California Zephyr Day 2
Given that my phone was dead, and I forgot my travel alarm, I had no way to set an alarm, but I woke up around 6 AM. This time, I was able to take a shower. It's set up for navy showers in that the water only runs for a set period and shuts off. I kept on hitting the button and got a decent shower.
There was a mirror in the roomette that I used for my makeup, so I didn't need a mirror.
We were stopped in Denver for a long time. Over the PA, someone asked if the sleeper cars were ready for the people getting on yet, and the guy who had been taking care of me said that people hadn't gotten off yet. (I made a mental note to scramble off of the train at Reno, but OTOH, it's less than a day to San Francisco, so no one is likely to get on the sleeper cars.) So I started over to the dining car. The guy taking care of me saw me and set that he would be right down to take my order. I asked if he would have time for it, and he said something like "anything for you, darling" so I went back down and waited. Breakfast was scrambled eggs and sausage, and a really good croissant that I shouldn't have eaten but did.
The landscape turned scenic shortly after Denver, when we entered the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The scenery was spectacular. I wound up rationing my GoPro time because the batteries weren't charging well either, and kept going, "this is nice but not GoPro worthy". LOL. I especially liked the area in the canyons by the Colorado River. The conductor warned us that people might "moon" us, but all I saw were people waving to the train.
One item of interest was some wires that run along parallel to the train. They are avalanche signals. If rocks fall on them, whoever maintains the tracks gets a signal where to look and trains get a caution signal. It's a little sobering as to how much of the trip had those wires.
I fell in love with a town near the Colorado River called Glenwood Springs. It oozed charm and also had great scenery. I want to go back there and spend some time.
Overall, I liked Colorado a lot more than I had expected. (And Day 2 is mostly Colorado.)
We stopped at a town at which Amtrak had a store, and the conductor mentioned that they sell phone chargers, so I bought a plug and a USB-C to USB-A cord. The plug didn't work for me, but the cord did! I now had a working cell phone again! I called Dad from the middle of Utah and told him that the train was running on time, so I should be in Reno at 8:30 AM tomorrow. I offered to wait and hang out if he didn't want to leave so early (it's a 1.5 to 2 hour drive), but he said that he'd be there.
Utah? Meh. I know that there are pretty parts of Utah, but this part didn't impress me. If you like desert with jagged rock outcroppings, though, it might be for you. There was some interesting light late in the day, so I spent my time playing with the DSLR.