Saturday Morning, Outside KC, Missouri

For those of you looking for updates, my apologies. As I wrote on Thursday, the Southwestern Chief has no internet service and travels directly through the region of “no coverage” on cell phone maps. Sitting in the cafe car after KC, I came across a guy wearing a headset and working off two computer screens. A...ha! He was kind enough to show me how to get WiFi service, so I'm going to post this contemporaneous diary of the past two days. 

Friday, 7:45pm Pacific Time, Amtrak Dining Car

Dinner on the train was…dinner on the train. Nothing to rave about and nothing to complain about. Tasty, slightly overcooked (not sure the chef knows the concept of “al dente”) and definitely filling. A little disappointed that it wasn’t like the movies – no mysterious woman in sunglasses sat down across from me and said, “Pretend you’re my husband!” OTOH, the person they DID seat me next to had her own bizarre tale to tell that might have outdone any spy-on-the-train story.

Context: Tables in the dining car are set for two or four people. Singles get paired up on an as-you-walk-in basis. I was looking forward to a peaceful dinner when the waiter brought my table-mate over. Middle-aged, slightly scattered and wearing a body brace from neck to belt-line. I smiled and said, “Good evening.”  Ignoring me, she called someone on her cell, chatting away as if I wasn’t there, hung up and adjusted the body brace. Then, unprompted, as if she and I had known each other for years, she launched into her tale of woe. The body brace? An ER in LA had diagnosed a broken vertebrate and outfitted her with the brace the previous day. Why was she in LA? To get married. To someone she’d been corresponding with on a seniors dating site. Did he show up at the train station? Not a chance. So for the previous three days she’d been living on the streets of LA. At which point I asked, “By the train station?” And when she said, “Yes,” I wanted to put my KN95 mask back on and flee to another car. For those of you who are unfamiliar with LA, that gorgeous train station is right next to LA’s bowery. According to health care workers, that tent city is a festering health crisis including every variation of COVID, every disease associated with shared needles plus regular outbreaks of typhus and tuberculosis. (!) Yeah, you read that right. 

Friday, 9:30pm Pacific Time, Barstow, CA

Came back from dinner and found my bed had been made and the curtains drawn. Very cool. No chocolates on the pillow, but nice enough. There are only two other occupied suites in this entire car, so showers, bathrooms, changing, etc. is easy enough. I lay around on my bed for an hour or so watching the endless parade of industrial zones that stretch along railroad tracks around the world. Turned off the light, put on an eye mask and only woke up three times during the night.

Saturday, 5:20am, Flagstaff, AZ

Got up, went to the observation car, and, as I had suspected, enjoyed the purple/orange sunrise and miles of open plains.

Saturday, 6:20am, Winslow AZ

Yes, all you baby boomers of a certain age, there really is a Winslow, AZ and now I can say I’ve been there. It was still dark, so I guess we were on the western edge of Mountain Time Zone, but the dining car opened at 6:30, so I grabbed a bite, chatted with my table-mate (A grandpa heading to Boston to visit his grandkids) and went back to my room for a couple of hours rest.

Saturday, 9am, Zuni Reservation East of Gallup, NM

Gosh, we live in a big country. I know I said I’m not a spectator/tourist, but it’s impossible not to be overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of the countryside. Of course, my old habits kick in and every five minutes or so I was thinking, “I gotta come back here with a rock hammer and a backpack.” You can literally see the millennia in the exposed strata of the rocks. It’s also impossible to ignore the abject poverty on the reservation and the irony of the White Man's Iron Horse just carving its right-of-way through the heart of their land. Also noticed the absence of bicycles. Virtually nothing is paved, so a horse is every kid’s bicycle. There are so many different Americas…

Saturday, 11am, Albuquerque, NM

It’s a good week to be on a train – I’m right between the Thanksgiving and Christmas family reunion crush. Have not seen anyone under 20 on board and it’s been low-key all the way. With no one boarding, stops have been short and we arrived here an hour early. But, of course, they don’t say, “Great, let’s keep this up!” Instead, the 30-minute layover turned into almost 90 minutes. I spent a fruitless half hour of that trying to connect any of my devices to any open network I could find, gave up and resigned myself to inspecting the “hand woven native blankets” on sale at the row of kiosks next to the station. All aboard….

Saturday, 2pm Mountain Time – Cliff Notes

I actually took four or five geology and geography classes in college, and I’ve found the ability of geologists to “read” the past quite fascinating. While I only spent five or six hours today in the  observation car, each time it was clear I was looking at a different part of the Earth’s history. The colors ranged from red to yellow to dark brown and black. Some were igneous, some metamorphic but each had a different story to tell. And I wish I knew more about it so I could “read” the stories.

Saturday, 7:20pm Mountain Time, La Junta Colorado

I’ve driven cross country solo and with Carole S probably a dozen times in both directions – from I-10 across the Redneck Riviera to I-80 across the Dakotas and badlands. I’ve walked a few hundred miles of the Appalachian Trail and I’m now doing it by rail. But I think OJ (H, not Simpson) has the right idea…he’s done it on his BMW motorcycle. What a great way to go. Driving IN the scene, not through it. Being able to stop anytime and anyplace your tushie tells you to. I’m reminded of this because OJ sent me a text about one of his favorite holes in the wall: La Junta, Colorado. I’m due there in two hours and there’s a 10-minute layover…so it’s possible I can find the internet and post all of this.