18-19 August 2025: A Sleepless Night Across the Heartland

The five days I spent in Chicago were rather hectic.  Four days at the Great American Stamp Show at a convention center in the western suburbs plus dinners and “guy-time” with my nephew, Liam, including celebration of his 27^th birthday.  On Monday, August 19, I braved the crazed traffic on the Kennedy Expressway to return my rental car to the downtown agency, then walked several blocks to the train station while pulling along my big, wheeled suitcase with two smaller bags around my shoulders.  It was good exercise which I needed before 19 sedentary hours on the return train to Denver.

I wanted to check the big suitcase and arrived at the baggage line 55 minutes before the train was to leave.  There was only one agent and the line moved at a glacial creep.  When I got to the counter 20 minutes later I was told that the cut-off for baggage checking was 45 minutes before the train departed.  “Well, I would have had time if Amtrak had more agents working,” I complained.  The agent sheepishly replied that he understood. 

So now I wheeled the bag down to the long queue of humanity waiting to get on the train while hoping there would be room for the bag on the luggage racks next to the coach door.  Had I been able to check the bag earlier, I would just had to stand in this line longer.  Ah, the joys of travel!

We boarded about 15 minutes before the 2:00 PM departure time and yes, there was space for my bag on one of the racks.  I wasn’t all that concerned about someone stealing it.  About all they would get would be dirty laundry and a new bulky British stamp catalogue that I had purchased at the show.   

And then, surprise!  The train started to pull away from the platform at 2:00 PM sharp.  And, double surprise:  there were only a few very minor delays along the way to Denver.     

For this return trip, I was in “coach” without the private roomette, bed, and meals I’d had on the way to Chicago.  I wanted to see how coach compared with first class. It was much cheaper but you get what you pay for. 

I was assigned a seat in the car at the back of the train.  That was fine with me as I wanted to spend some time standing at the back of that car watching the rails and landscapes disappear to the east as we headed west toward Colorado.  The seats in coach class aren’t bad – they are two abreast, recline about 45°, are more comfortable than economy seats on most planes, and provide more legroom.  I was seated next to a 20-something Asian guy who was polite but didn’t seem very friendly.  Maybe he didn’t speak much English.  No matter, I didn’t plan to spend much time in my seat.  And, as we headed westward, more people got off at the stations down the line than got on so there were soon a number of empty seats.  The train attendant didn’t seem to mind if I stood in the back of the car or spent time in different seats. 

 

At most of the stations, the train only stopped for a few minutes, and you weren’t allowed to get off.  At Ottumwa, Iowa, there was a 15-minute break – enough time for a leg stretch on the station platform.  As I was descending the stairs down to the exit, I made eye contact with one of the straw hat, suspenders-wearing, bearded (but no mustache) fellows I described in my last post.  He appeared to be in his 60s.  There were a number of them on the train along with women wearing white bonnets and 19^th Century prairie schooner dresses. 

I had assumed they were Mennonites and not Amish for two reasons.  Some of the women wore pastel dresses (light blue, red, etc.)  I thought Amish wore only black and white.  Plus, I thought Amish weren’t allowed to use mechanized transport. 

So, I screwed up the courage and posed a question to this fellow that I met on the stairs:

“Excuse me for asking but are you folks Amish or Mennonites?”

“Amish,” he replied good-naturedly.

“Oh.  I thought Amish weren’t supposed to use mechanized transport.” 

“Not true.  We use public transport all the time:  vans, trains, buses..”

“…but not planes, right?”  I have never seen Amish on a plane.

“No, we don’t.”

“Well, thanks very much.”

Later, I thought to myself that I should have followed up with something like, “I’m a retired environmental scientist and I want to commend you people for using public transport but not planes or your own cars. If we all tried to follow your example, it would cut down on the carbon emissions that are causing the climate catastrophe.” 

It was possible to pay for meals in the dining car if and when they had space.  However, I opted to try the food in the small café at the lower level of the observation car.  It was OK but, as with the dining car, there wasn’t much variety.  Passengers do have the option of bringing food on board which I would highly recommend for a multiple day trip.  I brought my Asian noodles upstairs and took a seat in the observation car.  A young guy was softly strumming chords on his guitar.  It was rather pleasant.

The train sped on through southern Iowa toward the setting sun.  As we neared Nebraska, it grew dark.  Now came the big challenge – trying to get some sleep.  I found two adjacent empty seats in the front of one of the cars with lots of leg room.  I tilted both seats back and extended the footrests.  I tried every position I could think of, but I just couldn’t get comfortable enough to sleep. Oh, I’d nod off for a few minutes before waking up but mostly I just slumped in my seats and counted backward from 1000 or tried to block all shit out of my mind and meditate.  It reminded me of those miserable overnight flights to Europe and South America.   “Oh, I just wish it would hurry up and get light so this would be over,” I thought.  

Finally, dawn arrived, and I headed for the back of the last car for sunrise photos.  We were in northeastern Colorado with more than an hour to go before the Denver station so I headed down to the café for a cup of tea and a tasty muffin.  I took my breakfast back up to an observation car seat where the guitar player was still in the same seat strumming.  I wondered if he’d been doing it all night!

Before we pulled up to the station platform in Denver, the train had to be turned around.  This is because the tracks dead end at Union Station.  The following diagram shows how the railroad uses a track arrangement called a “wye” (shaped like the letter Y) to accomplish this.  It’s like when you make a 3-point turn to do a 180 with your car only with a train, tracks and switches are employed. 

The Zephyr arrived about exactly at its scheduled time (just before 8:00 AM).   As I was getting off the train, I grabbed my big suitcase and now realized it was good I did NOT check it.  No need to go into the station and wait 15 minutes or so for my suitcase to arrive at the baggage carousel!   Instead, I walked straight to the light rail station a few minutes away, got the train to my neighborhood station, rode home with Judy, threw off my clothes, put on my sleep mask, and jumped into bed for morning nap.  Ahhhhh!    

Would I recommend travel by Amtrak?  That depends on several factors.  I’ll discuss this in my next blog post.  

 

  Story and photos copyright 2025 by Will Mahoney.  All rights reserved.