Railroading 5

June 3, 2012

We’ve rolled through southeastern Colorado and the highest point in the train’s trip, the Raton Pass, at 7800 feet, about a mile and a half above sea level. Lunch was an excellent cheeseburger!

I’ve seen some antelope and jackrabbits in New Mexico and, inexplicably, what appeared to be a real Pershing Tank parked next to a dilapidated house. I guess crime may be a problem in these parts.

It’s a shame that the train has to slow down to about 10 MPH for some of this trip, due to track work, broken signals, and local freights (the freights own the tracks, so Amtrak is a lower priority). We’re currently about 45 minutes behind schedule coming out of a service stop in Albuquerque. It’s somewhat strange to see a tank truck pull up to fill the gas tanks! (The train is pulled by two engines.)

The vast impression on this leg is that the country is HUGE and largely unoccupied. We tend to see land use only in our narrow perspective. (I read that everyone in the world could stand in my home state of Rhode Island and have a square yard of room. Maybe then we could raise some decent tax money.) About 85% of the people on New Jersey (in the top ten of populous states) live on 5% of the land.

I’m looking out a window right now where there is nothing for miles and I think you’d be hard pressed to find a beetle.

Hard to believe we’ll be in LA in the morning. We have a suite at the Peninsula in Beverly Hills. That should provide some decent contrast, since the walk-in closets will be larger than our present accommodations. Yet, we’ve done nicely, and if they had room service here on the Southwest Chief, we never would have had to leave the room.

However, I’ve become quite the social butterfly and I’m talking to everyone. The secret is to merely ask where they are from, where they are going, and why they took the train. That’s it. Not one person has asked me any other question. My son called his mother to see if I had killed anyone, yet. He was amazed at my new prolixity.

My Verizon card somehow died, and the train has no Internet, so I’ve been using my iPhone with its hotspot. But that only works when I’m in range of AT&T, and I’m not sure some of these stretches even receive ultraviolet light.

I already know I’m having the ribs for dinner.