The adventure begins

 Whew.  So this is a little overdue because I don't have a good way to post from the 'road.'  I'm pretty dependent on my laptop and wi-fi to update this, which normally won't be a problem except that between leaving Friday and actually settling into the ship Wednesday, I only had little pockets here and there and most of those were sleeping or switching trains or what have you.  So it's been a few days of new pictures and travels.

Buckle in.  Or, ya know, read this in chunks.  

Or don't read it.  I'm not your supervisor. 

In preparation for leaving the country, on Thursday (April 24th) I climbed Prospect Mountain, on which my parents' house is built.  It's a terrible view; I don't know why anyone likes it.  I did find a pretty large quartz boulder (I think) on the hike.  Prospect Mountain is a chill afternoon hike, but I was still a little proud of completing it.

The journey started proper on Friday (April 25th) at the Denver Amtrak station, Union Station.  I realized for perhaps the first time that the reason so many train stations are called Union Station (Chicago and Denver both use that name, and I think New York City does as well) is that Union Pacific was one of the major railroad operators and owners in the early days of train travel and expansion.  I'm not sure on that and I'm too lazy at this moment to research it, but it does make sense.

The train left in the evening, around 7pm MT.  I was lucky enough to land a front row seat which had, as it turned out, actually about the same leg room as the other rows, though without a seat in front of me there wasn't the seat incline to change the spacing.  The trip from Denver to Chicago went overnight 25th-26th, meaning there wasn't really anything to take pictures of (it was dark before we even got to the Colorado border).  We arrived in Chicago early afternoon, where I met a friend/coworker who dragged me around Chicago, first for dim sum at Triple Crown, a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, then to a small store with classic unusual flavors (I taught English for a year in China, so this kind of thing was not that strange to me).  Then he took me through downtown with some historical descriptions of the buildings, down to the waterfront for a view of Lake Michigan and the Chicago skyline.  A handful of pictures from that: 1 2 3 4 5.

The train from Chicago to New Orleans left later in the evening, so again the first part of that trip was in darkness.  I believe we were in southern Illinois, though, when we got back to sunrise.  In Louisiana, the view was certainly much different than what I'm used to in Colorado.  The train went over part of the bay via long bridges, with more scenery on the other side before getting in to NOLA where my friend Kelsey picked me up and we wandered around a bit.

NOLA itself, I don't have a ton of pictures of because if you want to see downtown/French Quarter and such, there are better quality pics on the internet.  I did take a couple, including this grossly cute sign advertising the restaurant's options for pets.  Another waterfront here to take a few pictures of, as well as Jackson Square where some horse-drawn carriage horses had nail polish.  There was also this house of distinct historical significance (the bottom plaque says "on this site in 1897 nothing happened).  We had an absolutely divine dinner, creole alligator for me and etouffee for her.  Then we went to the motel I'd booked, crashed for the night, and the next day began our trip across Mississippi, Alabama, and the Florida panhandle with a hell of a breakfast at Brick and Spoon near Mobil, Alabama (clockwise, that's Bananas in Pajamas, breakfast tacos, beignets, and creole omelette with grits).  We also made a stop in Navarre Beach for a quick walk along a white sand beach.  More assorted pictures from that section of the journey: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 

That leg ended in Jacksonville, where another hotel stay at what is supposed to be a non-smoking hotel preceded meeting the Amtrak down to Miami.  They're trying to appeal to the youth with somewhat anime-styled "see something say something" posters. No pictures from that, though there was a very understandable three-hour delay in Orlando.  They did give us little snack packs during the delay, which was thoughtful.

My hotel room in Miami had another terrible view that was definitely not good enough for a selfie the next morning.  Contrary to what the name suggests, the hotel also had a lobby bar that wasn't exactly in the lobby.  I did a quick walk through downtown to a Target for some last-minute things, passing some interesting things along the way.  This nifty statue was near the Museum of Ice Cream, which I did not go into but did see the exit and gift shop for.  There was this store that sold apparel for the Terminator T1000.  So that's neat.

From there, it was finally on to the ship itself, just as grandiose as you'd expect from a modern cruise ship.  My room was oddly charming (requisite bathroom picture), and the ship has some very cool recreational options on board. I got numerous pictures of Miami, from in dock and after we set sail, so here's another dump of those. 1 2 3 4 

To cap off this post, here are two pictures that are particularly meaningful to me: a picture of my past life growing distant behind me and an open, uncharted future ahead.  I expect that will be the last time I see any part of the US for quite some time.  It's interesting how little weight that carried for me, really; such a heavy, life-altering moment still just felt kind of normal.  Perhaps it's the nomadic nature that lead me to this life in the first place that just softens the impact of such changes.  Perhaps it's the experience of moving to China just 7 years ago that got me kind of used to it.  Whatever the case, I feel completely ready to begin the next chapter in Europe, as though it were just another stop on the train or another new apartment I'm moving to in the States.

 I feel like this post requires some kind of sign-off or closing "button"...but when my life itself doesn't currently have that, maybe the most atmospheric way to end this is just to--