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Rail USA 2025
  • Glynice and Stuart Kilpatrick

Rail USA 2025

Une aventure de 35 jours par Glynice and Stuart En savoir plus
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  • Glynice and Stuart KilpatrickRail USA 2025Voyageur

    Walking in Memphis

    20 septembre, États Unis ⋅ ☀️ 27 °C

    Checked out of the hotel. Poor breakfast but then again we haven’t had a decent hotel breakfast so far.

    Visited the National Civil Rights Museum which is sited in the old Lorraine Hotel where Dr Martin Luther King was assassinated in 1968. The whole history of black slavery up to the present day made grim reading for an ignorant white person. What an incredible struggle. I could have taken another 100 photos but these give the flavour.

    Walked through Memphis to a rather random pyramid. Passed over the railway tracks that our train will use later tonight. The pyramid itself is two-thirds the size of Egypt’s Great Pyramid. Built to host major exhibitions it is now used by an outdoor retailer. A shop but what a shop. A Decathlon on steroids. A huge section on decoy wildfowl for hunting. Hundreds of varieties. Massive hunting section, all nature of camouflage outfits, all types of guns, motor boats, all terrain vehicles.

    For a fee you could take the lift up to a viewing platform near the top. Don’t remember one on the original but no matter. Nice views.

    Had a wee look at a baseball game on the way back to get the bags. Didn’t look that exciting.

    Dinner in a small diner with fabulous fried chicken. Didn’t really sell anything else but didn’t need to.

    Came upon a cheesecake shop on our way to the station. Lovely.

    Now waiting for the 10.40pm departure of our overnight train to Chicago.    En savoir plus

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  • Glynice and Stuart KilpatrickRail USA 2025Voyageur

    City of New Orleans part 3

    21 septembre, États Unis ⋅ 🌧 19 °C

    Boarded the City of New Orleans again at 10.45pm. Much faffing in our tiny “roomette”. We had checked in our larger case, which was just as well because, once our seats had been converted into a pair of bunks, there was just enough room for one of us to stand, or we could have the smaller case. The only way to get undressed for bed was to clamber up onto the top bunk and lie on my back to undress. No chance of sitting up on the top bunk. Some sleep was had but not a lot. Bunk so narrow and it felt as if someone was constantly shaking it. Not even consistently because the train kept changing speed.

    Eventually at 6.15 the happy conductor made sure that everyone was awake by broadcasting our arrival at some random wee station. Shocking breakfast. Including an egg, cheese sausage bagel, reheated by microwave. Completely inedible. Delighted to get off the train just before 9 at a rather grand Chicago Union Station. Left the bags at the station as we couldn’t get into our apartment until after 4.

    Walked to the centre of downtown and took a very expensive “architecture” river boat cruise. This was highly rated in the guide books but I guess we don’t have much interest in the names of the architects who designed the endless big buildings. A pleasant enough hour and a half though.

    Then headed off to a recommended restaurant for some Chicago deep pan pizza. Not bad, but not great either.

    Walked along the riverside to the station, collected our bags and walked to our apartment. Got organised, washed and dried all our dirty clothes, showered and dressed, ready for another meal. Tonight it was Greek, seeing as we are in the middle of Greektown. Usual sharing. Main course was a combination of various dishes and tasted much better than it looked. Early to bed.    En savoir plus

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  • Glynice and Stuart KilpatrickRail USA 2025Voyageur
    1

    Chicago

    22 septembre, États Unis ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    That job must be fun on a windy day.

    Started the day with a trip on the L line which is what they call their Metro here.

    Then walked to the Navy pier for nice views back over downtown.

    Walked to Millenium Park. Photo taken of this wiggly tower. In the park there were some art installations including this strange shiny thing.

    Lunch included these very healthy donuts. Then back to the park. 2 towers with water pouring out of faces. A little strange.

    Splashed the cash by going up the Willis Tower, which was the highest building in the world from 1973 until 1998. Had some glass boxes sticking out from the side of the building on the 108th floor. Inspired us to take a rare selfie. The boxes can just about be seen near the top of the building.

    For dinner we were out at another local Greek restaurant. A main course each. Amount eaten seems to be increasing. Need to go home soon while we can still get into our clothes.    En savoir plus

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  • Glynice and Stuart KilpatrickRail USA 2025Voyageur
    1

    Rocky Mountains

    24 septembre, États Unis ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    The big strategy for the day was trying to get into the observation car for the scenic highlight of the 2 day journey - crossing the Rocky Mountains. That involved having a 6.30 breakfast and then going straight to the car and staying put. We did nip out for some fresh air (and a photo or two) while the train stopped for an hour in Denver.

    If I was to be picky I would say that the scenery was possibly not as good as it might have been although having spent some time in the Alps and the Himalayas I was probably being a bit harsh. Certainly the train was a lovely way to see it. Trains here go much slower than the UK & Europe, the corners are much tighter, and the observation car is lovely.

    All in all a great day.

    No wi-fi on train so apologies for the late posting.    En savoir plus

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  • Glynice and Stuart KilpatrickRail USA 2025Voyageur
    1

    Sunrise in Nevada

    25 septembre, États Unis ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C

    With the help of crossing another time zone we managed a pre7am breakfast and got a lovely sunrise for our trouble.

    Had a stop in Reno. We were told it would be for an hour but we left after 40 minutes. Luckily I hadn’t left the platform. I think what happens is as soon as everyone who is due to join the train has got on they just up sticks and go.

    Bit cloudy this morning.

    Took photos of our trip menus at our last lunch. Food has been much better than expected but I’m happy not to have any more.

    Last photo of G in the observation car as we approached San Francisco. The train has been getting emptier since the Rockies and the observation car has been much quieter.

    Finally we were off the train and bussed the last 10 miles over the bay to downtown San Francisco. A very pleasant couple of miles walk to our hotel. So pleasant to get a decent outside temperature after the heat of the rest of the trip. Can’t say I enjoyed dragging the case up some of the local hills. This really is a hilly city.

    As a reward we nipped out for an unnecessary but very pleasant Thai meal.    En savoir plus

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  • Glynice and Stuart KilpatrickRail USA 2025Voyageur
    1

    Golden Gate Bridge

    26 septembre, États Unis ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    It may be just a bridge but it needs a few photos. No selfies which might have made us unique. We weren’t the only ones to think it was a nice day to walk over the bridge. Lots of cyclists too. Most on hired bikes with very rusty cycling skills. Chaos. The cyclist/pedestrian lane is somewhat narrower than the ones on the Forth Road Bridge.

    Only walked to the midpoint and back. The other half was going to be very similar to the first.

    Bussed back to Fisherman’s Wharf. Very touristy. Had a fishy lunch in Bubba Gump Shrimp Company restaurant on Pier 39.

    Walked to Coit Tower. Only slightly disappointed that the lift wasn’t working. 13 floors. Nice views though once the breathing had calmed down and the red mist had cleared.

    There are about 200 driverless taxis in San Francisco, all seem to be operated by Waymo. Naturally we did not part with our cash. Indeed, as is our custom we never used any taxis at any point on our trip (although we did try damn hard to use one in Memphis).

    Back to the hotel and got yesterday’s footprint posted.

    Out to Chinatown for dinner.    En savoir plus

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  • Glynice and Stuart KilpatrickRail USA 2025Voyageur

    Oh give me a home where the Buffalo Roam

    27 septembre, États Unis ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    There are few things more touristy than the cable cars here so of course we had to give them a go.

    Then took an underground metro which became a tram running along roads. Very strange. Headed for the Golden Gate Park (which bizarrely is nowhere near the Golden Gate Bridge). A fabulous place, 3 miles long and half a mile wide and being used to the full by the locals on a sunny Saturday. Included an interesting art gallery (hence the rather bizarre photos) and a 9 storey observation tower. And a small herd of bison (incorrectly called buffalo I believe) which I do think should be in every park. Such splendidly galumphy creatures.

    The photo of the rather unexciting sanny and a couple of cans is included as an illustration of what £24 buys you in this fair land. Thank goodness one sanny is enough for both of us.

    G was keen to dip her toes in the Pacific. Not that cold so I was told.

    Back out to Chinatown but ended up with a Vietnamese restaurant. Bit basic and no license but nae bad. Not for the first time we had partly consumed the meal before I got round to taking the required photo. Apologies.    En savoir plus

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  • Glynice and Stuart KilpatrickRail USA 2025Voyageur

    Like a Virgin

    28 septembre, États Unis ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    Packed and checked out of the hotel.

    Working back from the scheduled flight departure time of 4pm we wanted to be at the airport by 1pm which meant going for the train by about 12.

    As we had to be out by 11 there wasn’t much time for much in between. Rather than play safe with a Sunday Brunch at a local diner which had been recommended we opted to get the bus to the Ferry Building. There was meant to be a multitude of cutting edge eateries. Bit disappointing. We did see possibly the longest queue for coffee I have ever seen. I suspect it was not just coffee ready to drink but also some must-have trendy freshly ground coffee beans. Also saw a couple of bakeries including one selling croissants at $5.75 each. Probably plus tax. They did look nice but really!
    And note that price is simply for a plain unadorned croissant in a bakery not a cafe.

    Finally managed to find somewhere to sell us a couple of burgers with lemonades for an almost reasonable £43.

    And that was that.

    Train to airport, hang about, before being shoe-horned into a Virgin flight. My first. Not sure if I am getting bigger or these things smaller but it felt more like Ryanair than I remember long-haul to be. It has been a while.    En savoir plus

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  • Glynice and Stuart KilpatrickRail USA 2025Voyageur

    Homeward Bound

    29 septembre, Écosse ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    Flight arrived on time. Sped through passport control & bag reclaim. In Kings Cross with 2.5 hours to kill before our train. Tried to change our tickets to an earlier train but no chance.

    A couple of observations on the journey north. I had taken noise-cancelling earphones in case we encountering noisy neighbours on trains but we never did - up until now. I never knew anyone could make so much noise eating crisps as the “lady” from Newcastle on seats near us. I suspect drink had been consumed before the 3pm train by all three of them. Certainly a fair amount was taken on the train while consuming a monstrous packet of crisps. They did finally fall asleep but the earphones helped to avoid a burst blood vessel until then.

    UK trains go so much faster than US ones. About twice or three times as fast. Not so good for sight-seeing. And it is harder to see what you are passing because of hedges and trees and the lower carriages.

    All of a sudden it’s all over. The washing-machine is on, cups of tea have been consumed, the accumulated mail has been examined, an early bed is planned as we have a 9.30am class at the gym tomorrow.    En savoir plus

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    Fin du voyage
    29 septembre 2025