5,000 Miles of Railroading with Mom

Crossing America with my best friend

When it comes to memorable experiences in my lifetime, I always think of a trip I did with Mom back in 2006. The idea surprised many, but the entire idea was a dream come true for me. We planned a cross country trip to be done on a three day train journey. Technically, it wasn’t across the entire country, but the trip was quite close, as it went over 2,300 miles.

The adventure began in New York City, NY and ended in Salt Lake City, Utah. I had been a huge railroad lover, hobbyist, and enthusiast, since I was 3 or 4 years old. That is why I rate it as one of my most memorable experiences ever.

We made a wise decision, for a journey of this length and magnitude; we upgraded from coach and we got a bedroom, which allotted us a private room, two private beds, access to much better bathrooms, and we even had a shower. Another great factor with having a “sleeper” bedroom, was that all of the bedrooms on the train were classified as first class. Therefore, all our meals, fully prepared and served in the dining car were free. The meals were very good. Lastly, I had a very close, old friend, who had moved back to her original hometown of Ogden, Utah from here in New Jersey, so we had a perfect ending point for our train. So off we were.

We have lived in New Jersey seemingly forever, so we easily found our way to Penn Station, NYC, where we were to catch the train called the Lakeshore Limited. It would take us to Chicago, where we would then get on the next and last train, called the California Zephyr which has route from Chicago to San Francisco, California. The day was just full with so much excitement. I had wanted to take a train like this all my life. I did have experience with taking overnight trains from New Jersey to Florida. But, this trip we were about to embark on was 1,700 miles longer than the Florida train. And the landscape we were about to see for the next three days, would be sights that NO New Jersey person could ever imagine.

The option we started with was one of two, when it came to getting from New York City to Chicago. There was a train called the Cardinal, which took a more southerly and central route, that saw urban, forests, and Pennsylvania farmland views. Then there was our train, Lakeshore Limited, which at the time I had no idea, but our train was a total polar opposite. We travelled far north to the top borders of upstate New York, to Syracuse, Buffalo, Erie Pennsylvania, then along the shores of the Great Lakes, a bit of beautiful untouched rural areas, suburbs of Illinois, and then the city of Chicago.

Waking up first thing in the early morning to the sight of Cleveland Browns Football Stadium, and then Lake Michigan right next to us, was wonderful. The Lake, looking just as big as the Atlantic Ocean.

That was when I realized, we were entering a whole new world. The Northeast was now gone.

Chicago Union Train Station is giant and epic In size, beauty, and history. We had a 4 hour break there, and with its size and amenities, we had no problem staying occupied.

The second train was a type of passenger train I never saw on the east coast, as it was so much larger. It could never fit the tunnels of the cities like Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington DC, and so on. It was all double deckers cars whether you had a coach ticket, or a first class bedroom ticket. It started with two diesel engine locomotives, eventually, adding a third locomotive later.

This truly was a traveling hotel. We got to our room, left Chicago, and ignored all the reading material we brought, as the views of rural Illinois, Iowa and Indiana were all we needed.

Like I said earlier, sights people like us New Jersey folks can’t comprehend.

Many may consider our view boring, or plain, but the simplicity of it all was peaceful. Miles and miles of endless farms of every type, through towns with populations under a thousand.

Just seemed like a different world, or different dimension. All full of politeness, and lacking the noise, pollution and stress we are used to.

As night time came, we got into the state of Nebraska, and were about to spend the night speeding through the state from east to west, all 430 miles of it. With a speed anywhere from 40 mph, up to 75 or so. And an occasional 105 mph on straightaways. Their main city of Omaha, had a 3am arrival time. A bit strange, and funny.

I would later find out that the Nebraska part of the schedule was planned that way intentionally, as a way to avoid the passengers having to watch 7 hours of the same corn stalks. But hey, I sure wouldn’t had minded. We woke up at sunrise, crossing into Colorado, and into the snow capped Rocky Mountains.

The flatlands were gone, and we quickly realized why this particular train is claimed to have the most beautiful, scenic route in the entire United States. Now I could easily use thousands of words to describe the Rocky Mountain route, but I know I can’t. However it was absolutely perfect.

We were covering hundreds of miles that literally, have never been touched by human beings, except, for the people who built the train track. Sometimes the nearest roads could easily be a couple hundred miles away. Some of the corners and cliffs we went through, were insane, scary, yet wonderful too.

We went through the Moffat Tunnel. A seven miles tunnel through some of the mountains in Central Colorado.

My favorite part of the mountains portion of the trip was an easy choice for me. It was that evening, when we hit the top of the mountains, flying through a strong snowstorm, where there were clearly at least a few feet of snow on the ground. I thought this was just so cool, considering the fact that it was currently late, hot and humid July down below.

We got into Utah, headed down the mountain, and after a couple hours we arrived at an extremely tiny Salt Lake City train station. A station that gets two passengers trains a day. Our, and the opposite version of ours. A single employee, an older gray haired woman, sat at the desk. It looked like a place where time had stopped somewhere in the year 1981. But I loved it. Just like every other oddities we saw on that trip.

We enjoyed a week with my friend and her family, and I showed my mom many parts of Utah, as well as random towns and other things in Idaho, and Wyoming.

To this day, Wyoming remains my dream state. A place so gigantic, but with a population of under a half a million people. A state that has beauty unparalleled to any other state. I still have a t-shirt from Wyoming. One from a strange firework store. And I am not talking about the stores that sell little firecrackers. This place had all the M80’s you could want. Not my cup of tea, but that’s ok. Wyoming just happens to be a big fireworks state.

Even though our vacation technically started upon our train arriving in Salt Lake City Utah, it really, and truly started the moment my Mother and I checked our baggage in at New York City Penn Train station, and asked for a Salt Lake City tag.

The trip had a hundred little precious oddities. Once I experienced it all, I then realized just how incredibly special it was to actually, and definitively SEE America. Sure I can fly NYC to Los Angeles in 6 hours. And see absolutely zero.

This wasn’t about travelling to Utah for a vacation. I wasn’t using the train for my need to get somewhere. It was about having a once in a lifetime experience with my very best, most loyal, unconditionally loving MOM.

When times are tough these days, we face them, process them and deal with them. Like anyone else, we all have our days of anger, and sadness. Sometimes regret. But when I remember that I had the honor to do this with my mother, I quickly realize that I was one of the luckiest sons, ever. It’s humbling and beautiful to know that my Mom wanted to see America with her kid.