Wide Open Spaces

 

On a warm summer's evening, on a train bound for nowhere...or eventually California.

Last night, I returned from exploring the Observation Car to find my bed all made up and ready. It looked cozy and inviting after a night in Coach on the LSL. Determined to utilize some of the "stuff" I brought on board with me I got comfy and started reading. That lasted for about 2 pages before the motion of the train had me fast asleep! I had the most wonderful night's sleep (minus waking up once to the train lurching violently) and woke at 6am Central Time (8AM "our" time). I thrust open the curtains fully expecting to see mountains galore, as we were supposed to be in Colorado, after all. To my disappointment there were hundreds of cattle and more flat, wide open farmlands, with a few rolling hills. After getting ready I headed to breakfast with my neighbors from across the hall. They were traveling with a 19 month old and a 3 week old! Yikes! They laughed when I asked them where the mountains were and told me I had to wait until we left Denver later in the morning. Also seated with us at breakfast was Fred, from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Fred left behind his wife and 6 grown kids to find himself, and more importantly to find God, in San Fransisco (who knew that's where He lived?). Fred was a nice guy and I genuinely hope he finds what he is looking for in San Fran. After breakfast, I packed my backpack with everything I thought I'd need to spend the day in the Observation Car, as it was the scenic portion of the trip and seats were at a premium. After some reading and fiddling with my camera we arrived in Denver. By the way, I do not recommend trying to use the manual focus feature on a camera while still wearing reading glasses...all the pictures will end up blurry. Oops!

Shortly after we pulled out of Denver a nice man and woman came and sat down next to me. "We're not traveling together," they said. Not that I needed to know. They had just been hanging out together since the Zephyr left Chicago yesterday. Their names were Dennis and Denise...really! Dennis assured me that if they had been a couple, he would have changed his name! He is from New Zealand, and after asking where he was traveling to, he replied, "oh, just taking the long way home from Italy." Yes, yes you are, my friend. It turns out that he started on a family "holiday" in Florence, Italy. From there he went to England, Ireland, and then to Boston, where he joined the Lake Shore Limited crew with me. Denise is a lovely woman in her 50's who is traveling to Fresno to meet up with a friend. She's originally from Maine, but currently living in Maryland. Dennis and Denise both had wonderful senses of humor and we had a plethora of good laughs during the many hours we spent in the observation car. While we were going through the Moffat Tunnel, there was a Conductor in charge of educating the observation car occupants about the tunnel. There was an announcement that everybody needed to find a seat and remain seated throughout the 6 mile tunnel, because we would be climbing to an extremely high altitude and people who are not used to it end up having health problems. "Yep" chimes in the conductor, "and we aren't even allowed to use the defibrillator on people any more. How's an unconscious person supposed to tell you he has a pacemaker. It's not like we shocked them knowing that." Gosh! I hate it when that happens! i informed him that i didn not have a pace maker so please shock away if necessary. 

My travel companions and I exchanged grins. The conductor went on to tell us the California Zephyr is dangerous and people routinely have heart attacks and strokes while we are in the middle of the mountains, and some even die, right here on the train. Yikes! Denise asked how often people "expire" on the train. Which the conductor misunderstood, when he said, "oh about 3 people a week." This tunnel stuff is serious business! Once he figured out that he had misunderstood the question he changed that number to one per month. So I guess 12 people die on this train every year?!?! 

UPDATE: Just after I posted this, two conductors ran to the dining car with a first aid bag and an AED. The deadly Zephyr strikes again. Perhaps they should call her the California Widowmaker.....obviously the person is okay, or I wouldn't be joking. Or would I?

The sights were amazing today! Mountains, rivers, canyons, deer, coyote, horses, alpacas, etc. We did not see any goats. BUT... We even saw a Bald Eagle's nest with two baby eagles perched on it's edge! That was really awesome. There were cows sunning themselves on a TINY island in the middle of the river. And then there was the moon...and by moon I mean rafters mooning the train as it rode on by....lots of rafters and lots of mooning. Really. Apparently it's tradition. Good thing I'm not rafting that river is all I have to say.

I am having such a wonderful time on this trip. It is wonderful to be able to be my normal quiet and contemplative self when I want to , or to be chatty with my new "train friends". On a scale of 1 to Serial Killer, I haven't met anyone that comes at the scary extreme. So that's good...no need for the mace that I didn't bring.

I'm in the observation car sitting with Dennis and Denise again. We just went through Grand Junction, CO. Next stop, Utah!  Okay, Okay we're already in Utah... having connectivity issues in the middle of nowhere, folks. Beautiful scenery, though!

On a more serious note, I keep thinking about what life would be like if I lived in any of these small towns we've passed through all along the way. Life must be so different from the one I know.

On a less serious note, there are some wacked out 20 something year old men on this train. "Dude, my girlfriend back in Minnesota has purple dreads." or "Hey, wanna see my tattoos. I got most of them on the outside..." They're nice enough, but kind of crazy.

More later...
A fellow mountain (and Muppet) lover!