#6, Traveling Through America’s Heartland ~ Farewell to the Zephyr

 February 14, 2022 

I awoke from a sound sleep to, “Good morning, everyone!  This is Reesey, your dining car attendant. First call for breakfast. It’s time to rise and shine”. Though she works very long hours, Reesey has consistently been cheerful and kind, her voice coming like liquid velvet over the intercom, as she calls us for meals.  She had a half dozen endearing nicknames for me and always took the time to chat.  One day she asked, "M'lady, do you know all about flowers?"  Well, that got me going.  Turns out, she lives in Mississippi, but is based out of Chicago, and makes the run with the Zephyr 6 days, and then has 4 days off so she goes home.  She was needing advice for some very low maintenance flowers that could survive 120 degree, humid summers.  I'm afraid that I wasn't able to be too helpful!  

Reesey, Dining Car Attendant

I pulled myself together and made my way to the dining car where I could see the sun was just popping over the horizon. Since it wasn’t too busy yet, I was able to wait until my second cup of coffee before ordering “Railroad French Toast”. It was as delicious as it was pretty. The only thing that marred my morning in booth #1 was that I bumped my full cup of orange juice and sent it flying over myself, my phone, purse, nook, the table, and the floor. My fellow diners as well as attendant rushed with piles of napkins to sop up the mess. Oh well, life goes on. 

Railroad French Toast with a Side of Bacon

 Throughout this trip we have crossed, and ran alongside, so many rivers and lakes. Occasionally I have enough service to pull up a map on my phone to identify them, but most of the time not. At home I have an old map from my previous trip that I will take with on my next train trip, as well as a general map of the US. So here is a small, frozen, unknown body of water, somewhere in Iowa. 

 While I was finishing the last of my coffee, and the orange juice had dried to a sticky stage on everything, we crossed the Mighty Mississippi River into Illinois. I never thought about a river that large freezing, but much of it appeared to be so.  I do recall that The Columbia froze so hard once that people were able to drive cars on it. 

The Mighty Mississippi River

Frozen Mississippi River

Small Town Living in America's Heartland

 The rest of the ride into Chicago was through flat farmland. There are so many things that I can’t really get pictures of but two of the things I really enjoy observing are the use of the land (grazing, farming, industrial, whatever), and types of housing (architecture, materials used, age of homes, etc). These just vary so much from region to region.

One Type of Farm or Another

Ready for Spring Planting

Farming Country

The California Zephyr was a good ride and I really hated to get off.  I liked my room, and will share more about that on another blog, but even more, I liked the people.  It was a good reminder to me to be kind to those I meet.  The way people treat you can truly can make or break an experience.