Greetings from Boulder, Colorado, everyone! This evening I will be boarding Amtrak’s California Zephyr in Denver for the trip back east into the polar vortex. Not to say it’s not plenty cold and snowy here, but in comparison to what is currently taking place back in the Great Lakes, this is a walk in the park.

I love trains and riding them every chance I can get. Yeah, they may not always be the most speedy way to get from place to place but they sure are the most romantic. The sound of the rails have both hypnotic and historic qualities to them that are missing from most other forms of travel. Watching the landscapes and topography change is one of my favorite aspects as is seeing our nation from a whole new perspective than from Airport World or Freeway World. Those who tend to think that the heart of our country is just a bunch of empty space to flyover are flat-out wrong!

While I have ridden a number of trains in my day, including:

The Alaska Railroad from Anchorage to Denali to Fairbanks;

United Kingdom railroads in England and Scotland;

Irish Rail over much of Ireland;

Amtrak in the Great Lakes Region; and

A number of commuter railroads in the USA, England, and Ireland.

I have been looking forward to riding cross-country here in the states for a long time. Granted, Denver to East Lansing may not be ALL the way across the country, it is close enough for counting to me at this point. So, please excuse me as I start California Zephyr dreaming on such a winter’s day.

UPDATE – So much for the dream. My train was cancelled about an hour before departure. Flying instead.