#2--Amtrak Journey Through the West--September, 2008

Amtrak Journey Through the West--Part 1

To Chicago and Boarding the Empire Builder TrainThursday, September 4, 2008

Our much anticipated trip has begun! As we write this evening, we are on the first leg of our three week adventure to the great American West. We departed on the Empire Builder train from Chicago’s Union Station exactly on time at 2:15 this afternoon.

We had driven to Bonnie and Dug’s home in Chicago yesterday, Wednesday, where we had a brief evening of quality time with the family.







After presenting us with a card he had made for our anniversary and Dick’s retirement, seven year old Dugan shared some of his second grade math homework and demonstrated his reading skills. Five year old Sage decorated an extremely creative card for us and told us about how great it is to be in kindergarten (one of the “big” kids) in her 3-4-5 year old Montessori class at school.



Dug was on a one week break from an assignment with National Geographic and helped us tremendously to learn to use the new laptop computer we had bought especially for our trip. He also loaded over 100 songs on an iPod we are using for the first time, also for our long train journey. Bonnie also gave us helpful suggestions about using our laptop and showed us new ideas for our blog.

Things have certainly advanced since our last train trip in the States 37 years ago when we went to Arizona with four year old Bonnie!

We didn’t know how it would be on Amtrak in 2008, so we thought we would list our first impressions.

---Checking in luggage as we entered the Union Station in Chicago was much easier than at any airport, and we didn’t have to pay a surcharge!

---On the train coaches there is double the leg room of that on a plane, and the seats are much larger as well. There are even leg rests and foot rests for each seat! The center aisle is also twice the width of that on a plane--quite easy to navigate!

---All of the coach cars are modern double deck cars with expansive viewing where we are experiencing an amazingly smooth ride.





---In the “Sightseer Lounge” where we are spending most of our time, there are both tables and separate seats which face the picture windows on either side. We are using one of those tables while we write our blog. Curved windows above the others give a sweeping view of scenes above.

---Two National Park Service volunteers with the Trails and Rails seasonal program spent several hours in the lounge car explaining what we were seeing as we traveled along.

--Our first dinner in the picturesque dining car was not only an enjoyable experience, sharing our table with two women we met for the first time, but we thought the food was reasonable and delicious as well.

We were able to get seats across the aisle from each other in the coach assigned to us so that we will have more room for sleeping during our first night on board. That will be another new experience! After a night's sleep, we will be ready to resume where we are leaving off on the first of these reports.