Blog beginning again soon

The closer to Denver that we got the more snow that was coming down and we understand that the storm was a day early.  The stadium is just on the other side of the tracks and we can see that the field is white.  Game is cancelled and a double header is on tap for Tuesday, not likely but I will try to get a tour of the stadium since the train does not leave until 7 tonight.

On the road again

Now that we get to sleep and really sound sleep, we wake up to a person storming down the aisle telling us that it is 5:30 am and we are stopping in  Sacramento and everyone would be getting off in  15 minutes.  Just like a light switch being flipped the kids start crying, the phone call is made and we now have new thing and some same things to talk about.  This was going to be a long 15 minutes.

We get off and check the departure to Denver and we have 5 hours and we think that breakfast would be good and maybe figure out what can be done with the wheels that do not roll.  Well it is Sunday now and 5:30 am, what is going to be open except for Denny’s.  Checking the phone GPS we find a Denny’s about 0.2 miles away and while walking that way we asked a taxi if we were said going the right way and he said yes it was about 6 months ago but they moved it and it is now about 2 miles in another direction.

So by asking the Amtrak people about a place to eat, we find another place that is about 0.2 miles away and it is open even though it is only 6:30 am on a Sunday. While eating ask if there is somewhere that we might buy a bungee cord and that place is 20 blocks away and the GPS info tells us it will open at 10 am.  We decide to take our time and walk the very clean and nice city of Sacramento and find the ole Ace Hardware and hoping that they will open on time this beautiful Sunday morning.

A little neighborhood coffee house presents itself and we decide to enjoy a cup since it is 9:05 and we can sit outside under a beautiful tree, this was good.  10 am and the doors open and we find everything that we need (what were we here for again) to fix the broken bag.  By the way we had checked the bag at Amtrak because it would have been like walking with a bag of concrete behind me.  Our purchase took 5 minutes and we were on our way walking the 20 blocks and checking my watch, because the train will be leaving at 11:00.  No worry we get there, uncheck the bag and we are fixed and all aboard.

Now that we are on a new train and we get lucky compared to the first ride, everybody is quiet and most will get off in Reno and few will get on.  On to Denver

 

Getting going

It was unreal how smooth it went getting ready, Kate made lists and started packing a week ahead of time and by Saturday we were ready to go.  Getting ready also meant having all of our reservations made for Amtrak, baseball tickets purchased and places to stay set up.

Nathan, Krystal, Hailey and Noah took us to the train station and even carried all of our luggage out and put them into the car.  That in itself became significant because once we were at the station and unloaded the car I found that my bag had bad wheels and would not roll.   So the kids drove off and I drug my 100 pound bag into the terminal.

This is not going to be that bad I thought, once I get on the train I can think about how I can fix it and what might solve the problem once I look at it.  Of course I was thinking that I would walk out of the terminal and up to the train door, wrong, our car was 100 yards down the track and once to the door I now remember those narrow stairways from that last trip.

Kate and I told each other that all is good and we can get on, find our seat and relax and work in a nap after getting settled, wrong again, we got a car full of talkers.  Some people were talking to others and some were talking to themselves and some were talking on the phone.  The others that were being talked to were not necessarily next to them but maybe a few seats away and we really did not need to hear the conversation that was going on with the phone talker.

Finally the crying kids went to sleep and the talkers were left with little more to say, now that nap, oh ya.