We woke up early for our driver to take us to the Grand Rapids train station. The train was waiting as we pulled up to the curb. We grabbed our luggage and walked right on. The train departed right at 5:00 am. This train is a bit different than what we’ve seen previously… there aren’t any double-decker cars like usual.
Its a pretty easy ride down to Chicago. Both of us took a short nap to pass the time. We arrived at Union Station a little after 9:00 Central Time. We found the Metropolitan Lounge and checked in to store our bags. Our next train doesn’t leave until 2:00 pm so we had ideas to go find a coffee and snack since neither of us had much for breakfast. However, when we checked in, the attendant told us that there was a change needed in our reservation.
Apparently there was a large snow storm over the Sierra Mountains, dropping almost 4’ of snow in just 2 days. Two Amtrak trains had gotten stuck and needed to back out of the mountains leaving over 300 passengers stuck. So, until further notice, Amtrak will not proceed past Salt Lake City, UT. The only option that Amtrak had was to put us on their northern route to Washington and then take a second train down the west coast. We decided to think it over while we looked for some food.
A short walk across the street to Dunkin’ Donuts and then a search for a Starbucks is all we needed to decide.
Honestly we considered longer train trip but it was 4-nights in total and would leave us no time in San Francisco. Ultimately we decided that wouldn’t work for us and instead I looked for a hotel in Salt Lake City for Monday night and a flight to San Francisco on Tuesday morning. We found a great nonstop option for a reasonable price and it actually will get us into our final destination 4 hours earlier than we had planned with Amtrak.
We spent the remainder of our time in the lounge, watching shows, and grabbing some lunch. Then it was time to board.
We met Robert our conductor and got settled into our room. Its tight but it will definitely work!
We pulled out right on time and it wasn’t long before we were ready to explore… so we headed upstairs and toward the back of the train to see the dining car, the cafe, and the observation car. After getting our bearings, we headed back to our room to enjoy the views.
We opted for the earlier dinner seating. Both of us enjoyed the steak dinner with potatoes and green beans and a chocolate mouse cake. Very good! We ate with another mother/son who were traveling cross country on the train. It was fun to hear them interact and was a bit bittersweet for this mama remembering those earlier days.
We called Robert after dinner and asked him to help us turn down our bunks. We wanted to settle in and watch a movie. Its been a long day and although the time is changing as we proceed west, our bodies are not adjusted yet.
We made it through Iowa before I fell asleep. Unfortunately I think we’ll miss most of the state because we’ll likely wake up in Denver, CO.
