If it’s Tuesday this must be Denver.
After the very late boarding of the train in Lincoln, I woke in need of a decent breakfast, and joined the queue of people waiting to be put on a list. It’s amusing to be seated with total strangers, and to compare plans and journeys so far. My breakfast companion was a woman who lived in Glenwood Springs, and had travelled on this train many times. We went for the creole eggs meal, which was tasty, though I wasn’t so keen on the grits.
There was a fair bit of shifting and shuffling at Denver. I learned later that this is a switchover point for the track providers from BNSF to UP. We were still running a couple of hours later, although there is a planned stop of 1 hour here, which was reduced to 15 minutes.
Coming out of the Mile High city, and the scenery really starts to get interesting. To climb up into the mountains, the train takes a number of S bends, and the view back down over Denver was impressive. We then began to travel though a series of tunnels, including the famous 6 mile long Moffat Tunnel, and the views each time we emerged were stunning.
Conversations with fellow passengers centered around the eclipse. For many, it had been their first experience, and I was impressing people with “it’s my 3rd total, plus a failed attempt to see an annular in Iceland” story, until I met someone for whom it was his 15th eclipse. He and his party had been so concerned by the clouds in Nebraska that they’d hired a plane to take them above. And they were already planning the next trip to Chile in 2019. I’m not sure I’ll make that one, though there’s one visible in Spain in 2026 (on Jemima’s birthday!) that might be in my plans.
There’s not too much that a train can do to catch up on lost time. We were growing concerned about making our next stop in Grand Junction. The timetabled arrival was 4.30, and we were due to pick up a hire car. The hire car place closed at 6, and from what I could gather we were running about 2 hours behind schedule. There’s no wifi on the train, and travelling through these remote regions a phone signal is not always guaranteed either. When we did get a signal, we couldn’t work out what the USA access code was. in the end, our wonderful steward Ralph lent us his phone to make the call, and Enterprise GJ were themselves monitoring the eta of the train, which they could see as 5.33. I guess this is a situation they are all too familiar with!
We were met at the station and taken to the Enterprise offices not too far away, and a very smooth and swift handover process followed (complete with the compulsory oh wow, one day I hope to visit Ireland!). I drove to our hotel, the Palamino Motel, where we checked in to a large room complete with fridge. The receptionist recommended the Mexican restaurant a few doors down, and indeed the food was excellent, though far too much. I saved some prawns, rice and avocado for lunch the next day, making use of our room’s refrigerator.
Getting back to the land of wifi, I checked on Facebook, and to my utter devastation learned that Crissy Field parkrun in San Francisco is cancelled this week. Having been planning this whole trip for well over a year, and started a project to spell the word DANCER with my summer holiday parkruns, this was a huge disappointment. But hey, these things happen, and I could still complete my spelling with a bit of rearranging.
Grand Junction is in a very fertile part of Colorado, famous for its fruit (especially peaches) and wine. Our morning plan was to drive around Colorado National monument, which is a stunning scenic drive with lots of views of canyons and gorges and balancing stones.
After a bit of compulsory arguing with the sat nav, we got there, and the radio played Sweet Home Alabama to complete the idyllic picture.
We had our lunch at the Visitor Centre, where I loved seeing the bright blue colours of a pinyin jay.
We left the hire car back in the early afternoon, dropped our bags at the station, and had a little explore of the town centre. It’s definitely got a hippy vibe to it, with lots of street art and interesting shops. We called into a café so I could try some local wine, which I have to say was delicious. I’m not sure if it’s possible to obtain Colorado wine back home, but I’m going to try!
The train was only 20 minutes late today, and around 5 pm we boarded along with about 30 others.
I’d been concerned about the train’s dinner reservations issue, as these are given out before 4 pm each day, but had been assured that our cabin steward would sort us out. I was less than impressed by the dining car staff, who said they’d squeeze us in somewhere, which meant it was 8.45 before they were hustling us into place, clearly while trying to get us out as quickly as they could. We were supposed to get a side salad, which was not offered, and a dessert, which I had to prompt them about. I do apologise to the people we were sharing a table with, for I was not very good company that evening. They’d ordered a baked potato, were served mash instead with no explanation or apology. But we were charmed by John in the Lower Lounge of the sightseer, who was terrific company, and worked out how to make Roger a special vodka diet coke.
Back to my ironing board bed for the last night on board.
Filed under: California Zephyr, Eclipses, Grand Junction, travel | Tagged: California Zephyr, Colorado, Grand Junction | Leave a comment »
Sport 9, whose staff were clearly experiencing a bumper volume of customers, many of whom also wore eclipse T shirts. During a wander around town, I was charmed by the home made signs about the eclipse, and we were greeted warmly.
There was the most beautiful diamond ring, and then a good 2 minutes of corona. The eerie purple-black darkness gave a spooky feel, and I wondered at the cars driving past with their lights on – did they not even have 2 minutes to spare to stop and enjoy this wonder? Well, most of the village was out in the streets enjoying it, and when we repaired to Als on Main for lunch, they had just re-opened after being closed for the event.
Putting together the various components took quite some doing. It began with the segments of the train journey, ensuring we would be in the eclipse zone with time to spare. Then plane journies were added a few days either side of those, and finally hotel accommodation and car hire at key points were reserved.
We stopped at O’Briens for something to eat, and to shelter from the heavy rain storm which came out of nowhere.
After chatting to the Irish staff, they recommended Big Bus tours. We popped into an Irish pub on way home, where there was a pub quiz going on. I winced as I got the bill – the dollar- sterling exchange rate is painful at the moment.
As the at least partial eclipse would be visible right across the states, the whole country was gearing up for it, with special mention at each weather forecast. The Chicago Adler planetarium was giving out free eclipse glasses at the square, but by the time we’d got there they had run out. On the bus tour we stopped at planetarium itself, but the queue for the entrance was rather long, so we just admired the skyline views.
I can’t find a hot dog place I like the look of, so we go for deep pan pizza at Pizzeria Uno. It’s not my favourite, I’m not a huge pizza fan to begin with, but much prefer the thin and crispy style, rather than this overly sweet thick bready base.
Dancing At Lunacy 