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I wish I could say that I recommend Amtrak highly, but I can't. The California Zephyr arrived in Chicago last night about eight hours late, missing just about everyone's connections. They did provide bus service for us Michigan passengers, which got me to the Ann Arbor train station at about 5 this morning, only about 5 hours late. The Zephyr was running out of food, water, and electricity--they fed us an emergency dinner about 4:30 yesterday afternoon by glowstick! Nerves seemed frayed among the cabin crew (stewards, waitresses and such), who, unlike the engineers and conductors, stayed on the train for the entire trip from Oakland to Chicago. The sleeping car wasn't that much more comfortable than coach, especially when I wasn't trying to sleep. For anyone contemplating a cross-country train trip, I highly recommend the way that I went to California over the way I came back. On the way there, I traveled coach, but got off the train in Grand Junction, Colorado and spent a day there walking, working out, eating in real restaurants, and sleeping in a real bed in a nice hotel. It all cost much less than the added price of the sleeper compartment that I rode in on the way back.

On the plus side, the scenery is absolutely spectacular, especially in Colorado and Utah. The big delays we experienced in California and Nevada on the way back had a plus side--we crossed Utah during the day. The scenery there is amazing! I'll try to organize my hundreds of photos in the next few days and post some of the best a bit at a time.

Another positive was that the delays gave me time to finish The Creature From Jekyll Island, which I will post about soon. In the meantime, I have laundry and sleep and news to catch up on, not to mention the NFL playoffs and the season premiere or 24!