Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Amtrak's California Zephyr January 2015 - Iowa, Illinois, and on to New Orleans on Amtrak's City of New Orleans

Station Stop Burlington, Iowa, before crossing Mississippi River


and


Introducing the last two photo galleries of my January 2015 Amtrak Winter Trip.  After departing Denver I slept as the Zephyr passed through Nebraska and Western Iowa.  Saturday(Jan 24) the Zephyr stopped in Ottumwa and Burlington in Iowa for fresh air breaks as we arrived ahead of schedule in every station and could not leave until the scheduled departure time.  Burlington was our last fresh air break of the journey.  After crossing the Mississippi River departing Burlington, we entered Illinois and all the station stops in Illinois were for unloading passengers only.  So the Zephyr can depart ahead of schedule all the way into Chicago's Union Station were we arrived 45 minutes early.

Click HERE to see a video of my actual train passing through Agency, Iowa.


Amtrak's California Zephyr Engine 202 parked in Chicago's Union Station

On arrival I checked into the Metropolitan Lounge in Chicago's Union Station to wait until boarding Amtrak's City of New Orleans which departed Saturday(Jan 24) night at 8 PM.  The Metropolitan Lounge is a lounge for sleeping car passengers.  The lounge holds your luggage and provide snacks and beverages and clean rest rooms.  All sleeping car passengers board the departing trains from this lounge direct to the waiting trains before coach passengers are boarded from the regular station waiting areas.

Chicago Union Station's Metropolitan Lounge for Sleeping Car Passengers
After checking into the Metropolitan Lounge I did take a short walk in "cold" and "windy" Chicago to the nearby CVS pharmacy to pick up a few items.  Not really enjoying the outdoors in Chicago, I returned to the Lounge and read on my Nook Samsung E-reader, checked my email, and text-ed my sister Pat in Louisiana.  I also added a new blog post dated January 24.  We boarded Amtrak's City of New Orleans and departed on time.  After eating dinner in the dining car, I retired to my bedroom and slept through the night.  The City was stopped in Memphis, TN, when I awoke.  I took a couple photos of the sunrise from my room, got dressed and headed to the dining car for breakfast.

Sunrise in Memphis, TN
Even riding the train, Sunday(Jan 25) was a lazy day with two fresh air breaks in Greenwood, MS, and Jackson, MS, plus following some very slow(20 mph) Canadian National freight trains.  Yes, Canadian National now owns the former Illinois Central rail track the City of New Orleans travels on.  While stopped in Greenwood, MS, I text-ed my great niece Kellie "hi" since we were near Mississippi State University where she is a student.

Amtrak's City of New Orleans at Greenwood, MS

Slowly but surely the City made it to my home State of Louisiana passing by the western shores of Lake Pontchartrain arriving in New Orleans only 30 minutes late.

Typical Louisiana Water Side Sight 

If you look close you'll see the New Orleans skyline

Sharing a ride to the hotel in a cab with a couple from Great Britain, I quickly checked in and was rewarded with a view from my hotel room of this cruise ship departing.

View from My Hilton Riverside Hotel Room

My stay in New Orleans was short and knowing that I will return for a week later in May, I stayed mostly in my room and the River Walk shopping mall and food court attached to the Hilton Riverside Hotel.  The only photos I took were views from my room overlooking the Mississippi River.  In additon to this photo gallery New Orleans, you may like to see the photos from my trip to New Orleans in August 2014 in these two galleries - New Orleans: Five Days in Big Easy and National World War II Museum in New Orleans.

Friends, I hope you enjoyed these blog posts covering my January 2015 Winter Rail Trip.  This post completes the coverage of all my photo galleries from this trip.  My next travel is March 11-26 when I return to my favorite travel destination HAWAII.  So if you have not signed up for blog posts to your email, I hope you will.





You can click on any of the small photos in this blog to open a full size photo. Also click on the  highlighted gallery title above to open this photo gallery. Also, click on the "blog title" at the top to view this blog on the web.

All my photos are available to view on Reagan's Photo Galleries website.

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