The past couple days have certainly been fun and interesting. Tracey & I left home Friday morning at 5:30. We wanted to get to the train station early enough to get a parking space. Once we got there we traded our 9:20 departure for an earlier train. The ride to Chicago was on time. The California Zephyr doesn’t leave Chicago until 2 p.m. so we had a bit more than a four hour wait at the station. What a madhouse! We ate some burgers and fries, then sat in a hot, humid waiting area for over 2 hours before we found out we could have been sitting in a nice air conditioned first class lounge with free soda, juice and coffee. They really don’t tell you these things so the first lesson is ... ASK!
We got an upper room on a sleeper car and lugged all our luggage, camera, computer, etc. up there and then down the narrowest aisles I have ever walked. I was not at all happy with how small our room was at first, but after we got settled in it wasn’t too bad. They could certainly put more padding in the seat. There are two seats facing each other with a fold down table between them. The seats fold into a bed and there is a bunk bed above. It took some synchronized moving to do anything but we managed. I can’t even imagine how they live on the space station where it is even more tight for room.
We ate dinner in the dining car and had to sit with two strangers. It wasn’t too bad but I wasn’t crazy about how they handled the reservations. The meal was fairly good and was included with our passage. We were back to our snug little room in less than an hour. It takes some practice to walk with the swaying and bumping of the train so we didn’t take too many trips except to get drinks or go to the restroom.
We were in Iowa when it got too dark to see anything so we went to bed. It was not easy to sleep with all the bouncing and jouncing either but we managed to get some rest. We were in eastern Colorado when we got up Saturday morning. We found out we could have meals in our room so we had the car steward, Reggie, get our breakfast and ate in privacy. Glad we asked! There was a brief stop in Denver and then we headed west into the mountains. It was really neat to see the Moffatt pass area from the train. We were on the wrong side of the train to see the buildings and road we used to see when we drove up but we could see where they were on the other side. It took almost 10 minutes of total pitch black to get through the six mile tunnel. I tried not to think about being in the middle of a mountain!
We followed the Colorado river most of the way along the west side of the Rockies and discovered what must be something of a tradition. There were people riding rafts all along the way and often they would wave and MOON us! “M-O-O-N” ... that spells drop your drawers, bend over and show the train people your butt! Tracey wasn’t quick enough to get them all but we have a few photos of this greeting.
We were only an hour late in getting to Grand Junction and made it to our hotel without too much trouble. After supper Tracey soaked in the shower forever and I started messing with this blog, but I soon ran out of steam and went to bed.
Some women are gathered and the subject of conversation turns to sex and then birth control. The first woman says “We’re Catholic so we can’t use it.”
The next woman says “I am too but we use the rhythm method.”
The third woman says “We use the bucket and saucer method.”
“What the heck is the bucket and saucer method?”, the others ask.
“Well, I’m five foot eleven... and my husband is five foot two. We make love standing up with him standing on a bucket, and when his eyes get big as saucers I kick the bucket out from under him.”
About
Border Disorder
We followed the Colorado river most of the way along the west side of the Rockies and discovered what must be something of a tradition. There were people riding rafts all along the way and often they would wave and MOON us! “M-O-O-N” ... that spells drop your drawers, bend over and show the train people your butt! Tracey wasn’t quick enough to get them all but we have a few photos of this greeting.
