No wonder Mr Jefferson loved Charlottesville

Having boarded The Cardinal in Chicago in the early evening it was already dark by the time we reached Indiana so unfortunately I missed Lafayette, Indianapolis and Cincinnati (which is in Ohio).

I awoke, after the one and only restless night on a train, as we approached Portsmouth, Kentucky and was rewarded with a stunning sunrise.

 

 

As we press on into West Virginia the scenery is very reminiscent of home - green and lush with undulating landscape - so different from the flat arid deserts and plains of Central America.

 

The photo above is taken in Huntington, WV and could almost have been an English village somewhere.

We could see the Gold domed Capital building of Charleston in the distance as we passed.

Following the Greenbrier River  we head towards White Sulphur Springs - the birthplace of American golf - which has hosted the Ryder cup at the World famous Greenbrier Resort.

 

 

The landscape is beautiful especially following the river and springs, trees and blossom are now in bloom and flowers are beginning to appear - spring has finally sprung in  West Virginia.

 

I have been looking forward to seeing Charlottesville and as we continue along the Shenandoah valley we start the climb into the Allegheny Mountains which mark the boundary between West Virginia and Virginia as well as the Eastern Continental Divide.

We finally reach Charlottesville early afternoon and the Sunshine is glorious and very welcome!

Charlottesville has been named the best place to live in the USA based on cost of living, climate and quality of life - and I'm not surprised.  It has a very organic, homespun, laid back feel to it.

Its Historic downtown mall is one of the oldest in America and the Town was undamaged by the Civil War as it was surrendered by the Mayor to spare it from burning.

An imposing statue of Robert E Lee, Commander of the Army of Northern Virginia, dominates in Lee park - another memorial to the Civil War.

I stopped at Timberlake's Drug store to sample the advertised 'best milkshake in Virginia' - you walk through the store and the diner is at the rear - it took a full 5 minutes to prepare my cherry milkshake and it was, indeed, stupendous!!

Charlottesville is home to not 1, not 2 but 3 former Presidents - Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe.

 

It is also home to the University of Virginia and Jefferson's renowned mountain top home Monticello (more of Monticello later).

 

 

I stayed at the beautiful Alexander Inn & Hostel with its own picket fence and front porch - the house was amazing inside - all wooden floors and I had a bedroom to myself not a dorm this time.  The house is owned and run by a co operative and is fully organic and totally Eco friendly, I could have stayed quite happily for weeks.



 

All the houses were of this traditional Virginian styling, all with front porches and rocking chairs.

 

After spending a very pleasant afternoon exploring the old town I made plans to visit Monticello the following day ...................



Back in the Windy City

After Kansas City my trip took me back to Chicago for an overnight stop before changing trains again to the Cardinal which would take me to Charlottesville.

As Chicago is my favourite place on the trip so far this can only be good news.  This time I am stopping at Oak 112 which is in the Gold Coast area of the city.

again a lovely old house but this time completely modernised inside giving a fresh contemporary feel - nice.

I bought the sunshine with me so set off into the city for a little retail therapy and gift shopping.

Of course, suffering from Bluebird Tea withdrawal I immediately headed to the next best thing - Argo Tea, for a refreshing iced chai (now my firm favourite).

As Oak 112 didn't have a PC I could use to update the blog they recommended I visit the Central Library where PC use is FREE - so I jumped on the 'L' and made a bee line.

The Central Library is huge and absolutely beautiful - inside and out ......

Disappointment of the day - Union Station was used for the famous 'pram running away down the stairs' scene in the file The Untouchables (Kevin Costner).  So I went to get a picture of the Grand Staircase - this is how it looked in the film .................

 

 

and this is what it actually looks like ...................

Unhappy Face! Not impressive at all and very narrow and small.

7.30 start in the morning for Charlottesville.

Follow the yellow brick road ..................

So not so bright but very early the next day I find myself back at the patch of concrete otherwise known as Williams Junction waiting to board the Southwest Chief once more, for the longest segment of my whole trip - I will be aboard for over 24 hours, covering 1293 miles and cannot wait to climb into my bed!  My Roomette is ready and waiting and I get straight to sleep.

There will be 2 time changes before I reach my destination so my body clock is well out of sorts - the time is punctuated by mealtimes and I have to admit, a cheeky little nap after my lunch.

By the time it is light we have crossed the boarder from Arizona into New Mexico - a pretty desolate place with hardly any vegetation or human settlements.

Inhabited by Native Americans for many centuries, New Mexico has also been part of the Imperial Spanish viceroyalty of New Spain, part of Mexico, and a U.S. territory. Among U.S. states, New Mexico has the highest percentage of Hispanics, including descendants of Spanish colonists and recent immigrants from Latin America.

The name New Mexico, or Nuevo Mexico, is often incorrectly believed to have taken its name from the modern Republic of Mexico. New Mexico was given its name by Spanish explorers believing there were wealthy Indian cultures similar to those of the Mexica (Aztec) Empire.

The picture above shows a distant 'Starvation Peak' - said to be where travellers sought refuge whilst on the Santa Fe trail after being chased there by native American Indians.  The Indians blocked their retreat and they starved to death - nice!

The scenery remains pretty repetitive as we roll on through Winslow and Gallup and after we stop at Albuquerque I am unable to get the Prefab Sprout rendition of the same name out of my head - very annoying to say the least!  When I posted the chorus on Facebook, Mr C asked me if I could name any other songs by Prefab Sprout - I could not, indeed I could only remember the chorus of this one song which repeated repeated repeated inside my head for miles - just as it had when it was Kristina's first favourite song as a child!

Just before we reached Raton the sky turned black and the relatively unheard of happened - it started to SNOW - now this is very rare in New Mexico and caused quite a stir on the train - we crossed into Colorado, and Trinidad did not live up to its namesake - by the time we reached La Junta ice was forming on the outside of the train windows.  This didn't happen even when we were caught in the snow blizzards approaching Denver.

Weird!!!!

As darkness fell I could see little of Lamar, Dodge City or Topeka as we reached Kansas.

The train arrived in Kansas City at 7:30 am with no sign of snow or rain - just a biting, gusty wind.

"I have a feeling we are not in Kansas anymore Toto" ....... well that depends on which part of Kansas City you are in and what side of the Missouri river you stand on - Kansas City is divided by the River putting one side of the city on Kansas and the other in Missouri.

I  stayed in Kansas.  And while we are on the subject Dorothy didn't wear Red Shoes - she wore Ruby Slippers - attention to detail please folks!

The Union Station in Kansas City stands on the Missouri side and is a beautiful example of  early 1900s architecture - the 'Beaux-Arts' building opened in 1914.

Union Station made headlines on June 17, 1933, as four unarmed FBI agents were gunned down by gang members attempting to free captured fugitive Frank Nash. Nash was also killed in the gun battle. The “Kansas City Massacre” highlighted the lawlessness of Kansas City under the Pendergast Machine and resulted in the arming of all FBI agents.

After falling into decline and closing in 1985 the station was redeveloped in the mid 90s.  Union Station is now home to Science City, a family-friendly interactive science centre with more than 50 hands-on exhibits; the H&R Block City Stage Theatre, a live-action venue with productions for young and old alike; the Reginer Extreme Screen, the largest 3-D movie screen in the region at five and half stories tall; two restaurants, an upscale steak and seafood restaurant, and the Harvey's at Union Station.

The developers have done a magnificent  job as the Station retains it Old World feel and transports you back in time as you walk through its halls.

After seeing a poster advertising a tour I couldn't resist a trip to The Federal Reserve Bank!

The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City is one of 12 regional Reserve Banks that, along with the Board of Governors in Washington, D.C., make up the nation's central bank. The Bank covers the 10th District of the Federal Reserve, which includes Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Wyoming, and portions of western Missouri and northern New Mexico and has branches in Denver, Oklahoma City, and Omaha.

 

 

It has an interactive money museum and a Dollar design section where you can superimpose a picture of yourself on the note and have it emailed home - just a bit of fun.

 

There is also a viewing gallery where you can watch the staff packing notes for storage in the vaults.  The crates of cash are then transported and stacked by robotic trolleys that move about the vault between sensors - very high tech.  None the less just paper to me as its always been!  They give you a bag of free money as you leave as a souvenir - $165 - shredded!

 

Kansas City's other claim to fame is that its the home town of Hallmark cards.  Created by 2 brothers back in the day, it has grown to be a multinational household brand and as I looked around the exhibition of their history it reminded me very much of the Cadbury family's ethos of community and company well being.  All staff were viewed as part of the 'Hallmark family' where they were developed and encouraged personally to achieve their potential.

 

A very interesting City to visit but alas, I soon had to click my Ruby Slippers together and return to Oz, I mean Amtrak.

 

 



 

 



 

Canyons, Cowboys and giggles

The Southwest Chief was going to take me on the 10 hour trip to Williams junction which covers 535 miles.

I boarded the train at 18:30 and of course, had a sleeper.  Unfortunately, because the train no longer goes right into Williams, Amtrak have created Williams junction so they don't have to come of their main line to drop people for the Grand Canyon.

This is Williams junction - one slab of concrete and a floodlight.  The train slows right down so as to line up the carriage with the slab of concrete for us to get off.  The guy collecting us at 4:50 in the morning loads our cases then switches off the floodlight before we leave!!!

So he then takes us to the Grand Canyon Railway hotel for our trip and stay where I have to sit and wait for the coffee shop to open at 6:00 - yawn.

I am taking a steam train trip to the canyon then a coach trip to see the South Rim.  This will be one of the highlights of my trip - I didn't have time to visit the last time I was in Arizona (too busy getting married)! And vowed I would visit the next time around.

Our trip began with a Cowboy show which was really quite amusing then on the train we had entertainment provided by Clyde Cords - our carriage attendant, Amber - Rose was very knowledgeable and gave us the lowdown on the surrounding area and the history of the rail line.

On arrival at the Canyon we transfer to Coaches for the tour to begin.

My pictures cant possible do the Canyon justice - it really is breathtaking to see.

As you can see it was quite cloudy but that added to our view as it cast shadow and light on the rock formations which only seemed to enhance their colours.

They don't really know how old the Canyon is but it is 70 million plus years old at least.  The ongoing dispute about what caused the canyon swings between the wearing caused by the Colorado River and evidence of a massive inland sea millions of years ago - throw in the San Andreas fault shifting a least a couple of times and this is what you end up with!

We only viewed the Canyon from the rim but many people have trekked down into the canyon over the years and originally before it became a tourist magnet it was a trail station and lodgings for trekkers.

The Blue Angel Lodge is on the south rim and the fireplace in the main room is built to reflect the different layers and rocks found in the canyon.

It was an amazing day and I managed to tick another one off my wish list.

We had Amber - Rose looking after us on the return trip and our carriage was mostly empty - only 8 of us returning at that time.  Amber - Rose had us in fits of giggles as she told us stories of her time on the trains and growing up in Las Vegas - we also got a big surprise half way back ...........

when the train was held up by Cowboys - all adding to the fun and a good day was had by all.


After an early tea it was off to bed as I had to get the return train at 3:50 the next morning Zzzzzzzzzz.....