usa rail pass. 5th segment: chicago to green river, ut.

underneath the windows.

my train left chicago at 2pm on new year's day. the ride through illinois, iowa and nebraska was pleasant. i spent some time knitting in the lounge car and was hit on by an old drunk guy. tim, the drunk guy, offered to buy me dinner if i knitted him a hat (i declined). then, he offered to buy me a drink (jack and coke, i declined). finally, he offered me some cheese and crackers (also declined). as he was going through the goodies in the cheese tray, he pointed out "a cheese tray is like a box of chocolates". he also commented that flirting was the only way to get things done (in response to getting 3 free sodas from the snack car lady). he was rather entertaining to sit next to for a while. eventually, his nephew dragged him back to their sleeper car (hopefully to sleep off some of the booze). hilarious.

somewhere in the rockies.

for a while i was sitting by a university of illinois engineering professor. she was really awesome! her and her husband used to live in southern california, travelled around for a while and recently bought a cabin out in the mountains of wyoming. they still backpack around yellowstone every summer. i could grow up to be like her and that would be okay.

loved this little yellow house.

i didn't sleep very well, but "woke" up when we stopped in denver. after we passed through denver, i watched inception (good movie). i might need to watch it again, partly because it's the only movie on my hard drive and also because we started the trek into the rockies, so i was distracted much of the time looking out the window.

outside the lounge car.

it's moments when i see huge towering cliffs and wide sweeping vistas that i'm glad i took the train. getting through the nation's heartland was a little difficult to deal with . we've had daylight all through the mountain passes, so it's made it worth getting through the heartland. and they let me have the kid's mac 'n cheese at lunch. bwahahaha!

my train arrived on time into green river. heidi met me and in order to avoid hitting some traffic from a recent accident on the interstate, we stopped at a little pizza place. heidi got some chili and i ordered an oreo milkshake. it was awesome!

we then drove back to the trailer heidi lives in at canyonlands national park. she's the "trail expert" at island in the sky. she said she spends most of her time hiking around trails and setting up cairns to define where the trails go. it's awesome.

me and the new hat heidi gave me!

the next morning, we woke up early to catch the sunrise at mesa arch, apparently the quintessential sunrise view at the park. my camera decided to lose it's battery power right when the good part started to happen, and i forgot to grab the extra one from the car, but i managed to take some nice pictures.

we then went on a series of short hikes all around the park: the white rim overlook, the grand view, aztec butte and the upheaval dome. here are some highlights.

at the white rim overlook.

along the great view trail.

heidi scaling aztec butte.

hi there!

it's a baby condor! (not really).

oh canyonlands national park.

as we were finishing off our adventures at the upheaval dome, it started to snow, which was really great. the snow here in the high desert is different from any other snow i've experienced in the midwest and new england. instead of the heavy, dense, wet flakes, the snow is light, fluffy and full of sparkly crystals.

we spent the evening making a delicious meal of costa rican rice and beans and drinking mimosas. this was probably the best day i've had my entire trip.

we had a slow morning and spent the afternoon in moab. thanks to heidi for being an amazing host. making me coffee, letting me sleep in and in general being an incredible friend. hopefully life will bring us together soon!