Yellowstone 8/7/18 (Amtrak to Denver)

We are on our way....heading west for our Interlude tour that starts in Salt Lake City and ends in Rapid City.  During the organized portion of the trip we will visit Yellowstone, the Grand Tetons and Mt Rushmore.  We have added a few days both before and after the tour to make our trip unique to us.

We left Home in Indy around 10:15am and started west for Galesburg, IL where we will board Amtrak’si California Zephyr.  Arriving around 2pm central time, we found parking and located the Enterprise rental office where we will return a car two weeks from today.  It happens to be within 50 yards of our parking spot.  Parking is free at the Galesburg Amtrak Station, making it a preferred starting point for westbound trains for us.

We had a couple of hours before boarding, so we had a snack at local pub, the Sidetrax Bar & Grill and made our way back to the car to gather our luggage and await the train.  Boarding the train about 15 minutes behind schedule, we settled in Roomette 3 in Car 531.  David, our train attendant, informed us that we had a 6:45 pm dinner reservation in the dining car.  We let him know that we would getting off in Denver rather than Salt Lake City as our tickets indicated.  Since we have no luggage in the baggage car, he said it would not be a problem.

We changed our original plans to take the train all the way to Salt Lake City after monitoring arrival data for the last month or so...Scheduled to arrive around 11:30pm local time, the Zephyr has been averaging almost 2 hours late each day. We can drive from Denver to Salt Lake City in less time and fit in a visit to an additional national park on the way.

Dinner was typical Amtrak with shared tables in the dining car.  We were joined by a young Asian couple that spoke mostly in their native language and did not engage with us at all.  However, between the smartphone photos of every dish and the Go-Pro videos, they will remember every bite!   I never thought I would long for the Asian traveler with a 35mm camera.

Dinner itself was quite good.  The quality of Amtrak’s food surpasses some cruise line food I have had.  They try to serve some regional dishes and since the train started in Chicago, my steak was a great quality, even though a little over cooked.  Mary enjoyed the butternut squash risotto with chicken. The staff gladly wrapped up a couple of cheesecakes for us to enjoy in our room a little later.

David made up our beds around 9:30pm.  We enjoyed a before bed after dinner drink with our desserts as we passed from Iowa into Nebraska, inflated our sleeping pads (we travel with these as old hips do not appreciate the firmness of an Amtrak mattress), and tucked ourselves in for the night!


Tomorrow...Denver to Salt Lake City and Dinosaur National Monument.

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