Day 10
I was awake to watch the sunrise at 4:30am, and then people-watched as they began to stir. People watching on a train can be very interesting. Train life lends itself to both intro and extraverts. The more sanguine among us thrive on a train. You can spend days and never have to talk to anyone other than the person sitting next to you if you wanted. If you spend a little more money and you could have a sleeper car all to yourself even. If you like meeting and chatting with new people, than the train is a great place to do that too. There are pods of activity all over the train, ranging from the Observation Car, to sections of the passenger cars where a more verbose individual have drawn people into sustained interactions. While I’m more of the introvert type, its safe to say that I enjoy train travel. 
Colorado had replaced Nebraska in the middle of the night, and we pulled into Denver only an hour behind schedule. I tried to get a cup of hot water going with my heating coil, but the bathroom outlets don’t seem to work. Trying to use it at my seat isn’t effective for two reasons. The heating coil’s cord isn’t long enough for me to lean over a sleeping Ally to get to the outlet at my seat. The second reason is train travel isn’t steady, and I don’t relish spilling hot water all over my lap while I try holding a hot coil of metal and a blue plastic cup. I settled for water and got out an apple and a pop-tart for breakfast.
We spend the day playing on our devices, reading, or napping. The scenery is absolutely breathtaking on the California Zephyr, especially as you head up into the Rockies. The mountains didn’t turn out to be pointed and snow-covered as I expected. The conductor would occasionally give an announcement, pointing out an area of interest. One of these was for when we pulled over to let the Eastbound Zephyr go by us. I recognized the rest area across the river from us even before the conductor told us its was the No Name rest area on I-70. Shar and I had stopped there on our way back from Denver on one of our first road trips together. 
We had been following the Colorado River for awhile. It was a beautiful day to be on the river, and it was covered with rafters of all types. The conductor had warned us that one of the traditions is that some of the rafters show flash certain parts of their anatomy towards the train. I heard someone behind me comment that the call that section of the Colorado “Moon River” because of this activity. Over the next three hours we were treated to several examples as we passed groups of rafters. I added Raft the Colorado on my list of to do’s, though I’ll probably skip mooning the Amtrak train. I think it would be fun to raft and camp your way down over several days.
Mountains and river canyons were replaced by the beautiful deserts of Utah. We were about three hours south of Salt Lake City, when the train coasted to a stop and our outlet stopped charging our phones. The electrical power had got out on the train and they had to restart the motor. One of the nearby passengers started talking worse case scenario, asking how we got the windows open, but we sat for maybe five minutes before the power came back on and we were rolling down the tracks.
As the sun faded from the sky I worked on the rough drafts of the blog and thought about what I was going to snack on for dinner before our last night on the train.
Day 11
It was the last day on the train and after a total of four nights I did finally find a sleeping position that resulted in nearly four hours of solid sleep. I don’t mind being up early on a train, and in this case it was 4:00am. There is a pleasant, comfortable feeling sitting in the dimly lit car, people are quietly moving about, and a couple whispering conversations drifting down the seats. The night before I had given my feet and Keen sandals a good washing using baby wipes, then had put on a pair of short socks before going to sleep. So I slipped my sandals back on, did a quick restroom walk, and started working on the blogs. I turned my laptop’s brightness turned nearly down to zero so as to not disturb Ally or anyone else who may be trying to sleep. It wasn’t long until my belly reminded me it hadn’t eaten in awhile. I quietly got the Food Duffle down and dug out an apple, some jerky, and a pop-tart. It was the last apple, a red delicious from the hotel in Ashland, KY. And still quite crunchy. I had the thought treating Ally to lunch on the train, celebrating our epic journey’s completion, and one of our last meals on the train.
The sky was just starting to get light while I munched on my apple. It was going to be a great last day on the train. I had woken up in Nevada, east of Reno, and the desert stretched to the horizon in both directions. I had finished and was up to day on my blogging by the time the sun fully in the sky, but the scenery hadn’t changed much. We had begun to climb steadily, and were overlooking Lake Tahoe with the steep hills around us covered by jack pine trees.
The rest of the train trip went quickly as we watched California zip past us. The conductor must have put the hammer down after Reno, because somewhere along the line we gained back half of the time we were behind. We pulled into Martinez, two stops before Emeryville, by 4:15pm, just under forty five minutes behind. Emeryville would have been a longer drive to Concord, where Shar's inlaws, JP, Jolyn and their family live. Shar and I had discussed Martinez being an alternative ending, and I was happy to see her pull up in her sister's van with my bonus niece and nephews happy to see us. It was a beautiful day in the Bay Area, and we had jumped off the train happy to be just thirty minutes from Shar's sister's house and just days from going home.
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This has been a summer to remember, and I have pushed myself in my traveling.
I have flown 1,543 miles by airplane.
I have driven 10,177 miles by car.
I have ridden 4,754 miles by train.
That's 16,474 miles in 41 days and if you were wondering thats over 400 miles A DAY!
I've been to Alaska, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Wisconsin, Kentucky, West Virginia, Michigan, Colorado, Utah, and Nevada before getting back home to the great state of Oregon. That is a total of 29 states in less than two months.
I've slept in the back of a Scion XA in remote places. I've slept in a tent in RV parks and beside reservoirs. I've been a guest in several houses courtesy of AirBnB. I've stayed in big chain hotels and those that are small and family owned. I've tried to sleep on a train.
I've met great people from one end of this country to the other. I've eaten great food from end of this country to the other. I've smiled from one end of this great country to the other. I visited most of the United States of America this summer...
... and I learned that Oregon is the best place to live, especially the south coast of this awesome state!
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