The Plains

 Leaving Denver I saw lightning in the distance, to the Southeast. There was no thunder because the train is very well insulated, but the lightning did light up a good portion of the sky. I slept soundly through the rest of Colorado and all of Nebraska, waking up south of Omaha. I have driven those plains several times and have wanted to doze off - I finally got my chance. Much more relaxing than fighting off sleep for miles and miles. 

I wasn’t expecting much from southern Iowa, but I was pleasantly surprised. The train didn’t parallel a freeway in this section. For many miles, it wasn’t apparent that any road was nearby. We passed through rolling, wooded hills and fields of corn and soybeans with little farming communities interspersed along the route. In eastern Iowa, I started to see towns with abandoned remnants of industries past. Eventually, we stopped in Burlington, Iowa. For railroad fans, this is an important town. It’s the B in CB&Q and it’s also the B in BNSF. By late afternoon we were in Chicago and my ride on the California Zephyr was complete - all-in-all a very memorable roll across the West.


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