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Amtrak part 1.
Woke up early to get on our mammoth 34 hour train ride from San Francisco to Denver. The cooler box had become incredibly heavy as we had forgot to dump out the melted water and replace it with ice the night before!
Before the train departed we had decided to fill the waterlogged cooler box with lots of food/dinner to keep us going for the long journey ahead . It won't surprise you to hear that all we bought was a subway sandwich (which we ate before we got on the train), a kit kat each and some chewing gum! By 'Hour 2' the picturesque mountains were shaking with the sound of 2 rumbling English bellies.
We got on our Amtrak train and settled in for the day and night...and the next day again. The legroom on the train would have been hell for Giant Dan, it was uncomfortable for tall-ish me but luckily for 4'2" rich it was considered luxurious!
Sleeping on an Amtrak train is a challenge as it involves the question everybody would want to ask when going to sleep..."will my neck snap if I sleep like this?". Also You get given a gesture pillow which is like sleeping on a used, thin napkin and if the person in front sinks there chair back...your knees ain't going no where!
Feeling hungry we thought we had better check out the mini shop on the train for supplies.
The small shop had various items and after some consideration we chose a burger for dinner. Our confidence in how good the burger would taste was dashed as we saw it took a Usain Bolt 100 metre dash of 10 seconds to microwave. The lady's "yeah they taste good" in a high pitched, 'can tell they're lying voice' didn't make us feel any better. The final verdict on the burger would be 'an interesting combination of cardboard and sawdust'...but not too bad" :)
Our lowest point on the Amtrak train came at around the 24 hour Mark. In pitch black, dehydrated, hungry, tired, surrounded by sleeping passengers we decided to do what any normal person would have done in our position...record a hit single on Richards I pad entitled "Amtrak...here we go." With lyrics such as "32 hours, never gonna shower" and "getting dirty every single hour" we are expecting a call from Simon cowell any day now.
Slowly descending deeper into madness our 32 hour train had become a 35 hour train by the time we had got into Denver. Feeling knackered we got a taxi and were looking forward to chilling in our hotel...right up till the point where the taxi driver said to us..."you staying there??? That's a bad neighbourhood, they prey on tourists there". Cheers cabbie.
Denver.
Our hotel had 2 beds in Denver which meant for the first time in the trip me and rich got a bed to ourselves. The bonus being not having Rich snuggle up you when you wake up in the morning, the drawback being it was harder to hit him when he snored. (I talk a lot about riches snoring, but it is huuuuurendous!)
Our street was a bit removed from the centre of town and so we had to walk each day down a street we nick named 'crack alley'. Trying not to stand out as tourists it was a choice of pure silence when someone asked us for money or a terrible American accent "sorry man". We were fooling no one.
Denver town is really nice as they only have Eco friendly shuttle buses allowed in the town centre and bikes! With Denver having a ridiculous amount of cycle paths we thought would be a crime not to hire bikes and have a cycle around. Instead of a gentle ride around Denver we set our sights on the rockies. Armed with helmets and bottled water we rode one handed, two handed and no handed for 3 hours/25 odd miles to a peak at which we had a 360* view of the Rockies which were well worth it. The remaining 25 miles back to the bike hire shop ensured our behinds would be sore for a few days!
The best bar we went to in Denver was called the 'One yard Ale factory'. Rich was in heaven as he could pratically have his pick from beers all around the world, although of course he started by asking..."what do you have that's local?". The bar was a lot of fun as we were talking to various people around the bar, acting dumb at certain things, like experts at others...such as rich blagging his way through talking about American politics and when asked something he didn't know would simply answer..."Obama man".
A weird moment from denver being ten pin bowling opposite a married couple, in which thy were put celebrating the husbands birthday. Nothing weird about that...until I say how the woman would come and sit on our side of the bowling lane, sit down next to rich, practically take his hand and chat to us, while the birthday boy bowls HER shots for her! Very weird!
Denver was a surprisinly fun place to visit (maybe worth paying a little extra at a hotel to stay out of 'crack alley'). But as quick as we had arrived, it was now time to leave. And using a lyric from our madness induced hit single, it was time once again to take the "train...ride...on...our...own...yeah".
Chicago and Boston to follow!!
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