Amtrak to Denver

 Amtrak to Denver

Surprise, when it come to travel, is seldom a welcome thing. I was surprised when I arrived at the Amtrak station in Salt Lake that they didn’t have an actual building for me to wait in. Instead, the porter met me on the tracks and scanned my QR code. Since this was the first time that I had paid for a compartment, I was a little nervous when I asked about the accommodations. The purser said that I was in cabin 5, and when I asked for a key to my berth, he said that there wasn’t a key, so I had to keep watch on my valuables whenever I left the cabin. The third surprise, after no train station and no locked cabin, was how small my berth was. When I opened the cabin door all I saw was wall to wall bed with no room for anything else. Literally, if I wanted to put on my shoes, I had to open the cabin door to give me enough room to put my shoes on.

Still, for me, trying to find a refuge on Thanksgiving, the accommodations were perfect. My day on the California Zephyr was filled with naps, reading, and looking out the window so that I could enjoy the gorgeous scenery all day. The train slowed as we climbed the mountains and, as I laid on my back to watch the landscape roll by, my mind’s eye drifted back to when I would ride in the back of the station wagon as we drove to Minneapolis and Vermont when I was a kid. The drone of the train riding on the rails made the memories from my childhood flood my brain. For awhile, I wasn’t a sixty year old man reclining on a bed; I was a five year old Jeff who was whiling away the hours by watching the glorious Rocky Mountains and the sparkling water of the Colorado River

Amtrak is perfect for introverts because there is very little interaction between you and the other passengers. The only time when I left my compartment was to go to the bathroom or get something to eat. My berth felt like a retreat, similar to my cabin on a cruise ship or the little bedroom that I had at the Gethsemani Abbey in Bardstown. The train accommodated me well because it forced me to slow down, and yet, I was in perpetual motion. It felt like I was accomplishing something even while I barely moved during large parts of the day. Frankly, I was in heaven, and since my parents have passed and I don’t have much in the way of family obligations for the holidays, I am already planning my Thanksgiving Amtrak vacation for next year.

Before I took the train I had to fly into Salt Lake City. I arrived at 10:30 in the morning and, since my train didn’t leave until 3:30 am the following day, I had some time to kill. I took the light rail from the airport to Temple Square to take a tour of the Mormon’s campus. The tour guides were all young, female, and pretty, and I had the idea that they were used for recruiting purposes. My beautiful two guides showed me the Assembly Hall, the Tabernacle with the silver roof where the choir played, and the temple, which was under reconstruction. The original sandstone base was crumbling and the Mormons were replacing it with granite. The whole campus was impressive but, after a quick tour of the convention center, I was ready to move on. After taking some pictures of the capitol, I walked to my hotel and went to bed early so that I could meet my train.

After I took the train to Denver, I spent all day on Friday taking a bus tour of the local attractions. We drove to the Garden of the Gods, which held some unusual rock formations, and I hiked around the area for awhile. Our lunch break was at Manitou Springs, an old hippy enclave which has morphed into a tourist trap, but since I don’t like shopping I just walked around the town for awhile. Finally, we drove up Pike’s Peak and enjoyed the views of the surrounding countryside.

This wasn’t a trip for everyone. I was constantly moving, ate on the fly, and barely talked to anyone. On Saturday, for example, I was out of the hotel at 6:00 am so that I could take a solo walking tour of Denver for four and a half hours. The sun was just coming up when I made my way down the 16th Street Mall and I took a lot of pictures of the Christmas decorations while the lights were still on. The final item on the agenda was to walk around the capital and take some pictures of the interesting buildings. This done, I took the light rail to the airport. It was a whirlwind of a vacation but I am glad that I did it because I have been wanting to go to Denver for a long time and I will use any excuse that I can get to ride Amtrak.