Searching for America – by train
Fort Mill resident R.J. Provost recently took a cross-country train trip and is sharing his experience in four installments. He is a licensed private investigator who is getting ready to retire and a U.S. Army veteran who served with the 82nd Airborne Division Military Police. For readers who may not be familiar with some aspects of his written dialect, he refers to it as “Appalachian-American.”
Part 3 of 4
Since adding coaches at San Antonio, we are encouraged to breakfast between 6:30 to 7:30 a.m. After that, it becomes crowded and a list is required.
Slept well and never heard the thunder and lightning at San Antonio. Only woke up a few times, going real fast and almost rolled out of bed.
Good breakfast with good company. Spent over an hour in the observation car and had a great conversation with a nice retired couple from Canada. He was a high school chemistry teacher and she taught English.
This open range country is simply incredible. No trees. Hills and gullies along with dried river beds. Pretty dry. There were lots of deer blinds, always in proximity to what appear to be feeders. Much wild game.
Truly, this is where the deer and the antelope play.
Stopped and stretched at Alpine, Texas. It’s been almost sub-tropical warm and I was wearing a short sleeve shirt when I stepped onto the platform. It was very chilly and I learned Alpine is at 4,485 feet elevation.
An announcement was made noting several inquiries about Wi-Fi. The train has no Wi-Fi but they have something better: “Windows, Live!”
Lunch found four of us seated at a table. All from different parts of this country and all united in our love for train travel. More great conversations.
El Paso and West Texas are dry desert. Crossed the Rio Grande and climbed some mountains, Mexico on the left.
Into New Mexico. Flat desert, some of it is white sand. Big jagged mountains in the distance. Not much life but a jackrabbit and a few buzzards flapping overhead. The desert is covered with brush. Mesquite and sagebrush I ’spect.
Crossed the continental divide at 4,587 feet elevation.
Tuscon was chilly since we arrived sometime after dark. Been getting behind time so we did not stop at Demming or Lordsburg.
Believe the class of French students disembarked here along with a lady having medical issues. She was moved by a stretcher into the ambulance.
A little worried about making the connection at L.A. tomorrow. The porter says they sometimes arrive an hour early and sometimes an hour late.
Walked back and forth on the platform until exhaustion set in. We had an hour layover.
So nice to get everything packed and organized. Took another contortionist shower, put on the jamas and slept very well.
This story was originally published May 24, 2016 at 9:56 AM with the headline "Searching for America – by train."