Day 7, 8 & 9 of our Amtrak Rail-Pass trip

Amtrak California Zephyr Sacramento CA to Chicago IL

Thursday January 21st

We got up and did laundry and repacked at the AirBNB and had a great visit with Chris who is the owner. We learned more about the AirBNB business and how it works. When the laundry was done we headed to the station where we knew we could grab a bite and a Starbucks while we waited for the train.

The train tracks are a couple hundred yards from the terminal and you can take an underground walkway using free luggage carts or you can catch a trolley to the tracks and not have to walk.

That's the terminal in the distance.

Once on the train we quickly moved to the Sightseer Lounge Car (Observation Car) and worked on the Blog and spammed our Facebook friends. The train was pretty crowded because a ton of folks we going across Donner Pass to Reno for the weekend. Soon after we settled in the tracks began to climb and it wasn't long before we saw snow in the shady spots and then everywhere. FInally I was gonna get to see the elusive "awesome snow covered mountain views" I've heard so much about.

Darkness came soon after we left Reno Nevada and we spend another night aboard the train.

Day 7 of our Amtrak Rail-Pass Trip

Amtrak California Zephyr to Chicago

Friday January 22nd

When we woke up we decided to try our first Amtrak Diner Car Breakfast. We ordered the scrambled eggs and coffee. Although I've heard the food was pretty good this meal was pretty bad. I mean the eggs were just ok but the biscuit and potatoes were lukewarm and tasteless. Shawn had the same opinion. I'm not ready to condemn all Amtrak food but this was surely not a good introduction. We'll try again and report back.

As soon as we finished Breakfast we took seats in the Observation car and began to see the snow covered countryside in Colorado on our climb to the Continental divide and beyond. Observation car and began to see the snow covered countryside in Colorado on our climb to the Continental divide and beyond.

Video from the back door of the train another video from the train

We had fish tacos for lunch near the Moffit Tunnel that passes across the Continental Divide

We saw about 100 large deer (Mule Deer), maybe 20 Elk and 2 Moose (es) on the west side of the Continental Divide. Too late to take pictures but there were plenty of them Probabaly 7-10 deer at a time and 10 Elk at time. Both Moose at the same time.

Folks sit in the observation car passing the time making new friends, watching the passing views, playing cards, working on various computer projects, eating snacks & meals or just people watching. Some social drinking goes on but not a real party crowd.

We woke up in Omaha Nebraska just before 6:00 am. We headed for our spot on the Observation Car and went downstairs to the Lounge and bought coffee and a bagel for breakfast. Traveling long distance on the train without a "Roomette" or larger sleeper.....sleeping is a little different than at home. You first take a sleep aid pill & attempt to find an empty pair of seats so you can have 2 seats all by yourself. Then, throughout the night, you try various seat adjustments and positions in an effort to sleep comfortably. Eventually after going through the entire gauntlet of uncomfortable positions and seat adjustments you wake up (again) and decide 6:00 is it! It would be easier to get up than continue trying to find the ultimate position or combination of options & seat adjustments for a good sleep. Then, all day you are amazed that you aren't a sleep deprived zombie. I don't know why but we continue to feel fine all day and haven't even resorted to a nap for the past 9 days. At this point I will concede that for some folks, long distance train travel would be impossible to do and still have a good time. Personally though, I am still in the Coach-n-save camp. I think if you are considering sleeping in coach on a long distance train you should do the practice trip(s) I did to try out a night or two before signing up for a 15 day trip. Then you can may a somewhat informed decision as to what is acceptable to you (or not). I camp and sleep aboard boats/vans enough that I am somewhat accustomed to less than optimum sleeping conditions and do well. I was surprised that Shawn has had a very similar experience and is also doing as well. Here are some pictures of Shawn posing in the 3 main sleeping positions we used.....

We watched the flatlands of Nebraska fly by and crossed back across the Mississippi in Burlington Iowa.

Frozen all the way across.

We arrived in Chicago and caught an $8 UBER ride to the AirBNB on West Chicago ave in the Ukrainian Village. The room turned out to be in an upscale Condo on the third floor overlooking the busy street below. We took the quick tour and got the key then took off exploring. 

We walked several blocks exploring and snacking along the way. We split a Chicago Dog at "Fatso's Last Stand" and there was no stopping us then......

beef pies at Areal's Deli, Blintzes and Pierogies at Ann's Bakery & Deli. We were checking out the opportunities for picking up train food the following morning to take with us on out trip to Los Angeles. Eventually we ended up at Root's Pizza for a small pizza and a beer. Everything was within 3 or 4 blocks of the condo and the street were very clean. The streets were also safe to walk after dark. We saw lots of afluent looking folks walking around shopping and dining as we explored. There were lots of homes/condos above the street & shops.

Day 6 of our Amtrak Rail-Pass trip

Wednesday January 20th

We arrived at the Sacramento Amtrak station at 6:30 am and got cleaned up in the relatively spacious restroom (compared to the train's). Cousin Doug who lives in nearby Stockton California was going to pick us up at 7:30 am to give us time to comb our hair and wash our faces since we hadn't had a shower yet. It didn't take us long and we were hanging out waiting and asked some questions about where we would catch our next train. During the process we found out they had baggage storage available even though the Amtrak website didn't show it. The station was going through a remodeling and the new station will be much larger with a lot more amenities. Had we known, we would have planned to store our larger bag at the station like we did in Seattle but we didn't have time to repack so we just took them with us since Doug had room in the car.

 Doug picked us up and we stopped by a MickyDs to grab some coffee and a biscuit before our tour of the day. Doug is the ultimate tour guide for this area and he gave us the choices and we all agreed to go look at some Giant Redwood trees cause Shawn had never seen any. On the way towards Arnold CA where Big Tree State Park is located we drove through miles and miles of vineyards. Seems the Stockton area is the largest wine-grape producer in the state even though Napa gets all the tourists. Next along the ride was a stop at Angel's Camp where Mark Twain's Frog Jumping story took place. Since then they have held a Frog Jumping contest each year and have Bronze plaques in each square of the sidewalks immortalizing the winning Frog for that year and his distance. I took a picture of the shortest and longest jumps.

From the Frogs it was a short "jump/hop" to the mountains and the trees. We spent about 2 hours wondering around in the snow looking at the various trees and reading the history of the early settlers and tourists that had been there before us.

Since we were in the Giant mode after the Giant Redwood Trees we figured we'd stop at Giant Burger for lunch.

After lunch we headed back to Sacramento so we could stop by the AirBNB to check in and make sure we didn't have any surprises later after dinner and beers. The AirBNB was easy to find and Chris met me at the door and we did a quick tour and he told me he would be there when we got back but would let me have a key just in case. 

Our Sacramento AirBNB

From there we headed to Sacramento's "Old Town" where we had planned to meet Zach & Georgia (nephew & his wife) for dinner. Since we really didn't have a hard plan regarding location we found a nice place that was quiet where we could actually have conversation during dinner. Besides, how can you go wrong at a place called "Fat City"? Doug and I had beers while Shawn maintained a designated driver status;-)

When Zach & Georgia showed up the conversation really got going. None of us had seen each other for any time in years. Doug lives out here on the left coast and works with his son & law and daughter at a family chemical business, Zach is a U2 pilot/officer in the Air Force. Georgia is  originally from Brazil studying mechanical engineering and Shawn and I were doing an Amtrak Rail Pass trip. You can bet there was no shortage of conversation topics!

We didn't stay out too late cause some had to work the following day and some of us had laundry to do before catching the next train. We all said our good byes and doug dropped us off at our AirBNB.