Barry and I are safely home, and we had a wonderful trip!
Going by train is very relaxing, because no one has to stress about who is keeping his eyes on the road. (Translation --Barry could look out the window all he wanted without me stressing about whether or not he was looking at the road!) There is lots of room for each passenger, probably three times the space you get on an airplane, and you can go down to the restrooms or get sandwiches, snacks, and cold or hot drinks in the snack car. There are booths where you can sit and look out the big windows while you sip a steaming coffee and snuggle up against your hubby!
If time is not a limiting factor, I would highly recommend a train trip. There is no better way to see our beautiful country.
Going by train is very relaxing, because no one has to stress about who is keeping his eyes on the road. (Translation --Barry could look out the window all he wanted without me stressing about whether or not he was looking at the road!) There is lots of room for each passenger, probably three times the space you get on an airplane, and you can go down to the restrooms or get sandwiches, snacks, and cold or hot drinks in the snack car. There are booths where you can sit and look out the big windows while you sip a steaming coffee and snuggle up against your hubby!
If time is not a limiting factor, I would highly recommend a train trip. There is no better way to see our beautiful country.
Union Station in DenverWe started out by parking our truck for two days outside Union Station, which is a beautiful old building that has been preserved very well.
You almost feel like you have gone way back in time when you sit in the huge waiting area on the long high-backed wooden benches with lights all along the top. Barry was pointing out to me the beautiful workmanship in those benches. Someone took a great deal of time to match the grain in the wood so that it creates a very even pattern on the back of each bench.
Here is the train we rode on, the California Zephyr. We only rode a very short piece of its total route, Denver to Glenwood Springs and back again. The trip takes about 5 hours going, 6 hours coming back.
The car we rode in looked like this. The passenger seats are in the upper section, and below there are washrooms, the snack area, baggage, etc. The observation and dining areas are also on the upper level.
The scenery was beautiful with mountains, the Colorado River, evergreens, and the changing colors of fall. I will show you a few of those pictures next time. I was a little disappointed in them, though. I had to take them through the train windows which adds a different quality somehow and creates reflection problems and so forth. (I also wanted to ask the conductor if we could stop the train so that I could get a ladder and wash the outside of the windows!)
More next time!
4 comments:
Oh, I would love to take a train trip! Sounds like so much fun! Thanks for sharing this.
I went on a real train ride when I was in jr. high - it was a field trip to "Washington on the Brazos" - about 2 hours each way on the train. But other than the little train at the zoo, I don't think I've been on one since.
Barry loves to take train trips. This one is the longest we have taken, though. There are several shorter ones in this area that we have been on. There is one that travels along the bottom of the Royal Gorge, and we have taken that trip several times. You can get a dinner train on that route, but we've never splurged to that extent!
There was a tour group from Kansas on our train, and the nice thing I discovered about trains is that they are much quieter inside than an airplane, so you can have very nice conversations across the aisle with others, and you can also listen in on some of the other chitchat going on.
A young man (maybe 18 or 20) got on at one stop and sat in front of us. He struck up a lively conversation with an older gentleman across the aisle, one of the group from Kansas. I think he might have been around 70 or so, maybe a bit older. The young man was telling the older one that he likes to go snowboarding and skiing in his free time. I could see the side of the older man's face. You could see that he was thinking about this and preparing an answer. Finally, he said, "Well, I was raising 300 head of cattle, and working with those things out in the cold...well, once I got inside, I just didn't have much interest in going back out there."
People take Scrabble and other games into the observation car where there are tables that you can sit at, too. It is quite a different atmosphere for traveling, and I thought it suited us just fine.
Jeanette, we seem to have a lot in common, especially that Renae "introduced" us. I love riding the train. I've taken the Texas Eagle more times than I can remember because it keeps me off I-35. I've also taken it all the way to Chicago and spent the night in a sleeper car. It's expensive, but it's the way to go!
Hi Alyssa! I'm so glad you came over to visit. I so enjoyed reading your blog earlier and wanted to spend more time there, but unfortunately other things call me way too often! I'll be back over, though.
I think trains have fallen from fashion a bit with the speed and ease of flying, but maybe they will make a comeback. I'm not a happy flier, so that would suit me fine! It just takes longer to make a trip by train, so that would not work for everyone.
We'll have to try the sleeper some time. An elderly friend of ours told us he had the upper bunk in the sleeper car once and had to strap himself in to keep from falling out, the train ride was so rough! I know he's a great kidder, though!
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