The last leg of my USA Rail Journey, Salt Lake City to San Francisco, was very comfortable. It was almost 12:30 AM when the train pulled out of Salt Lake City. I was assigned the aisle seat but the window seat was empty. Great, I had both seats to myself and I slept like a baby!
When I woke up in the morning, the train was making its way through the desert. We were already in Nevada. It was a drastic change.
Two hours later, it was a totally different terrain again. We were now in the midst of Sierra Nevada.
From the Rocky Mountains to vast stretch of desert, and then to Sierra Nevada, the train had seen it all.
At lunch, I was seated with a British guy. The discussion started off with Brexit. He was totally disappointed as he had voted for ‘Remain’. The interesting thing was his journey. He asked me where I am headed to and I, very proudly, told him about my itinerary. He then told me what he was doing. He was doing ‘Around the World in a month’! He started from London, flew to NYC and is on Amtrak from NYC to Sacramento. He is getting to Los Angeles and flying to Japan. He is crossing Japan by train and then cruising to Russia by sea. He is then taking the Trans-Siberian rail and crossing Russia by train. His final leg is Paris to London by train. That’s a long journey!
As the train neared San Francisco, a sense of satisfaction swept over me. I went from Atlantic Ocean to Pacific Ocean, crossing 3 time zones and 10 states, passing through Rocky Mountains, deserts and Sierra Nevada, all by train.
Not sounding too cliché, it’s always the journey that matters more than the destination. This, indeed, was a fabulous journey!