Home Sweet Home

Writing this from the comfort of my own home where I know I will sleep well tonight.

While waiting in Chicago to board our last train, I found out the the tracks at Donner Pass were closed not long after we went through due to a mud slide.  Whew, that was a close call.  The west-bound California Zephyr ended up being about 12 hours late as a result of the mudslide.

They called us to board and we pulled out of Chicago right on time.  Unfortunately, our almost perfect on time performance took a bit of a nose dive on this last leg of the journey as we were not twenty minutes out of Chicago when they put us in a siding and we sat there for an hour and a half while five freight trains went through.  You see, Amtrak does not own most of the tracks it travels on, but rather the freight companies do and they are supposed to give priority to Amtrak but sometimes they do not.  We never made up this time and ended up pulling into Staunton more than two hours late.  The Cardinal is probably my least favorite train because it is smaller and does not have a full diner nor a sightseer lounge car.  The tracks it travels on are extremely rough, too.  The scenery through West Virginia is very pretty, though.

As we pulled into Staunton, several police officers were there to meet the train and escorted a woman off the train.  She was in coach, so I don't know what her offence was, but it was obviously serious enough to get kicked off the train.  We had to have some drama on this trip, after all, though no where near my trip last summer.

All in all it was a great trip.  Now, where do I want to go next . . . . . .

Pictures are here if you would like to view https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.3213484589157.139415.1627562189&type=1&aft=3213691514330&l=141f6ad3b5