The ride home aboard Amtrak. Spring Vacation 2013, Part 12

Sunday, May 12

I never pass up a chance to walk the platform in Salt Lake, even though it's in the middle of the night. I like the opportunity to stretch my legs off the train and breathe in some fresh air. Even in the dead of winter.

I also enjoy the ride afterward to Provo. Amtrak utilizes UTA's FrontRunner commuter rail line, the longest stretch of mostly straight rail the Zephyr runs on – perhaps even longer than the Metra line leading to Chicago – and the train gets one of its few opportunities to really fly. Though being in the middle of the night, the steady rumble of the sleeper car over the rails eventually lulls me back to sleep.

Waking up for good in Helper, Utah, I snap a pic of an abandoned roadhouse – the Halfway Club – that I've tried to get a decent shot of in years.

The remainder of the day busies me with some rear-of-the-train photography with my iPhone while we traverse along the Colorado River. Night through Nebraska goes pretty much without incident.

Monday, May 13

I had entertained alternate ways home before going to bed the night before. My original plans was to travel over to Ottumwa and catch a late-afternoon bus home from there. I considered getting off earlier in Osceola for a late-morning bus to Des Moines, but could not make a purchase online because I needed a printer to produce a ticket for the driver. At least Megabus has the common sense to ditch the need for paper.

Coming into Omaha nearly on-time, I was able to Dutch a cab ride to the bus station and catch a sunrise bus heading east. Back home in the metro, I arrived early enough to catch the last dregs of the morning rush hour on I-235. Home at last with a full day to rest before resuming wage servitude.