What's dirty, hot, late, inanely chatty yet incredibly beautiful?

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The California Zephyr train from Denver to Emeryville, CA that's what!!!!!  We had high expectations and romanticized visions of taking the 33 hour train through the Rockies!  While the view definitely was spectacular, the train accommodations left something to be desired.  We decided to chance coach seating and not upgrade to a roomette, which was a big mistake.  Our train car's air conditioning was broken and it was incredibly hot and stuffy especially crossing the desert like 100 degree conditions.  The floors and bathrooms were dirty.  There was a sick lady right in front of us that coughed every few minutes.  When she wasn't hacking up her lung she was chatting non-stop to her seat mate who encouraged her to take off her improperly worn face mask (which she did).  We wore our face mask to avoid the germs which made it even hotter for us.  Luckily we brought most of our own food, because the cafe had limited options.  Unfortunately the dining room which had more choices was open only to roomette travelers and not coach.  The train left Denver 2 hours late and it continued to get worse as the trip wore on.  We were so happy to arrive in Emeryville after 40 hours - 7 more hours than expected.  We walked as quickly as our tired bodies allowed to our hotel, took a long hot shower, and fell into a deep sleep on the oh so comfy bed!  Our lesson learned, take short Amtrak trips or spring for the roomette on longer trips.  By the way, the Acela train trips to DC, Boston, NY, and Philly were so much nicer!

Here are some pictures of the Rockies, the Sierra Nevada's, and countryside in between.  No comments - we'll let the pictures speak for themselves!!!






There were many rafters - some who mooned us.  Guess it's a tradition to do this when the train passes.  No photos - we were too busy gawking!











This the lake where the Donner party got stuck for the winter of 1846/47 and we all know what happened then.
Here is the aftermath of a forest fire.  Some ponderosa pines have bark that is 3-4 inches thick to survive the intense flames.
Emeryville, CA stop just outside San Francisco - this is as close as we got to the Golden Gate bridge.

We completed our next overnight Amtrak ride - Klamath Falls, OR.  It wasn't as bad as the first one. We will post pictures of our stay soon.

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