The Great(ish) Amtrak Journey: Part 2

I've returned! My trip to Colorado went very well, but before posting about all of that, I figured I'd finish up my Amtrak story.

The rest of my trip to Colorado was pretty uneventful. After the sun set, there weren't many things to look at, so I watched more TV on my iPad Mini and slept off and on. We did go by a herd of elk at one point, though, and that was pretty cool. I attempted to get a picture, but the lack of sunlight made it a little difficult.

On the way back, I was planning on leaving from Glenwood Springs since I'd be coming from Aspen (Glenwood Springs is where the state highway leading to Aspen connects to I-70), but that ended up changing when I was offered the chance to go to a Denver Nuggets game with my friend Margaux! More on that in my post to come about the non-train portions of the trip.

Anyways, I ended up leaving from Denver. Their station is a bit bigger than Salt Lake's, but in need of some updating. There's construction all around the area, so it looks like that may be happening. I managed to snag yet another bulkhead seat (upon reading about train seating, apparently bulkheads aren't as highly valued as I thought, but they do indeed have more legroom and you always have a full window!) and promptly set it up as my home for the next fifteen hours.

Again, I got two seats to myself for the full duration of the trip. This trip made me very grateful for my height, as I was able to perfectly curl up into a ball on the two seats with the leg rests propped out. I wish I had remembered a pillow, though, although having two blankets made that a little better.

The highlight of this train trip was going through the canyons of western Colorado during sunset. The red rocks looked absolutely stunning in light! So, me being me, I snapped about half a million photos.

All of Colorado was very beautiful. There wasn't much snow, which was a bit surprising for this time of year, but it was still great to see. I highly recommend a trip on the California Zephyr if you're interested in the scenic route between Salt Lake and Denver! And now, I leave you with some Instagram photos...

Lone truck in western Colorado

Glenwood Springs

Colorado River in the mountains

Not Your Average Thanksgiving

This year, my Thanksgiving is not going to be like it usually is.

Typically, I have a pretty normal Thanksgiving. I brave the ridiculous airport crowds to fly back to Indianapolis, where I have three Thanksgivings (usually) with about 100ish family members (probably an exaggeration, but oh well). I usually talk my sister or mom into going Black Friday shopping with me (although that was slightly delayed last year by a hangover), even though neither of them really want to.

My Thanksgiving this year starts tonight (technically tomorrow) at 2:30am, when I get to the Amtrak station in Salt Lake City. I'll be taking the California Zephyr train through the mountains to Denver, where I'll be spending two days with my former roommate and dear friend Karen. After two days in Denver, we're driving up to the mountains for the Nature Valley Aspen Winternational, a women's alpine skiing World Cup. After two days there, it's back on the train and back to Utah!

It'll be interesting. I'll definitely miss my normal, chaotic holiday that I love despite its craziness. I'll miss my family and our traditions, both old and new.

But stay tuned for an update on my 15-hour train trip and the ensuing Colorado adventure!