By rail to Chicago

Hog Butcher for the World,
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat,
Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler;
Stormy, husky, brawling,
City of the Big Shoulders.

In this blog's near-infancy -- on July 15, 2008, in a post entitled "Riding the Rails" -- I described a forthcoming railroad adventure. With a wedding on Mohegan Island, Maine, as my ultimate destination, I would be riding Amtrak for three days, from Seattle to Boston. 

Today,  I can announce that in a couple of weeks, I'll be riding Amtrak on a shorter, but to me novel, route -- from San Francisco to Chicago.

Why am I going to Chicago?  I'm afraid this is another one of my "train trips to nowhere" experiences.  Where I take a ride on a train just for the sake of riding on the train, not as a way to reach a destination.  The curious kind of jaunt that I've discussed several times on this blog, each of them on the Coast Starlight, traveling up and down the Pacific coast.

I've traveled twice to Chicago by train -- once as a teenager, on Great Northern's "Empire Builder," and then, on that Boston trip in 2008, on what was by then Amtrak's "Empire Builder."  Same route, both times, through Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and into Illinois.  I also returned from Chicago to Portland, after my teenaged visit with a friend, on Union Pacific's "City of Portland."  Through Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Idaho, and Oregon.  The UP route also clipped, barely, the northeast corner of Colorado, for decades my only justification for including Colorado in my list of visited states.

But this year's trip will be a new route, on the "California Zephyr."  From California, through Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, and Illinois.  Actually, the latter part of the route appears to follow the same tracks as those I traveled on the "City of Portland," especially between Omaha and Chicago.  Between those cities, the "City of Portland" traveled on tracks owned by the Chicago and Northwestern (C&NW) railroad.  

My exposure to Colorado will be considerably more substantial this time, a highlight of the trip.  We'll cross the middle of the state, over the Rockies, with a stop in Denver.

I plan to fly to San  Francisco the afternoon of February 15 and stay at an airport hotel.  I'll take BART the next morning to downtown, meeting an Amtrak-chartered bus that takes passengers across the Bay to Emeryville where the train awaits.  The "California Zephyr" is scheduled to arrive at Chicago's Union Station around 3 p.m., on February 18, from where I'll take the CTA to O'Hare airport   My plane home to Seattle departs at 8:30 p.m.

That last connection will be a little iffy.  Amtrak often is totally on time.  Sometimes, however, their trains -- especially long distance trains -- can be hours late for no apparent (to passengers) reason.  If it appears that I'm going to miss my flight, I'll have to make some quick changes in my schedule.  Fortunately, with an iPhone I can do that while still hours from Chicago, hopefully lining up a hotel room as well as a change in flight.

I'm looking forward to the whole trip -- the majesty of the Rockies, the emptiness  of the Plains, the excitement of arrival in what Carl Sandburg flatteringly called "Hog Butcher for the World."  Well, it has gentrified a bit since those days.  

I'll give a report of my journey's high and low points after my return.