Round The World and other travels
A frequent flyer's collection of trip diaries
This is: Amtrak Adventure 2019
Background
This voyage was the second of three extended trips in 2019 to the continent of North America, all undertaken with my Bristol-based friend, Bruce. The journey from Chicago to the Californian coast was partially inspired by Michael Portillo's TV series Great American Railroad Journeys. Having never been to the state of Missouri, I was delighted to have the opportunity to visit both St Louis (forget the song - it's pronounced 'Lewis') and Kansas City. For the avoidance of confusion, there's a Kansas City in Kansas (sometimes called KCK) and a Kansas City in Missouri (sometimes called KCMO). The latter is easily the larger of the two, and that's the one I'm talking about.
We then 'cheated' - or saved a bit of time, depending on how you choose to look at it - by flying to Denver. Taking to the tracks once more, we rode the California Zephyr train to the Bay Area in three separate chunks. Our joint vacation ended with a few days in both San Francisco and Los Angeles. Free from work constraints, I still had a bit more left in me. I tacked on a short solo road trip to San Luis Obispo and Hearst Castle, both inexplicable gaps in my previous coverage of the Golden State.
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