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| Unexpected Snow in Fraser/Winter Park CO |
Three Days Traveling on Amtrak's California Zephyr Chicago, Denver, Utah, Nevada and California to Emeryville(San Francisco)
Another great three days traveling on Amtrak from Chicago to Emeryville, CA. As you can see from the photo above, I was surprised by snow in the Winter Park area in Colorado just as we climbed up into the Rocky Mountains and we passed through Moffatt Tunnel under the Continental Divide. While the snow was a surprise in early October, it was greeted with glee by most of the passengers. After we passed Grandby, CO, the snow gave way to sunny and dry conditions in western Colorado, Utah, and Nevada. Even the Truckee, CA, and Sierras were snow free. Thankfully for this cold natured guy, it is warm and sunny in California - in the high 80's.
The train ride was good and I met several couples traveling. Across the aisle in my neighbor roomette was couple from Wisconsin. That is them in one of the photos below. Another couple I met and shared a meal in the dining car was from Michigan. Every trip I take is a new adventure and I enjoy meeting lots of different people from all over the world. One of my dining mates was from New Zealand and I met another from Sweden on this trip. And, yes, I do share my personal Christian testimony and love for working with youth and children in Sunday School.
There was one minor problem on this trip and seemed pretty major during the last night in the sleeping car. Apparently, Amtrak maintenance did not realize that we would pass through the snow and even through Utah and Nevada last night the outside temperature was near or just around freezing. It was actually 38 degrees when we stopped in Reno this morning around 8:30 am. Our sleeping car had NO HEAT and the cool air conditioning was going full force. It was probably one of the coldest nights I have ever tried sleeping. The blanket provided was inadequate for the job so I ended up sleeping with my jacket with hoody my nephew Mark gave me last Spring while visiting them in Shreveport, LA. So, Mark, I continue to advertise and promote Owen Engineering while traveling.
All is well though now and I'll look forward to the "hot" California weather. I'm headed back a couple hours to Sacramento tomorrow to visit the California State Railroad Museum in Ole Sacramento right adjacent to the Amtrak station.
Here are several photos following my journey on the California Zephyr in sequence as the trip progressed. No "captions" so enjoy.
So here I am in Emeryville. My room actually overlooks the scene in the last photo above. I'll post another update tomorrow night. Sunday will be day of rest and worship via the internet services of FBC Nashville and FHBC Nashville. Monday will be a day of travel on the Coast Starlight from here to Los Angeles and then by bus to the LAX airport area and my hotel. That will be a late night arrival for you folks back in the central and eastern time zones so I'll plan to do an update on Tuesday since I will be relaxing and waiting until Wednesday morning to fly home to Nashville.
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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