Thursday, October 4, 2012

Nevada: September 30-October 2, 2012. Heading home.

We walked out to do laundry and have breakfast, then returned to the hotel to wait for the shuttle to the airport. We think we have everything covered: Last night I went on the lobby computer and Dianne used the phone as we arranged for FedEx to pick up our bikes and take them home.  We shuttled to the airport where Dianne's cousin Joni picked us up and took us to lunch. Then we took a little side tour of Reno on the way to the train station.


I checked one bag and we entered the nicely restored Reno train station. We were quite early so we played Scrabble until it was time for our train. We were the only passengers waiting for about an hour and then a few people filtered in for our on-time train.


Soon enough the train was here and we boarded.



We had paid extra for a "roomette" which looked substantial in the on-line photo--I wonder what kind of camera they used to take THAT picture? We had 2 facing seats that folded down into a lower berth, and another berth that folded down from the ceiling. We had to stack our luggage on end in the corners, which made it rather difficult to climb to the upper berth.



By the time we'd been on the train a half hour I had spilled my can of mixed nuts all over the floor of our roomette and smashed my finger in the self-closing trash can in the miniscule bathroom.... Gotta get used to these close quarters.  There are advantages to booking the roomette--all meals are included and we have private sleeping quarters. The people trying to sleep in the coach cars did NOT look very comfortable! We found a place to play Scrabble in the glass-domed coach car and ate dinner in the dining car. Life is good!

I did not sleeep well in my upper berth, but then I never sleep well anywhere.... I noticed in my wakefulness that we were moving extremely slowly for a very long time in the middle of the night. I found out in the morning that someone had stolen copper from the communication systems near Salt Lake City and the train had to slow down to a crawl. We lost three hours and became worried that we would miss our next train at Chicago.


We had breakfast in the dining car, and found a place in the coach car to play Scrabble. I really enjoyed the views! Colorado is a beautiful state! I tried taking photos out the window of the train, but there was too much reflection from the windows of the train.


We had dinner in the dining car, more Scrabble, another sleepless night... Tuesday was much the same, but very enjoyable nonetheless. I am trying to choose a train trip that would be suitable for the grandchildren. There were people on this train who were on a day excursion with their children and it inspired me. 

We made it to Chicago's Union Station, a VERY busy place, in plenty of time to claim the luggage and catch our train to Ann Arbor. Bill was there to bring us home; another biking adventure is at an end.

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