On A-day I was in Vietnam, so I missed the transition. However, after my return flight over the Pacific on my way out in November 1971, "We will ATTEMPT a non-stop flight across the Pacific (from Japan) to Travis AFB, California," I decided to take the rest of my trip on the ground. I took the CZ from Oakland to Chicago, then the John Whitcomb Riley/George Washington to Washington DC, where I intended to be for a while after getting out. The CZ was 9 cars, including a SP long dome, part UP cars, part SP cars. We had 3 SP units to Ogden, then 3 UP units to Denver. Cheyenne to Denver was a swap engines to other end, train runs backwards. At Denver the train more or less doubled in length, all CB&Q cars plus CB&Q engines. The George Washington: Fast on the ICRR out of Chicago, then slow on the Penn Central across Indiana, leaving us something like 2 or 3 hours late out of Cincinatti. C&O the rest of the way, keeping the run time. Beautiful ride in the C&O dome car. A very relaxing way to get reacquainted with the US. All in coach except Denver to Chicago in sleeper.
Missing all the screaming anti-war protesters in SFO was also a consideration.