Around the World in 80 Days

Day 66: 29 November

At seven o'clock I pull aside the curtains and look out on a silvery-grey morning. A light covering of snow lies between the tracks as we ease into Salt Lake City.

Fogg came here to 'the curious Mormon country' on December 6, his 65th day out of London. I'm only a day behind now, after the Garnet crossed the Pacific ten days faster than the General Grant. On my 66th day I find myself in Passepartout's footsteps, climbing down on to the platform 'to take the air'. December 6 1872 and 29 November 1988 sound much the same. 'The weather was cold, the sky grey, but it had stopped snowing. The disc of the sun, enlarged by the mist, looked like an enormous piece of gold, and Passepartout was busy calculating its value in pounds sterling . . . '

Plenty of time at Salt Lake City this morning to calculate the value of the hazy sun as we are waiting for a connecting train from Seattle which is reported stuck in a snowdrift high in the mountains. The Seattle train, known as the Pioneer, combines here with the California Zephyr from San Francisco and the Desert Wind to form the California Zephyr service to Chicago. We are thirteen cars long when we eventually pull out of Salt Lake City, with three diesel locomotives to haul us up and over the Rockies.

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PALIN'S GUIDES

Series: Around the World in 80 Days
Day: 66
Date: 29 November
Country/sea: USA
Place: Salt Lake City - Utah
Book page no: 212

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Around the World in 80 Days

Day 66: 29 November

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