Rocky Mountain Relaxation

At 9:26, just outside of Arvada, we make our winding way up the mountain. At the first tunnel, there is a Union Pacific freight train stopped exiting the tunnel. As the tunnel is only one track, we need to wait for him to pass us before we can proceed. Twenty minutes later, the UP begins backing up through the tunnel. Five minutes later, we make our way through the tunnel.

From 9:55 until 10:31 we go through 18 tunnels, in between wonderful views of Arvada, CO and the surrounding area.

We continue to be hampered by UP. At 10:33, we stop for a red signal a 7212 is head of us. We lose seven minutes. At 10:53, the conductor makes an announcement that one of the UP trains head of us has engine problems, forcing us to move at 9 mph. They are going 9 mph. I heard chatter earlier about someone’s engine bucking and cutting off, just like it did yesterday, but didn’t realize it was the train ahead of us.

At 12:11 p.m., we finally get to the east side of Moffat Tunnel, where we are greeted by a red signal. Twenty minutes later we start through the long tunnel.

We finally arrive Fraser/Winter Park at 12:53, which is 2:46 late.

The delays continue heading to Glenwood Springs. We have a pair of 15-minute stops, including one at Shoshone, with a nice view of a hiking and boating area. During one of the delays, the eastbound Zephyr passes us near Allen, CO.

When the train arrives at Glenwood Springs, we are 3:01 behind schedule, but we cut the deficit to 3:01 at Grand Junction.

Memo to Amtrak: Fix your #@$#@$ vending machines. While Grand Junction features a fruit stand and gift shop which sells ice cream, both the vending machine was out of order and the change machine was out of change. Earlier in the day, the Pepsi machine in Denver was completely empty, as well. In this time of budget cuts, how is it that you don’t want my money?

After Grand Junction, we decided to again dine in our sleeper car. I had a hamburger and she had the same choice as last night – chicken. Once again, both were good choices. We watched the sunset over the Utah mountains during our meals just before we pulled into Green River, Utah 2:59 behind at 8:57.