Wednesday, November 21, 2012

The Great(ish) Amtrak Journey: Part 1

Greetings from Grand Junction, Colorado!

So far, the Amtrak journey from Salt Lake City to Denver is going well. It started this morning very early (or last night very late depending on how you look at it). I got to the station at 2:30am, mainly because it said online that you had to check bags more than 45 minutes prior to departure (departure time was listed at 3:30am) and I didn't want to lug my massive suitcase around. But, when I went to check in, they said the train would be arriving in ten minutes! 


The train did indeed arrive about ten minutes later, but it took 15-20 minutes for them to unload all of the passengers who were completing their journey at Salt Lake. The train still stayed at the station until about 3:30am, but I was glad to be there earlier so I could get a good seat. And I definitely did! I am in the bulkhead, so I have a TON of room. If you think bulkheads have a lot of legroom on airplanes, just wait til you see it on a train. I have a good foot and a half of space between my feet and the wall and I'm all sprawled out! I read that some people aren't fans of the bulkhead because the doors between train cars can be noisy, but I just popped in my in-ear headphones and played some Mumford and Sons and barely noticed the noise at all. I also had an eye mask (thanks, Gap Outlet clearance sale), so that blocked out any light.

I managed to sleep until about 8am. I didn't have anyone in the seat next to me, so I put both the leg rests all the way up and turned it into a little bed. Fortunately, since I am vertically challenged, that worked out well for me. I slept wonderfully, much to my surprise.

When I woke up, they were serving breakfast in the dining car, but I opted against that and watched some TV on my new iPad Mini. I think I'll go to the dining car for lunch, but right now, I am nice and cozy in my seat.

The desert scenery has been pretty cool...check out some of my Instagram pics below!

Colorado River

Utah desert

Shantytown in the desert

More desert

So that's part one. We'll call it the desert portion. Next up are the mountains...I'm definitely looking forward to the scenery for that part!!

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