sierra Nevada mountain range which was awaiting the train after Reno. This was predicted to take about 30 minutes, so the 10am shuttle was now scuttled. I'd had contact with Lorraine via SMS and they were already at the shuttle terminal which was inside the airport terminal. I let her know we would not make it and she passed that information onto the shuttle people. It is a fairly common occurrence for people to be held up by late connections and they just said we could get on the next available shuttle after we finally arrive.

Of course the 30 minute engine change took well over an hour and we arrived in Reno a few minutes after 11am. A taxi ride to the airport saw us arrive in time to catch the midday shuttle. It was a very scenic trip to South Lake Tahoe and we arrived at the hotel just after 1:30pm. I took this short video as we approached our destination, a few miles out from Stateline...



Here are a few pics taken from the bus as we made the trip down...

Note the small object on the top of the hill...

This was the object. They are very patriotic...

It appears the modus operandi for clearing snow from shopping centre carparks is to stack it up around a light pole or tree. Every carpark looks the same...

A couple of buildings in Carson City...

After checking in, we had a bit of a job to locate Clive and Lorraine who were out and about having a look at things. We finally caught up with them on the casino floor and had coffee at Starbucks. After a few hours relaxing in our rooms, we met up for dinner in a simple restaurant in Harrah's Casino which is opposite Harvey's Casino where we are staying and can be accessed by a tunnel beneath the road adjoining the 2 gaming floors. They are both owned by the same group and their Player Rewards program is interchangeable.

After dinner we went back to Harvey's where we signed up for the Player Rewards program to maybe earn some freebies by the end of our week here. Diane and Lorraine played slots/pokies on machines side by side whilst Clive and I looked on. They both had a good run and finished the night well in front. It was getting late and we'd all had big days travelling after rising early, so I think we were all thankful to get some sleep.

The forecast is not good for the morning. They have had massive amounts of snow over the past 2 weeks and it appears there is more to come. Clive and I agreed to play it by ear and if it is fogged in and miserable, we will probably delay hiring our gear and have a rest day. I know that's a bit of a novelty to have a rest day before we even start, but we have all had a pretty solid month on the go over here and both Clive and I are treating this last leg as a quiet week with a bit of skiing, rather than a full-on ski every day ski holiday. Who'd have thought I'd be saying that!!

More tomorrow, later...

Day in the Rockies, simply stunning...

Day 26, Feb 28th

Even though I woke early, I had a reasonable nights sleep. I guess I’m now getting used to the narrow bedding and although I couldn’t possibly sleep like that on a permanent basis, it is now easily bearable.

What time did I get up? Well at first I wasn’t sure. My phone said 5:35am, but had it gone back an hour yet or not? I had absolutely no idea where we were, how close we were to the Nebraska/Colorado border where the time changes from Central US to Mountain US time. Maybe we were past the border? Either way, I felt like getting up anyway and beating everybody else to the shower. By the time I showered and changed and got back upstairs to the room it was almost 6am on my phone and there was no movement in the dining car which was to open for breakfast at 6am Mountain time, regardless if we were in Mountain timezone or not. No movement meant it was still only 5am, damn.

I grabbed my laptop and bag of tricks and headed to see if I could get a spot in the observation car amongst all the sleeping coach passengers I expected to find. When I got there the conductor was talking to some guy and there wasn’t anybody in sight. I told the conductor of my experience on the earlier train and he said it’s a fulltime job keeping them from sleeping in the SSL, but he usually does a sweep first thing in the morning and moves them along back to their seats if they are sleeping. I worked on the blog for an hour before deciding I better make a move for breakfast if I wanted to secure a good spot in the SSL for the trip into the Rockies. I went back to the room and woke Diane whilst securing my stuff in the room and told her I was going for an early breakfast.

I sat with a couple from Idaho who were cattle farmers and travelling back home after a week away. We got to talking about the weather and he said that he had just finished talking to his son back home who is looking after the farm in their absence. He said the weather is quite extreme on the farm and they have had a foot of snow over the weekend. His son needed to stay up because some of the cattle were calving and they needed to get the young calves and place them indoors almost immediately otherwise they couldn’t survive in the current environment. Ten minutes later, Diane turned up for breakfast, deciding to get up early herself.

After breakfast I returned to the SSL and settled in for what should be the most scenic day of all the days on the train we have travelled so far. The train was due into Denver at 7:15 and depart after refuelling and passenger moves at 08:05. We arrived in Denver at about 9:20, so just over 2 hours late. I’ve read a lot about this part of the trip and it’s beauty, but if only to reinforce that whilst stopped in Denver, 2 guys came along with long poles, one with a washer and the other a squeegee and washed all the windows on the train. They obviously want you to be able to clearly see. This has not happened on any of the trains we travelled on earlier in the trip, so I took it as a sign that is a special trip scenery wise and AMTRAK acknowledge just that. The train platform was adjacent to the home ground of the Colorado Rockies baseball team, but it was hard to get any worthwhile pictures from the angle I was on. The train finally departed Denver at 10:15, 2hrs 10mins late, but it was a slow crawl out of the station and rail area with frequent stops.

Before long, we were climbing our way slowly into the Rockies and with the sounds of John Denver’s ‘Colorado Rocky Mountain High’ playing in my head (how sad is that!!), I readied the camera hoping to catch some of the beauty. After a short while we came to what is a famous series of bends among rail buffs on the early ascent from Denver. A freight train was stationary on an adjoining line with almost 100 carriages on the back. The first bend is a sweeping left hand turn thru more than 180% followed by a right hander which turns back thru 270% with the line you just travelled clearly visible just below. I took a short video of the freight train below when we passed it again up the top...



As you can see, I was unfortunately seated on the wrong side for that video and picture. Indeed, the right hand side of the train is clearly the superior side when travelling west. Fortunately our roomette is on the right hand side and Diane got a great view of everything from our room. It soon became apparent however, that the SSL was not ideal for taking pictures, especially on the bluebird day we were enjoying today. There are just too many reflections bouncing off the windows and it is almost impossible to get a clear shot without some reflection. We steadily made our way up and thru the ‘Tunnel Section’ of the ascent which passes thru dozens of tunnels in just 30 odd miles of track. This video will give you some idea of the tunnel frequency and the sights from the SSL...



The final tunnel in the tunnel section is the 10km Moffat Tunnel which when built made a 6 hour trip around and over the mountain a 10 minute trip thru the mountain. As you emerge from the Moffat Tunnel, directly to the left is Winter Park Ski Resort right alongside the tracks. There is a perfectly formed mogul run used for competition and some jumps, as well as a chairlift just in that area as you emerge. About 10 minutes before we entered the tunnel, Diane came up to the SSL to see if I wanted lunch. We agreed to meet once we had gone thru the Moffat Tunnel.

After a burger lunch, I was happy to just go back to our room for the afternoon and hopefully get some pictures without light and reflection issues. I got plenty of pictures of the different rock formations which make up the Rockies, it is truly spectacular. I also took a few videos when we were going thru deep canyons that had just a single rail line and absolutely nothing else, the sidewalls of the giant canyons being within touching distance...





Pictures unfortunately don’t do the whole thing justice, well mine don’t anyway. The different formations and colours which make up the area are stunning and the 2 hours or more we spent following the frequently frozen Colorado River was also breathtakingly beautiful. For what seemed like mile after mile we followed the river on the right side of the train whilst on the other side of the river is Highway 70 which is often split into dual carriageways one on top of the other due to the steepness of the cliffs it was traversing...



Here are some of the many pictures I took during the day...

At the end of the day, the whole experience met my expectations. And those expectations were high after all the reading and research I had done suggested this particular section of the California Zephyr’s journey across America was among one of the world’s great train rides. It was truly a great conclusion to our ‘AMTRAK Adventure’ which we set out on 12 days ago and both Diane and myself have not a single regret for having done it.

Dinner was the usual, rare steak with mash. Diane had hers medium/well. Tomorrow morning hopefully sees us arriving in Reno in time to get our shuttle, but it is doubtful. We are still 2 hours behind, but they are confident they can make up some time this evening. If they can makeup an hour, we are still a chance of meeting Clive and Lorraine in time, but if not, we’ll just get a later shuttle and see them there.

Later...

Willis Tower and the California Zephyr....

Day 25, Feb 27th

The gods were smiling on us this morning when we woke to a glorious sunny day, a perfect opportunity to go to the ‘Skydeck’ at the Willis Tower. The tower, which is a huge office block, was allegedly the tallest building in the world until 2009 when a slightly taller building was opened in Taiwan. However the Willis Tower has some communication towers on the roof shooting upwards a further few hundred feet, so they are now claiming the tallest structure in the world. I say allegedly because if there is one thing we’ve learnt doing the city tours in Boston, New Orleans and Chicago, each city has the biggest, the oldest, the longest etc. of everything. I think they tell a few porkies along the way to make their narration a bit more spectacular. For instance in Boston, we passed a bridge which was an almost exact replica in style of the Anzac Bridge in Sydney, except about half the size. The tour guide starts to tell us how the bridge was built in 1994 etc. blah blah blah and finishes with ‘And is the biggest bridge of its type in the world!’ Maybe your world sweetheart, but not the world I live in. The Yanks, you gotta love ‘em.

As we walked out of our hotel, I took a picture of the tower in the cloudless sky...

Opening time was 10am, but unsure of what time you needed to get there to line up to ensure you got up there straight away, we walked the short distance arriving about 9:15. The place was locked up with barely a person in sight. There was a McDonalds on the next corner (isn’t there always?...lol) so we walked across the road and grabbed something for breakfast and a coffee, keeping the entrance in our line of sight. About 9:30 somebody appeared from inside the building and placed signs out the front to signify they were open. There were not many people around, so we continued eating our breakfast in the warm comfort of McDonalds, just praying a tour bus didn’t pull up out the front with 100 Japanese on board and their 1000 cameras and camcorders.

At 9:45 we made our way over and jumped in an elevator which takes you down, not up, to the ticket office. It’s here that you buy your tickets and have the mandatory photo taken so they can try and relieve you of some ridiculous amount of money for a 20c print when you come down at the end. We paid a extra few dollars for the ‘audio tour’, which looks just like an old mobile which narrates points of interest to see from various points around the Skydeck. When you are at the window which has a 4 on it, you press 4 on the mobile and it gives you a quick overview of what you are looking at and directs you to places of interest. We had one when we went to the top of the Empire State Building in New York and for the extra few dollars it is a no-brainer, well worth the money.

After the ticket office, you make your way through a display area which shows special interest points and some trivia of the tower. You then funnel into a small theatrette where a short movie plays continuously explaining the history of the tower. It’s just like a Disneyworld ride where you go through a whole pile of crap to keep you occupied if the line is long before you actually get on the ride. Apparently the express lifts were having maintenance done on them, so the ride up was in a goods lift, obviously a much slower ride and for some reason, not clear to me or clearly explained by the ‘liftie’, needed to stop at floor 33 and 67 before arriving at the 99th floor. These stops were just a matter of stopping, doors open, doors close and off we go again. Once at the 99th floor, yet another lift takes you up the further 4 floors to the Skydeck on the 103rd floor.

Even though it was a super sunny sky, Chicago suffers from the same problems of haze that most major cities suffer from, so things get very blurry on the horizon. Here are some shots of the city...

A few buildings of interest were:
Marina City, which was built and opened in 1964 as an exclusive city address with its own theatre, gym, swimming pool, ice rink, bowling alley, several stores and restaurants, and of course, a marina. It consists of two buildings standing side by side in the heart of the city, although when it was built it was in an unfashionable warehouse area. The bottom section beneath where there appears to be break is the unit carpark. It is an open carpark where the cars reverse into spots against the railing. The locals call it the corn cobs...

What do you think this building is? Note the large exercise area on the roof and although you cannot clearly see it, there is a barbed wire fence around the top area...

It is the Metropolitan Correctional Centre, right smack in the centre of the city.

This is the John Hancock Building, formerly the tallest and most prestigious skyscraper in Chicago. It now ranks at #3.

This is the Kinzie Street Bridge. In 1992 it was undergoing renovations when some equipment broke through into an old forgotten tunnel/pipe under the riverbed. The Chicago River started to empty into the tunnel like somebody had pulled the plug out of the bathtub. This led to the ‘Great Chicago Flood’ which flooded every basement and anything else built below ground level in the Chicago city loop area.

This is the United Centre, home of the Chicago Bulls and the place that the mighty Michael Jordan plied his trade for many years. Out the front is a statue of Jordan with an inscription ‘The best there ever was, the best there ever will be’. It’s hard to argue...

The red building in the centre is on the site of the start of the great Chicago fire of 1871. History tells of a cow kicking over a kerosene lamp and starting the fire which burnt the greater part of the city to the ground. From this event, the influx of people who came to Chicago for the rebuilding and decided to stay, forced the city to come up with a way of accommodating everybody in an already smallish area. This led to the idea of building up instead of out and so began the tradition of the ‘skyscraper’ generally conceded to have had its beginnings in Chicago.

Half hidden by the tall building in the foreground is Soldiers Field, home of the Chicago Bears football club. The field is an open air arena on the banks of Lake Michigan which makes up the eastern edge of Chicago. I can only imagine how cold it would be in the middle of winter, high up in the stand with the wind whipping off the lake...

Grant Park, a superb sculpture of gardens and paths on the shores of Lake Michigan...

Traffic management. Damn you M5...

On the western side of the building they have recently installed glass viewing platforms where you actually walk out onto the glass and look straight down to the pavement...

We finished up around 11:30 and it was time to head back to the hotel to gather our bags and head for the train station to commence the last leg of the AMTRAK adventure. We took a short taxi ride to the station where an ever reliable red cap was on hand to help unload the taxi and escort us to the baggage check-in and first class lounge. We had a little time to kill in the lounge before our train was due to leave at 2pm. A check of the TV monitors around the lounge told some interesting stories. The eastbound version of the train we are on, the California Zephyr, was due in to Chicago at 2:50pm but wasn’t expected until 4am tomorrow morning, a delay of 14hrs!! The Empire Builder which travels further north through Wyoming and Montana to Seattle in Washington State was only going part way due to extreme weather conditions and a derailment of a freight train in a 20 foot snow drift!!

Soon before we were due to board, the monitors started flashing ‘delayed’ for our train and an announcement was made shortly afterwards, but no real explanation given. We sat in the lounge as first one train jumped the queue and then another. Finally at 3pm we were advised we were ready to board. A walk to the train saw us comfortably in our seats and the train pulled out at exactly 3:30, 90 minutes late.

As day slowly started to turn to night on a now very overcast day, we began to run into some pretty severe weather. Sago snow began smashing into our window and the now dark paddocks and fields were periodically lit up by giant flashes of lightning. After an hour of this, the train started to slow down until eventually coming to a stop in a real one horse town type station with a couple of dull street lights. The crew came on the PA to tell us that because of the weather conditions they had lost use of the horn and somebody had to climb up and attempt to have it working again. Something that struck me from the first trip was just how much the engine sounds the horn. It soon became apparent that they sound the horn every time they approach a rail crossing, whether there is anybody waiting to cross or not. Leaving LA for instance, the horn never stops blowing for ages as they pass crossing after crossing. Now for those who have travelled to Asia, we have all laughed at how it appears that the horn is almost as important as the steering wheel in negotiating congested roads, they are forever blowing it, but it appears that AMTRAK and trains in general in the USA are just as reliant upon the horn. It is the law that the train MUST blow the horn 24/7 whenever approaching a crossing. So what happens if the horn malfunctions, as it has now? The train must come to a complete stop each and every time it comes to a crossing!!!!!

Fortunately the poor crew member who drew the short straw managed to clear the horn and get it working again. The PA announcer said that it would hopefully either cool down enough for snow or warm a bit for rain, but the current freezing rain and ice that was smashing into the train and horn as it made its way thru the storm was absolutely the worst thing possible.

Of course this did not help at all in trying to make up lost time, but the crew had already warned that the chances to make up time in the schedule, which usually has some sort of built in buffer, was very limited in the run from Chicago across and suggested that before people lost cell/mobile phone service to ring anybody picking them up and let them know the train would be 90mins late at a minimum.

At 7:45 we made our way to the dining car for dinner where we had a meal with a nice woman, a few years younger than us who lived in Colorado Springs. She was also the manager of the Marriot in Colorado Springs. She had been visiting her mother in Iowa. For the first time I didn’t have the steak, electing to have the pork chop special. I’ll be having the steak tomorrow night. Diane had roast chicken.

Back to the room and there wasn’t much else to do but go to bed. We pick up an extra hours sleep tonight when clocks go back an hour from US Central time to US Mountain time when we cross from Nebraska into Colorado which is supposed to be sometime around 5am. I’d suggest it will be much later than that. The plan was always to get up early and get a seat in the observation car for the scenic trip into the Rockies, but rather than a 7am arrival in Denver it is now likely to be 9:30 or later.

I was just hopping into bed when the train stopped again, this time to wait for the eastbound California Zephyr which was 14hrs late to pass. We should have passed it 7 hours ago!!

This train is getting later and later...lol

Later...