Message from Gigi: Day 1 – Final preparations for this very special trip with my mom. I said goodbyes to family & grandones leaving maps with promises of postcards to come along the journey to teach a little geography and US history. After servicing the car, I headed to St Louis. Arrived at mom’s at about 10pm after driving 6 hours, much of it through horrendous thunderstorms. Mom fed me homemade stew, and I gave her birthday presents. Today is her 74th birthday and we begin our adventure. We visited, she had a couple of surprises for me (an Airstream travel trailer bird house!!! and a red glass pitcher like her mother’s that is very special indeed). We discussed our packing, consolidated some, I showered, mom watched StL baseball game on her new BIG wall TV in her newly decorated bedroom. Finally I have ended my day and am in bed at 12:45pm CT. We leave 10:30am tomorrow to catch a train in Kirkwood, MO that takes us to downtown StLouis then we are onto Chicago where we spend the night near Grand Central before we officially embark on the Best of the West Train trip toward Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah, Colorado and 5 of the best national parks of the west. I am excited!

To find ALL of the entries of the BLOG for BEST OF THE WEST Vacation By Rail and my pictures, 

please go to: http://bestofthewestsuedarnellellis.posterous.com