San Francisco 2024

In July 2024, I rode Amtrak's legendary California Zephyr train from Milwaukee to San Francisco and back. A trip like this had been on the "bucket list" for quite a while; the last time I took a long train ride, I was five years old! And I tried this trip three years earlier, but it was cancelled by mudslides in Denver (we never even got out of Illinois). But riding Amtrak cross-country is unpredictable: this time, due to track work, we were put on buses for a five-hour drive from Grand Junction to Denver, then back on a sleeper train for the rest of the trip.

Here's a video of train no. 6 coming to pick us up for the trip back East... and this is what it's like crossing from one car to another.

Tap pictures to embiggen; tap again to dismiss. There are more pictures:

• Computer History Museum
• Mission Dolores
• Views From the Train
• Adventures in the City

Sleeper car passengers travel first class and have access to the Metropolitan Lounge.

Walking out to the track to board our train at Union Station in Chicago.

This is the least expensive sleeper accomodation, euphemistically called a "roomette".

The seats fold down to make a bed, but it was much more fun to sleep in the upper bunk.

Showering on the train is an adventure.

There are plenty of towels, just throw yours in the laundry bag when you're done.

Thanks to my "coffee gadgets", I had freshly ground and brewed Ethiopian Harrar every morning.

The dining car. Real metal silverware, white tablecloths, and flowers on the table.

Breakfast on the train. I had some very good meals, including grilled salmon with quinoa.

And after breakfast? A little coding on my Python project, supervised by Wizard The Cat.

We turned out not to need the sledgehammer.

Boarding the Hiawatha train for the final leg of my journey, from Chicago back home to Milwaukee.