Amtrak's
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An incredible route, rolling through the farmland of the Midwest, through the badlands of the Southwest. Such a range of topography, and so much history. The route is almost 150 years old.
We pulled out of Chicago at mid-afternoon, flirted with the Mississippi River for awhile, and made it to Kansas City that night. From there, Dodge City, through Colorado, and into New Mexico where we slipped through the Raton Tunnel (elevation 7,834 feet!), then across Arizona, before moving into California. Besides going alongside Route 66 in Albuquerque for a brief time, one of the surprises of this trip was working our way through California's San Bernardino Foothills just before sunrise - the clouds were hanging low, and the dimly-lit hills created a spooky dimension as we seemingly floated through. If you're as fortunate as I was to be in a sleeper car attended to by Cynthia, thank your lucky stars. Of all the overnight trains I've been on, I've had generally good to very good experiences, but her level of customer service exceeds all the others. |