The California Zephyr

Thus far we had travelled by plane, car, ferry, horse and bicycle. In the spirit of a true Grand Tour we took a train from San Francisco to Chicago. The route is known as the California Zephyr, and it's one of the most scenic in the country. It's also the longest - we were on board for fifty-five hours from 0900 Sunday to 1600 Tuesday. After considering this length of time in light of the fifty-odd hours it took us to get from Perth to Boston, we booked a 'roomette' in a sleeper car, the equivalent of a business class ticket on a plane.

Daniel and his beloved Poisian

Two large and comfortable chairs faced each other with a retractable table in between. At night, the chairs would slide flat to make a bed and a second pulled down from the roof. All in all it was very comfortable (at least for Daniel, who took the much roomier bottom bunk), and quieter and more scenic than a plane. Between books, the laptop and a cross-stitch kit I picked up in Monument Valley, boredom was not an issue, and that's to say nothing of the scenery. Over the three days we passed through the deserts of Arizona and Utah (near the La Sal Mountains where we'd been a couple of weeks previously), the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains.

The most bewildering sight of our journey was a deer, or at least a deer head sticking out above a frozen river. Behind it, leading from the bank, was the partly refrozen path it had taken up to that point. It seems the water was so cold the poor deer only made it halfway across. It'll have to wait until spring to get to the other side...



All our meals were included and taken in a communal dining car. Over some six or seven sittings we encountered some lovely people, and a number of geologists. Actually, we met three different geologists over three meals - it makes sense, I suppose, given the train route. It was nice to have some varied company - Daniel and I are getting quite sick of sitting down for dinner, looking at each other and asking "whats new?" Not much.