We all slept with varying degrees of success throughout the night, except for Gaylord and TommyH who of course shared the luxurious sleeper compartment. We rolled into the central time zone and soon the sun was coming up as we rolled into the BEAUTIFUL Omaha Train station. Word was there is a BIG renovation project going on with the result hopefully being a mini Chicago type Union Station. Lot’s of land based infrastructure improvements as well as rolling stock and system improvements needed on America’s passenger railroad system if they ever wish to be competitive with airline and car travel.
We headed to the dining car and had a nice breakfast as the trained rolled through the western Iowa landscape. The train was about 2 hours late and all bets were off when we might actually arrive in Chicago. Then a four hour bus ride to MSN. It ended up we were traveling for over 36 hours to get home, arriving about midnight Friday. A loooong journey.
OBSERVATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS:
The trip turned out to be a rousing success. And no wonder with all the planning sessions (READ: beer drinking) we had! Of course the credit goes to Greg who did a fabulous job with the planning and pulling all the details together. The condo, hotel, truck transport, biking, hiking, outfitter and food were all wonderful. Compared to Wisconsin, the terrain, grades and elevations were a new experience to may of us mountain bikers. The openness of the terrain, canyons structure, natural bridges, arches and especially the vistas of the Utah landscape was nothing short of STUNNING. Next time, some may fly to save some time . . . of course when being retired, what’s the rush!
A big part of the trail experience and success was contracting with Escape Adventures and the services provided by our camp master, Merrick. We all agreed it would have been a very much different experience without Merrick there at the end of the day to do the cooking and dish washing. He is a great young man and I’m sure will excel in his journey through life in whatever future endeavors he pursues.
The mbbt gang that went had a great time and will relive the adventure many times over beers at Funk’s, where we will undoubtedly start planning the next one!
Safe Riding!
Ridin’ Rick