Now British Rail may have its problems, but Amtrak is something special, arriving at Denver from San Francisco just over an hour late, that could be improved on surely.
We boarded the train and found our roomette, #4. Not that we want to be cruel but we were carriage neighbours with an unbelievably large man... seriously, he had man boobs on his man boobs!!!! he continuously talked to himself and cursed the inefficiency of the trains... mostly blaming Jesus?
After a pretty disappointing dinner in the dining car, albeit with pleasant company at our table we returned to our room to find our beds made up. our neighbour had gone to his bed, we decided to do the same. Kate took the bottom bunk because she's not a child... and Chris the top because it had a funny, and entirely pointless, safety harness... and because he is a child... and because with the bottom bunk taken the only other option was the top.......that seems like enough reasons, right???
Upon turning out the lights we noticed that the Colorado plains, which we were now crossing were being completely lit up by an almighty thunder storm, the sight of lightening illuminating the hundreds of miles of surrounding countryside was just awesome.... no picture though... sorry folks. the gentle feeling of being rocked to sleep by the train was very peaceful, although made all the more strange by the fact that it felt as though the train was travelling in the opposite direction??? weird.
The next morning we awoke to find ourselves stopped in Omaha, Nebraska not far from the state boundary with Iowa. This truly is beautiful country, with its quaint little towns with their paved roads just ending or becoming dirt tracks as streets ran down to the railway line, and the open countryside disturbed only by the occasional farmstead; really apart from the cars you could not be blamed for mistaking it for the 1940's.
As we crossed Iowa moving closer and closer to the Illinois state boundary some pretty heavy rainstorms rolled in,
it was quite eerie to see the whole world disappearing into the mists. in between these storms we reached the Illinois border, marked by the mighty Mississippi River.
As we crossed it we became all to aware just how thin our train track was...don't want to look down!
The weather had begun to clear as we pulled into our destination, once again named Union Station, however not in Denver, Colorado; this time in Chicago, Illinois. We were 3 hours late...yes that 1 hour delay....increased!! We transferred to our hotel the Hampton Inn Majestic in the Theatre District of Chicago....very nice!! This was a brief 5 minute transfer.. and what a relief, however just as we pulled in the heavens opened once again...urrr...the paper promises better tomorrow....figures crossed!!
The mini adventure of Mongo and The Boy,
Written and experienced by
Kate 'bottom bunk' Davies
and
Chris 'safety harness, so you don't hurt yourself' Davies
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