Day 1: 2/12.....Leaving

Day 1:  12 February 2015

This morning we finished cleaning the house, doing the last of the errands, and I finally finished packing.  We, actually I, triple checked the trip notebook which has everything from tickets to visas to reservations.   Everything was done.  We were cleaned up ourselves and were ready to go when Ian came to pick us up.

We left for Galesburg too early, but Ian was quite patient with me and we left two hours before train time.  We got to the station an hour before the train, but we did get to see the California Zephyr go out on its way to San Francisco.

After the Zephyr left we went to the station to wait for our train. Our train came in on time.   Ian helped us with the luggage out to the train and our car attendant helped us with the luggage to our room which was upstairs.   Packing the suitcases to stay in our room was a mistake.....room not as large as it looked on website.  However, the room was amazing.  We had a couch that made into a bed...bigger than the usual cot size.  There was also a bunk that lowered from the ceiling.  In addition there was also a chair in the room.  We also had our own bathroom and shower facility.  Pretty amazing!  Granted we paid for the bigger room, but it was worth every penny for the long trip to Los Angeles.

Meals are included with the first class room.  Our meal reservation was for 7:00 pm.   When you eat in the dining car, you get to sit where there is space.   They don't break up couples.   Our first meal was with a young man who told us he was a real estate entrepreneur in Buffalo, NY.  He was traveling with his 14 year old son.  The father must have been 14 himself when the son was born.  Anyway, they said they couldn't take the snow and fled the scene.  They were pretty adamant about the weather.

Neil and I had steak, baked potato and green beans for dinner along with a roll, salad and dessert.   The food was first rate.

We went back to our room and found our beds made up at 8:00.  Guess our car attendant thought we looked tired.  No, we did not go to bed at 8:00.   We did decide the big suitcases needed to go downstairs to the storage area....a morning activity.  It got dark shortly after we left Galesburg.   In Fort Madison as we crossed the Mississippi, they pointed out the state prison.   Too bad that's the highlight of the area.  We crossed Missouri and most of Kansas during the night.   We were even on time.