Year: 2005

P.S. It is not true that Reno provides a stripper for every hotel room. Not true at all.

Early in the morning here in Reno. Skies seem somewhat clear (though still nighttime). I called Amtrak’s 800-USA-RAIL for more information about our fate, since that was one of the recommendations from last night’s customer agent on the phone. The first agent I reached on the phone this morning informed me that there were “no…

I’m sitting now in a nice hotel room in downtown Reno, overlooking their casino strip. Amtrak gave each of us rooms at the Golden Phoenix (someone sez it used to be the Hilton… until what, I wonder? hee!). The current plan is for us to call the Amtrak 800 # (1-800-USA-RAIL) early tomorrow morning for…

Still in Reno. Here’s the news:We’re not going any farther tonight. They’re putting us up here in Reno — turns out there are hotels here. More info as I learn it.

We made it to Reno. I can see the casinos when I stand outside the train in the falling snow. The snow (around 1-2 feet deep) is wonderful and powdery. We’re stopped, awaiting A Decision on what our train does next. One possibility: Travel through the Sierra Nevadas and rescue the passengers from the derailed…

We’ve left Sparks and are inching our way toward Reno. It’s slow going, due to frozen switches, and, in some cases, they have to dig around to find the railroad track (!) given the 2 feet of snow here. Should be in Reno “soon.” The Conductor has told us a few things recently. A train…

Getting ever so much closer to Sparks, Nevada, which is “just 8 minutes away” from Reno. Not sure how many days that translates to. Still, people seem in good spirits on the train (well, ok, I’m in my compartment, but I don’t hear any psychotic shrieking or death wails). I’m fine, watching the snow fall,…

We’re still in the desert, perhaps an hour or so before Reno. We haven’t seen the sun today; it’s been overcast and snowing. Lots of flat land here, with mountain ranges in the distance (turns out the mountains I see aren’t the Sierra Nevadas, because they’re Very Much Bigger, as in 6000 feet of elevation).…

I woke up about an hour ago. The train had stopped. I climbed down from my bunk and checked my watch. 6:30 am MT. Peered out the window into complete darkness. Ok, we’re somewhere. This is probably not Salt Lake City (which we probably stopped at around 4 am). I noticed after a moment that…

We’re leaving Denver now, passing though the neighborhoods and such. Then we’ll pass through the Rockies. Beautiful weather, blue skies.

We have arrived at Fort Morgan, Colorado. We should’ve been here at 5:40 am, so we’re 4 hours 20 minutes late, just so you know. Doesn’t really affect us, though it may have knocked us out of our window through the freight traffic, perhaps slowing us down more in the future. Now we’ve come 960…

One scrumptious breakfast later… Perfect pancakes with maple syrup, crisp bacon, orange juice. My seatmates were an older couple from Buffalo, traveling to visit their daughter in Berkeley, and an older man from Chicago. Nice talking with them; they’ve taken this train 4-5 times (she suffers from an inner ear problem that prevents flying —…

we just stopped at McCook. It was bright enough to read the station sign. So that means we’re four hours behind schedule at this point, unless I’m misunderstanding the printed schedule. McCook is 783 miles from Chicago. Denver is now 4.5 hours away. Wow. Well, I’m in no hurry. 🙂 Oh, and my posting times…

I think I’ll go for a shower after breakfast — probably less of a hassle. It will be interesting to see how feasible it is to stand in a slippery shower stall amidst the rocking and rolling of the train — I did notice there are handrails inside the shower; I expect I’ll be clinging…

Ok, we’ve just stopped at a small station. I wager that this is, in fact, Fort Morgan Colorado, since the printed timeline for this place is 5:40 am, and that’d mean we’re only 35 minutes behind. The station house was too dark to make out a name, and the citizens seem too shy to promote…

I’m mostly awake. I suspect we’re in Mountain Time now, depending on where we are (and where we are depends on what time it is, of course). Dark outside my window, save for the occasional light in the distance or streetlight or even perhaps a house. When I got up about an hour ago to…

Ah ha… our first real slow-down. The Conductor just informed us that a freight train just ahead of us is “having trouble with a switch” and therefore we’re going maybe 20-30 MPH (it’s hard to estimate, but at these low speeds it’s like we’re gliding… really cool) as we’re stuck behind the freight train. We’re…

We just stopped in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. Actually we’ve been very close to the printed timetable so far (other than starting about 15 minutes late). Some stops are just for 2-3 minutes. Mt Pleasant was a little longer, and now I know why. The station was on my side of the train, and I was…

I took a nice little nap and did some exploring on the train. I found how to get from car to car (the sleeper cars connect upstairs only), passed through the Dining Car (being set up for dinner), looked at the Lounge Car, and peeked into a Coach car. Also found the shower in my…