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| Me(Reagan) in St. Louis Union Station Hotel Lobby |
St. Louis and Amtrak's Missouri River Runner
May 10-13, 2017, I made a short trip to St. Louis, MO, flying Southwest Airlines from Nashville to St. Louis and return. My purpose was to ride Amtrak's Missouri River Runner from St. Louis to Kansas City and return all in one day Thursday, May 11. Departed St Louis 9 AM and after spending about an hour inside Kansas City's Union Station, I returned on the same train equipment to St. Louis arriving 9:30 PM that evening. Was a relaxing and enjoyable trip even if it was sorta rainy and gloomy outside the train car's very dirty windows.
Friday was spent visiting the St. Louis riverfront and the Arch area. Even found an Ole Spaghetti Factory for lunch. Yum, I love spaghetti with meat sauce.
I stayed at the Union Station Hotel affiliated with Hilton Hotels. In that area are some old railroad passenger cars I enjoyed walking around and viewing.
I've uploaded one gallery of photos to my Railtrips 2017 Folder in Reagan's Photo Galleries. You can visit the gallery by clicking the gallery title here:
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| Mural Inside Kansas City Union Station |
Well, I'm home for three weeks until I depart for my June 2017 Amtrak trip visiting New Orleans and Portland, OR.
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Future 2017 Travel Plans
My future 2017 travel plans continue my Amtrak adventures. I've now added a visit with friends in Albuquerque in October to experience the balloon fest.
June 4-20 Amtrak Summer 2017 Amtrak Adventure -- I'm returning to two of my favorite cities while riding five Amtrak trains on this trip. I will fly to New Orleans June 4 staying three nights. Then I will depart New Orleans on Amtrak's Sunset Limited through Houston, TX; El Paso, TX; and Tucson, AZ, to Los Angeles where I will transfer to Amtrak's Coast Starlight through Oakland, CA; Klamath Falls, OR; and Eugene, OR, to Portland, OR, where I will spend four nights visiting this naturally beautiful city and surrounding area. In 1966, I spent three months in Oregon while in training to be an auditor for the now Federal Highway Administration during the building of the Interstate Highway System. Incidentally, that is how I ended up living my entire adult life in Nashville, TN, to which I was permanently assigned after completing my training. June 14 I will travel via Amtrak's Cascades train from Portland to Seattle, WA, to transfer to Amtrak's Empire Builder Seattle to Chicago via Spokane, WA; Whitefish, MT; Glacier Mountains National Park; Havre, MT; Minot, ND; and St Paul/Minneapolis, MN. I will be connecting June 16 in Chicago to Amtrak's City of New Orleans for an overnight trip to New Orleans via Memphis, TN, and Jackson, MS. After three nights in New Orleans I will fly home from New Orleans to Nashville on June 20.
October 4-14 Albuquerque Balloon Fest and Las Vegas -- Will fly American Airlines to Chicago October 4 in the morning and board Amtrak's Southwest Chief that afternoon 3 PM. The Southwest Chief will arrive afternoon of October 5. My friends, the Andersons, will pick me up and deliver me to my hotel for five nights. While in Albuquerque, the Andersons will be my host and together we will take in all the balloon fest activities and experience my first time staying in Albuquerque. One of the must do activities will be to ride the commuter train the Railrunner from downtown Albuquerque to Santa Fe and return. By the way, I met the Andersons while riding the Durango and Silverton Railroad on my 2012 Colorado Road Trip. At the time they were living in their RV but now have a one bedroom apartment in Albuquerque.
After five nights in Albuquerque, I will fly Southwest Airlines to Las Vegas and four nights at Caesar's Palace. It's been a while since I last visited so I have already purchased my front row seat to see Cirque Du Soleil's "O' at the Bellagio. I'll fly American Airlines home to Nashville Saturday October 14.
Family Time - In July and August I will be traveling some to be with family for great niece Cheri's Louisiana wedding and then to east Tennessee to attend my great niece Kellie's "white coat" ceremony as she begins pharmacy school at East Tennessee State University. I'll also use that travel to visit with family and friends in North Louisiana and the Dallas, TX, area. I'm not planning to do blog updates during those trips.
You can click on any of the small photos in this blog to open a full size photo.
All my photos are available to view on Reagan's Photo Galleries website.
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