Scattered Thoughts . . .

Everyone was in their bunks by 8:30 this evening.  Once it gets dark outside, there isn't a whole lot to see out the windows of the train.  I think everyone is a bit worn out too.  Anyway, I am still awake attempting to edit some photos and type this blog entry as the train rocks and lurches down the rails at about 80 miles per hour (according to my GPS).  Let me tell you, editing photos and typing is no easy task under these conditions so I wouldn't be surprised to find a few typos in this blog entry when I check it at our next destination.  While I'm still up in my lower bunk, I'll get this next blog entry published and linked to Facebook. Early this afternoon, we checked out of our hotel and walked the couple of blocks to the train station so we could catch The Lakeshore Limited.  This train will take us on our second leg from Springfield, Massachusetts to Chicago.   Our walk to the newly renovated Union Station was nice in what could only be considered spring

courtesy of Amtrak            Sheila and I will be heading on another cross-country rail journey with Sheila's parents very soon and we are now making all our final arrangements.  We've arranged hotels, contingency plans for delays, connecting trains, rental cars, and even decided upon some sightseeing and restaurants.  Arranging this coast to coast journey has required a lot of planning and coordinating and, at this point, we are on the homestretch and excited about this long distance journey.   Sheila's parents are accompanying us on this trip and we're all looking forward to it.  I believe it is safe to say that we're all a bit sick and tired of the grueling winter weather...  and most of us (three of the four of us) are sick and tired of being sick and tired.  We could use some down time on a cross-country train journey just taking in the views as the entire country passes by right outside the window of our sleeper car and all-glass lounge. Sheila, Wi

Talking with the staff at The Presidio, planning our visit... Our cross country rail journey to San Francisco by way of The Lakeshore Limited and California Zephyr trains has been foremost in our thoughts lately (even more than all our health problems so that is good news). This past weekend, we made some progress on these plans as we booked rooms for our stay in San Francisco.  At this point, we're not sure if we'll ever make it back to San Francisco so we decided to choose rooms which are unique, in a great location, moderately affordable, and meet the highest of standards. With this criteria, there wasn't much of a list of options. We quickly chose to stay at an inn on National Park grounds at The Presidio.  We needed to jump on booking these particular reservations because the rooms in this Inn on the grounds of The Presidio have a booked rate of 100% every single day since the inn opened more than six years ago. We knew that if we waited too long to make reser