usa rail pass. segment 9: salt lake city to sacramento.

right now i'm enjoying a delicious greek yogurt parfait, an equally delicious veggie breakfast sandwich and a warm cafe mocha at the train station. i woke up early at my hostel. even though i was exhausted, i had a hard time sleeping. part of it was the really annoying noises from the cross walk right outside the building. part of it was that i don't even know what time it is anymore from changing time zones so much. another part is that i think i might be getting sick yet again. ugh!

my travels from salt lake city were quite pleasant. the train arrived early to the station, so i boarded, got myself comfortable and fell asleep. i slept most of the night and woke up to the frosty paradise of northern nevada. i found myself pleasantly surprised with the rolling hills. once we passed reno, a few folks from one of the historic railroad societies boarded the train and gave some fascinating interpretation of our journey through the sierra nevada mountains.


one of the highlights was passing by donner lake, the site where the donner party got their fame. i managed to go to the dining car for lunch and chatted with some fun folks. then my train arrived into sacramento around 2pm bringing an end to my adventures on the california zephyr on my rail pass.


the hostel was only 5 blocks away. after checking in, i had a full afternoon to explore. i took a tour of the capitol building, went to the post office to send out a few post cards and wandered around for a bit. after catching up on the internet world while lounging in the hostel's really comfortable chairs, i walked around town trying to find something for dinner. i eventually went to brew it up! and had a delicious beer and salad.


i think there were only 3 people in the entire hostel last night. but that wasn't too bad.

now i'm back to sitting at the train station. my train is delayed leaving sacramento by about an hour and a half. not too bad, but certainly not ideal. i hope we can make up that time along the way...i have quite a long journey to go.