Sitting at The Top of Donner Pass January 6

Later January 6, stopped on the mountain

Well, it is now 6 hours since the train left Reno, and we still have two hours left to Emeryville.  We’ve spent a lot of time waiting for traffic to clear, as in freight trains to go past us.  Amtrak does not own the rail.  The rail is owned by Union Pacific, and their trains take precedence over the Amtrak trains….so we waited.

I keep reminding myself that it is only a 4 hour drive, from Reno to Oakland, and then I start to think about the extra 4 hours the train is taking…and…I’m finding writing this blog is very therapeutic.   Because writing this makes me think.

We got some really good pictures as you can see from what we’ve posted.  The snow is deep, and the sun was out.

I've spent time with my wife talking, looking out the window.  There is plenty of time for talking and focusing on each other.

The bar is open, which would have been a real no-no if we had been driving.  Advantages of the train.

The sunset is pretty good.  We’ve seen better, but we have also seen many with less color.

And for the life of me I cannot think of reason where the four hours would have been put to better use.  It is nice to be able to think of time as an item we have at our disposal as opposed to a taskmaster who is driving us.

The guy who said take time to smell the roses was right.