Fly Away on my Zephyr

Our first full day on a long distance train and what an experience it has been. We always thought the route would be scenic but nothing could have prepared us for the sights we saw. We travelled through canyons, along great rivers, around rocky mountains, past bears and bald eagles. Tomorrow only brings us more.

We were also lucky to make several new friends. We throughly enjoyed the company of Texas-based photographer Stephanie who had some very cool photography gadgets which she let us play with including glass prisms for refracting light in wierd and wonderful ways. Stephanie also had Disney films on her laptop which we watched in between the stunning scenery so naturally we became the best of friends for our short stint together. It also meant we managed to 'hog' a table seat in the Observation lounge for essentially the entire day which seemed very cheeky but we were told 'anyone that can - does'.

We enjoyed 3 meals in the dining car including french toast which was a first for me and I will definitely be having it again! Our dining companions were a wonderful Californian couple who were able to impart much wisdom and experience on us for our upcoming adventures in the Golden State.

We are now on the aptly named 'Mountain Time' soon to be Pacific. You'll be pleased to know our step count has massively reduced since we boarded the train with today's count reaching a whopping 1853 which is still a little surprising. I wonder how much of that has been generated by the movement of the train!

Anyway, I shall leave you with a suitable bunch of photos to reflect the wonderful day we've had and bid you all a happy Wednesday xRead more