The train ride to the first annual NO surprise birthday party

Hmmm Am I the ONLY one I can surprise? must be... Last time  we drove  to Grand Junction we saw the Amtrak going into the tunnels through Glenwood Canyon.... Hmmm I smell an adventure, sure enough the train stops at Denver and Grand junction on it's way from Chicago to San Francisco (EmeryVille)... $184.00 round trip for BOTH of us...

I made the tickets for the weekend of Susie's birthday. Conspired with Rachel to "surprise" her. 

Left Friday morning in the dark to drive to the Denver Union Station, got there and learned the train was two(2) hours late for down trees in Iowa (some storm).  No problem off to breakfast we go, followed by a trip to the corner three story ancient book store, the "Tattered Cover". Susie bought books...

We boarded the train, found our coach seats and promptly moved to the "lounge" car.  It was a GREAT eight(8) hour ride.... never did go back to our "reserved" seats... Met lots of people, 1 couple flew from London to Denver, the train from Denver to Salt Lake City where they are going to rent a car and drive to the western national monuments.... sounds like fun to me... The other couple, also from England, brought their two teenage kids and were going all the way to San Fransisco to drive down the California coast... I reminded me of our family vacation to Europe.... OH YEAH, they don't hate Americans like the MSM would have you believe... They say that's just the elitist politicians, which I already knew...

Two(2) shots from the lounge car, the second in one of 28 tunnels before Winter Park, one is 6.2 miles long and takes 12 minutes to traverse.

So we're going to stop at Winterpark/Frazier for five(5) minutes.  "If the whistle blows two(2) short, make sure you get on because it's LEAVING".... Hmmm...

Me being the type that likes  LOTS of pictures for "documentation" decided I was going to the front of the train engine and taking a picture back along the length of the train...

my, oh my.... who would have guessed it would be THAT far away? Certainly not me....

So there are two(2) engines, a baggage car, three sleepers, a diner, the lounge and finally our car, the 510 coach followed by two more coach cars.... You can't leave from the diner or the lounge car so I went back to our car, got out on the platform  and thought WOW that's a long way, better RUN....

when I got there I was in a full blown asthma attack (which I haven't had in over five(5) years) standing there wondering how the heck I was going to get back.... DANG, dang.....

Got the shot Hmmm, at what cost. The 510 car was PAST the people on the platform.

NOW all I gotta  do is get back before it leaves.  On the return run, I notice the door on the first sleeper, no one guarding it, I'll try that... So no sooner did the door close, toot... tooot... and it's away... I walk through the train to the lounge car and there's my lovely wife sitting there patiently waiting. guess she knew I'd make it.  Unfortunately the next 3 hours of asthma made it questionable as to the worth....

 I did take quite a few photos, but the following out of the back of the train was of particular interest to me. I actually DIDN'T notice the rock standing in the pond when I took the photo, I found it later.

We are on the last leg of the journey to Grand Junction, I'm just taking photos out of the back of the train and happen to get the rock balanced in the middle of the pond. Watercolor reference photo...

More to come........