Standing On The Corner, in Winslow, Arizona (Photo taken by the author in 2026)

We don’t have the time or energy to make the entire journey on Route 66.

What we decided to do was simple; we drove from Phoenix, Arizona to Williams, Arizona. An easy 2 ½ hour journey on an Interstate Highway. Easy peasy, right?

What we did not expect was an incredible amount of rain to fall on Sunday November 1^st.  We had no problem until we neared the Prescott area of the state. They took us off the Interstate, and sent us on back roads for the next 2 hours of our journey. We were glad we had Waze on our phone, to give us a hint of what and where we were going, in the midst of pouring rain. Once I saw them directing us to Interstate 40, I finally felt confident we were going to get where we intended to be.

Williams, Arizona was flooded, but not impassable, so we got to our destination, the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel. We got to the hotel, and found out that power had been lost, and so they gave us “light Sticks” to see in the bathroom. The curtains were open, so we could see in the room itself. Thankfully, shortly after, the power returned. The problem was many places closed due to the loss of power, so we ended up eating at Carls’ Jr. at a truck stop. Not exactly the gourmet dinner we had planned.

The next morning, we did get to eat at the Fred Harvey Restaurant, right by the train station, and boarded the Grand Canyon Railway, for the 60-mile journey to the rim of the Grand Canyon.

The staff do their best to make the journey memorable, and we enjoyed our time on the train. Especially the Coconino Canyon area, just before you arrive at The Grand Canyon. Those curves allow you to see the front end of the locomotive, which always is interesting to see.

I personally would not pay to get the deluxe experience, but if you have money to burn, enjoy the view from the top, and possibly some drinks, though I am not sure if they have to pay for them, or if some are part of the fare.

We decided to stay in the Grand Canyon, for 1 night, to allow us to leisurely visit several areas, each day. Due to the level 4 water restrictions, there were no hotels on-site, and so we had to stay in Tusayan, about 6 miles from the rim. The AAA Package deal we purchased, moved us from the Maswik Lodge, to the Grand Canyon Hotel and Suites. They provided free taxi service back and forth, which worked out quite well. We utilized the free canyon shuttle bus, to get around, and that too, was excellent. The only restaurant open in the canyon, was The Fred Harvey Restaurant in the Bright Angel Lodge. The food was just OK, in my humble opinion.

Again, we stayed at the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel, upon our return from the Canyon, and that gave us time to decompress from all the travel and walking in the Canyon. A quick stop for dinner at the Rulu’s 66 Bar and Grill on Route 66, itself, was our first taste of the Route 66 Experience. The food was good wholesome American Food, and the staff were excellent.

The next morning, we had to finally break down and do our laundry. It was also an interesting experience, with lots of help from the people who were there doing their laundry. Thanks to all for helping us with the dryer situation. With us not being apple users, it was more complex, then usual. Someone finally used their account, and we paid them back with cash.

Williams was putting up their Christmas Tree on the main way into the Route 66 area, so that made travel, just a little awkward, but we got the hang of it quickly, and got around fine in Williams. Lots to see on the main drag of 66.

We moved on to the Flagstaff area, but on the way we calculated that we had just enough time to ride over to Winslow, Arizona, and Stand on a Corner. So, we passed Flagstaff, and drove another hour to Winslow. We were worried about flooding in the downtown area, but got off before the three closed exits, and drove Route 66 into town. When the speed limit becomes 15 mph, you know you are getting close. Find a parking space, and walk to the infamous “Corner”. There is music playing, in the area, and the two statues are there, the wall behind them, and a Flatbed Ford is parked in front. All ready to take photos of (which we did, see above). So, I have done the “Standing on the Corner in Winslow, Arizona” experience, and enjoyed getting ice cream, at the store across the street from the statues. Highly recommend it, if it is a hot day. More shops to purchase things, are all right there. It is touristy, but interesting.

 We returned to the I-40, and headed to Flagstaff, once again.  By the way, we passed the Meteor Crater,  along the route. I did not stop, but if that’s your thing, enjoy touching a piece of another planet.

Flagstaff, we have been to before, so no directions needed, for us to get around. The downtown area, by the train station, is where the action of Route 66 is. Unfortunately, it was late in the day, and we had our luggage, with no car, so we just sat at the station and ate dinner at a bench, while watching the freight trains go by.

All in all, it was not a fabulous experience, but it was our experience.

Photo from VIA Rail

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“There was a time in this fair land when the railroad did not run

When the wild majestic mountains stood alone against the sun

Long before the white man and long before the wheel

When the green dark forest was too silent to be real…”

I always loved this song, by Gordon Lightfoot. I was not aware of the fact that he was commissioned by CBC, for the 100th Anniversary of Canada.

It brought me a wish that I have had for decades. I have always wanted to ride the railroad, across Canada.

Finally, we are trying to make that happen.

There is a big sale going on, right now. Similar to our Amtrak , once a year sale.

It is called the Canadian Black Friday sale, and if you go to the VIA website, it shows you different discounts.

30% off is the sale for the cross country trip. Through the Rockies, and all the other places along the way.

Vancouver, Canada, to (in our case) Toronto, Canada.

The price given is in Canadian, so you need to convert it to US Dollars, to find out what you will be charged.

If you have ever wanted to book this kind of trip, now is the time to do it.

The sale lasts through this weekend.

Interested, check it out.

The Pacific Ocean, hitting a narrow beach. Photo taken by the author in 2026.

I am trying to thread a needle, in regard to the weather, and train travel from Flagstaff to Los Angeles.

The Summer has been absolutely horrid for the Arizona/New Mexico area of the Country. They deal with extreme heat, Haboobs, Thunder Storms, Fires, Flooding, just to name a few things.

I booked a mini vacation, the last weekend of October, and I am hoping that I manage to not have any of those things.  El Niño, should hold off until late December, or Early January. I would definitely not book train travel, during any of those months, since there is a large chance of flooding.

As it is right now, my one night at the Grand Canyon is within 2 days of being canceled. The last day they currently have a definite cancellation, is October 31^st. My trip puts us in the Canyon on November 2^nd. I have no idea if that date will move again. What caused this, was extreme flooding in the canyon itself. It took out a critical pipeline that brings water to the hotels on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, mine being one of them. I am waiting to hear more from AAA travel, about alternate lodging, for that one night. They may have some rooms booked just outside the park. We shall see.

El Niño  may cause other lines to have problems, at least out West,. They are:  the Coast Starlight, especially up in Northern California. The California Zephyr going through the mountain passes. The Empire Builder if the storm track goes north. Down South, the Sunset Limited/Texas Eagle.

You might want to book a journey a few days before departure, knowing what is going on, and what the 10-day forecast is for your route.

As always, please mask if you don’t feel safe. There is a lot of things in the air.

An engine from the Grand Canyon Railway. Photo taken by the author in 2022.

We have wanted to take the Grand Canyon Railway, since we saw it on our last visit to the Grand Canyon. We drove, and found that it is not really a great idea to drive, since visitors can park anywhere in the park. Trying to get our car near our room, was almost impossible, and once there, you didn’t want to move it, so you walked, or rode the shuttle bus.

A few weeks ago, I found a deal with AAA.

Three nights in a hotel. One at the Maswik Lodge on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon (which we stayed at before), and two nights at the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel in Williams. Plus, round trip for 2 on the railroad, breakfast and dinner at the Fred Harvey Restaurant next door to the hotel in Williams, and maybe one location in the Grand Canyon, and a $50 credit at the gift store in Williams. The total came to $708. We will be driving up from Phoenix, with our rental car, and the hotel will take care of it, while we are in the Grand Canyon.

When we return, we will probably check out Williams in the morning, before driving to Winslow, Arizona (to stand on a corner). Then drive back to Flagstaff, to return the rental car, and catch the Amtrak train, to Los Angeles.

If you have read some of my recent posts, we got a $300 credit from our USA Rail Pass, and I used it to get us a roomette for this overnight journey to Los Angeles. So that part was only $138, for the two of us. Slightly more than 2 coach seats, but it comes with beds, and (hopefully) breakfast in the morning.

The weather this summer has been brutal in Arizona, but I have hope for things to settle down by the time the Fall comes, like in October. We shall see, and we did purchase travel insurance, so I am not too worried.

As always, mask when you feel the need.

Disembarking from the Ferry, at The Port Of San Francisco. Photo taken by the author in 2026.

July 1st, is the beginning of the third quarter, and 5% cashback begins for travel and gas on some credit cards that give you cashback.

A friend mentioned that Discover Card is taking part in that offer, along with many other cards, so I looked into that.

I have been holding back on booking any trips for later in the summer, and the Fall, hoping to get this 5% cash back. I don’t do much driving, so the gas is not something that I purchase a lot of.

Look into what your credit cards offer, in regard to travel, and gas, and plan your purchases around these offers.

Anywhere you can save money, is free money, as long as you pay off your balance, in full, each month.

Photo is along the California Coast, south of Point Conception. Photo by the author in 2026.

When last seen, the intrepid travelers got sick on the 2nd trip using their USA Rail Pass, which you can read about HERE.

By the time they were symptom free, it was the final weekend of the pass, and the last thing they wanted to do, was get back on a train.

We were bummed out, but after about a week or so, I decided I would call Amtrak Guest Rewards, and find out if there was anything they could do, to help us get our missing 6 trips back.

It took over an hour to get to Customer Relations (you have to first call Amtrak Guest Rewards, and they will transfer you over).

The woman who helped us, offered us $150 credit on each of our USA Rail Passes.

We can use them for up to 1 year on any Amtrak trip.

That is totally fine by us, and hopefully, we will get somewhere using that credit. The only restriction is that if your trip is less than $150, you forfeit the remainder of the money. Make sure you book a trip that is longer in length, or purchase a roomette, for your journey.

This proves that it is worth asking Amtrak, if there is anything they can do when things go wrong.

Thanks Amtrak, and see you on the rails.

The train meet of the Coast Starlight, at San Luis Obispo Station 2026. Photo taken by the author.

We don’t know what did it, or when we caught it, but when we returned from our 3-day trip to Oakland, CA, we immediately felt sick. This was our 2nd round trip on our 10-trip rail pass. We had two other trips already lined up, for the very end of the one-month window. So here we are, on the final weekend of our pass, not up for the extra exertion that a rail trip would ensue, and feeling just a bit sad about how this all shook out.
We took a day trip to Oxnard, to start the 30 days off. We were on the Coast Starlight going up, and the Pacific Surfliner, going back to LA. The trip took longer than we expected, because we had to pick-up a disabled train, on our way back to LA. It took an hour to hook it up, and then test it. Because of this delay, we decided to leave the train early, and catch a commuter (Metrolink) train, at Burbank, which we would have missed, if we went all the way to Los Angeles.
It made the trip about 2 hours longer, but we were happy that we got home in the light, and did not have to make the drive from Downtown. We did mask in all appropriate places, so we do not know if we picked up anything, but we seemed to get past that trip, without getting sick.
Our next trip was the 3-day fast trip up the California Coast on the Coast Starlight. It took about 11 hours in total, to do the first leg. So, we were with the same group of people for the most part. Were any sick? I have no idea, but we did mask the entire time, on board. Our hotel room in Oakland was big, and seemed to be very clean.
To get over to San Francisco, we took the BART. I will admit that it was very crowded both ways, but in good news, it did not take too long, at all. We were masked both ways.
In San Francisco, we took a ferry to Angel Island and Tiburon. The ferry was not very occupied, so we did feel safe, though we did mask.
We had dinner at a restaurant in the ferry building, that had no other diners, so though not masked, we felt safe.
The next day, we were back on the Amtrak Coast Starlight, for our 11-hour journey home. We were masked again, but I did notice that my Husband seemed to be coughing a bit. The next evening, I was coughing and feeling miserable. Yeah, that fast. We don’t know which trip got us, but it took 2 weeks to get better, and feel like we could leave our house again. I did not test, but it seemed to be viral, and our Doctor prescribed Zyrtec and cough medicine for us. I am 95% sure it was not COVID-19.
On a personal level, I felt like I failed, because I know better. Well, being seniors, we have a harder time to begin with, dealing with luggage, and getting around, but that will not stop us from occasionally traveling, moving forward.
As to the 10 Pass, would I buy one again? Probably not, mostly because if you don’t have lots of time to just get on and off the same train, it is tough doing the entire thing in 30 days. The minute you get home from a journey, you really don’t want to go right back out on another one.

The Coast Starlight arriving at Union Station (2026). Photo taken by the author.

We waited until the final 30 days, to begin using our Amtrak USA Rail Pass.

You can take up to 10 trips with it, within 30 days. We bought it in January, but did not want to travel that early in the year.

So here we are, taking a day trip to Oxnard, to have lunch with a former work colleague.

We thought it would be an easy trip, hey, we are pros.

Not so fast, train rider, we are going to put a few things in your way, on this trip.

We bought our unlimited day pass for Metrolink, and spent an incredible $7.50. A great deal.

We arrive at Union Station an hour ahead of our Coast Starlight trains departure. Great, so we use the restroom, and sit down to wait.

We then see there is an long line to check in for the train, so I finally get up and check it out. Yes, we needed to get our seat assignment.

We then walk up to the track, and wait for the train. Glad we found out that we had needed to do that, though it seemed that they would also check you in on the platform.

The trip was going well, when all of a sudden, we hear that there is a hold, due to a train in front of us.

We passed the train at Camarillo thinking that we would not be seeing it again, on our return trip. Wrong, Wrong, Wrong.

We ended up about 15 or so minutes late, but our friend picked us up at the station, and we had a lovely time catching up, and eating at Andrea’s Seafood in Ventura.

He brought us back to the station in plenty of time, and so we used their restroom, and looked around.

What a beautiful station it is. Murals depicting historic events in Oxnard. The train comes about 10 minutes late, no big deal to us, but then they announce that we will be hooking up the disabled train from earlier, when we get to Camarillo.

They say it should not take too long. Yeah, right. 1 hour later we are finally on the move again.

So we missed an early train, and instead, ended up on a rush-hour train.

No biggie, but it was a 6PM arrival at home. Total time: 11 hours for a trip to Oxnard, for lunch.

Sunset at the TWA Hotel, in Terminal 5, of JFK Airport. Photo taken by the author. (2026)

We woke up at the TWA Hotel, and decided to get some breakfast. A New York bagel with egg and bacon and cheese (never a bad decision, IMHO) was enjoyed, and then we took a quick trip up to the roof of the hotel, to see the pool. It is fabulous, if you want a small infinity pool with an interesting view of airplanes moving on the ground, and taking off and landing.

We headed out on the air train, for our trip to Penn Station, to contine our journey back to Chicago.

We got to the Metropolitan Lounge at Moynihan Train Hall in plenty of time, and picked up our lunch there.

I have said this before, but they have great food at the Metropolitan lounge, the best I have had, and this was no exception.

Finally our train was called, and we asked for a Red Cap. Just an FYI, the Red Cap just carries your bags, you still have to walk to the train platform. So you decide if it is worth it. I personally appreciated the man showing us which car we were getting on, and placing our bags up into the train, so he deserved his tip.

Checking out our digs for this fast overnight train trip, we had the bathroom in the car, and the sink. It is not my favorite way to travel, but since we had 2 Roomettes, we just kicked out our partner, when needed.

To start, we went up along the Hudson River. Our side of the train did not view it, but that was OK, I saw it last year.

The first fresh air break is Albany, where the train connects with the Boston segment of the Lakeshore Limited train.

This makes it a long fresh-air break and everyone, and I mean everyone, runs to the restroom first (I think it is so funny).

Then you can buy souvenirs, or get gourmet coffee, at a place called Grind and Brew. Definitely it breaks up the trip.

Then we get dinner on the train and the sun sets, on another day.

By morning, we were already in Toledo, so it was not too far to Chicago. We ate breakfast, took a few photos and got ourselves ready to detrain.

At a little after 10AM, were were back at Chicago Union Station, where we said goodbye to our Son, and took a taxi to O’Hare, for our airplane flight home.

It was a good journey, and family bonding time. A rarity now days.

As usual, mask if you need to.

The view from TRYP Hotel, looking toward the New Yorker Hotel. Photo taken by author. (2026)

We arrived in NYC at about 10:30PM, and walked about 2 blocks to our hotel. TRYP, by Wyndham.  It was an interesting hotel, that we spent very little time at. The rooms were small, but they upgraded us to 2 rooms, since we were three people, and that was fine for us. The shower was an “Interesting” experience, and the bed almost hit the wall on the bottom edge. Otherwise, it worked for us. I am not sure if I would stay there again.

Breakfast was at Jacob’s Pickles, on the Upper West Side, on Columbus Ave. We were meeting a friend of my son, who lives just north of the restaurant. We Ubered over to it, and it was not too expensive ($27), and since we had all our luggage with us, was better than taking the subway. My husband and I got French toast Challah, and it was excellent, with way too much food.

After we ate, our friend Ubered us to Jamicia Station, where we caught the Air Train to Kennedy. That got us our rental car, for the next 2 days.

Out to the Island we drove, stopping at the Cemetery where my Brother-in-law is buried, and my parents. That out of the way, I brought us to the laundromat, to wash our clothes. After that task was done, we drove to my brother’s house, and brought him to dinner. It was cool seeing his train set in person, since we normally only see it on Facebook.

After dropping him off, we set out for our hotel for the next night, Holiday Inn Express. It was less expensive than the ones near where I grew up (who knew). They gave us breakfast, which helped us with our costs on the trip, and with the leftovers from our dinner the night before, we did quite well.

We visited with my sister for several hours, and then, in the rain, we drove back to Kennedy Airport, to drop off our rental. After we did that, we rode the air train, to the TWA Hotel in Terminal 5. I had spent a night there back in November, and promised my husband I would take him there someday, and what a wonderful time we had.

After checking in, we  decided to go to the sunken lounge, that had excellent drinks and inexpensive selections for dinner. We got Mister Softee ice cream for dessert, and in the morning, checked out the pool, getting some interesting photos.

On Monday morning, off we went to Penn Station, to take the Lakeshore Limited, back to Chicago.

A fast trip in NYC, but we got lots done in that time.