Me and Julio

Sunday...time to go home. I packed up the night before so I was pretty much ready. I also broke the coffee maker last night so I was a little worried if my jerry-rig attempt to fix it would work this morning.....it did!   I loaded up and checked out of the hotel and headed off to get a little gas in the car and them headed toward the car rental

The hotel was OK this time -- I had 2 pots. My expectations are so low by now that they can't miss....almost.  I guess it would kill them to put a chair in the room. You can either sit on the bed or sit at the table on a wood bar stool.  Or stand.  What do I expect for $32 a night?

The car rental (Enterprise) was busy but I got my bill settled and it was only about $180 for the week. The car was OK for what I needed.  They got me to the train station and I checked my big suitcase and sat for about 10 minutes before the train arrived....over a half hour early -- a good omen.

My sleeper attendant is Julio (Hoo-lio) and he is great and looks snappy in his Amtrak uniform -- they say clothes make the man. He is friendly and chatty. The train was well used already, this being their second day out of Los Angeles.  You can usually tell that with your nose.

We pulled out of the station on time.  We don't have any private cars this time. Julio made my lunch reservation for 12:45 and I was getting hungry. When my seating was called I trooped to the dining car and was seated with Linda and Jim, from Michigan. They did the hand thing to show me that they live due west of the state thumb over on lake Michigan. Everyone from Michigan does the hand thing...they must teach it in school.....but what if you are from the upper peninsula? Is there some other kind of hand thing for UP?

Anyway, Jim and Linda were going home after coming to NM for a funeral. Jim was born in NM but moved with Linda back east about 4 years ago. He is a retired history teacher and I think Linda was also a teacher. I told them my story of buying a house and they filled me in on all kinds of details and even the best local restaurant. Jim lived in Rio Rancho for a while. They also told me all the places I need to visit.  As we ate lunch we could see the smoke from the forest fires still burning. They tried to drive up to the top of Sandia Mountain but the roads were closed due to fire danger. I had an Angus Burger with cheddar cheese and potato chips and a soda, coffee and blood-orange sorbet.  I'm going to lay off the sorbet after this. It's good but I'll try something else.

It has been so dry that you appreciate green when you see it. Desert plants are a pale green or even a dull silver ---unless they are brown. As the train climbs up into higher elevations there has been more rain and the ground is splotched with a dozen shades of green.  There seems to be plenty of water in the streams -- for June -- up in the higher country.  There are a few fly fishermen out near Raton!!!

Raton is a smoking stop so I piled off the train to get some air and walk around. Jim and Linda were there so we chatted some more about fly fishing. Chama River near Navajo Dam and the San Juan and the Cimarron rivers were good places to fish. I've fished the Cimarron but not the others.

 

Getting back on the train seemed easy...no stragglers. I grabbed a cup of Julio's coffee on my way back to my room. They have a coffee pot going in the sleepers almost all the time.  As soon as we left Raton we headed through Apache Canyon and then over the pass through the tunnel and into Colorado.   It's all downhill from here.  Colorado seems much greener on the other side of the pass.

I was getting sleepy so I called Jill and chatted for a while about soccer and basketball. They called me for supper at 6:45 -- it seems like supper time rolled around pretty quick.

My supper companion was Hank, a theater director and independent film producer from Fort Worth.  We talked about his theater productions and what he was doing in Albuquerque. He went to the grower's market and filmed and interviewed some NM farmers selling produce and then went to the Petroglyphs National Monument and filmed an interview with the Park Ranger.  He was on a quick trip to Albuquerque to help a friend move to UNM to teach economics for the summer. Now he is heading back to Fort Worth via Kansas City and St. Louis...yikes,  what a route...his friend drove and then he had to get back as best he could.

Supper was pan seared tilapia with a red bell pepper sauce, mixed veggies, wild rice, salad and a roll. I got a white wine ($6) and later coffee and cheesecake.  Once again I'm eating across America.  I'll see Hank again tomorrow because he takes the train to St. Louis which will drop me off in Jefferson City.

We pulled in at La Junta and I was able to find a hot spot for a few minutes. That is the last smoking stop until Kansas City so the smokers all took advantage. That is also a crew change point so it takes a few minutes to get back on the way with a new crew and they do all of the same announcements all over again. The sun went down and I think we crossed back into central time a little east of La Junta.

 

I stayed up and read for a while and then Julio showed up to convert my room into a bed. I tried to sleep but I think that I need to bring ear plugs along on my next trip. The train sounds its horn at every road crossing and in Kansas they have a grid road pattern so there are lots of road crossings.

 

I apparently did sleep because I was surprised when Julio woke me up. I think I slept 45 minutes. The train pulls into Kansas City at 7 AM so I needed to get my stuff organized and get some breakfast before we got to the station. I was seated with Ray, a guy on his way to someplace near Moberly, Mo. Ray must ride the train a lot because he knows some of the workers and attendants. He was coming home from a visit to the San Francisco bay area.   We were both getting off at Kansas City so we didn't chat for very long. 

 

At Kansas City we had to all parade into the waiting room and sit for a while even though the River Runner, our train going east, was sitting on the tracks waiting for us.  Before long, Hank appeared and asked if he could interview me for his film project. Apparently he is just collecting people at random as he makes his trip back home to Fort Worth. So I got interviewed -- maybe three minutes long. I'm calling it a "cameo appearance".  Hank is a giant of a man...African-American with dreadlocks weighing close to 300 pounds or more.  If Hank wants to interview you, you will probably agree.

 

We finally got the call to board our train so we all trudged back to the tracks. The group included a number of folks who seemed to be off their meds. One guy was hearing music that no one else heard and was really getting into it...until he fell asleep.  Another guy was intent on doing calisthenics and push ups on the floor.  Hank didn't try to interview these folks.

 

The trip back to Jefferson City was quiet and uneventful except for the woman the EMTs had to haul off the train in Warrensburg. We were met at the station by an ambulance and a fire truck and the lady was wheeled away to the ambulance on a gurney...not looking very good. Hope she did OK. 

After spending a week in New Mexico, Missouri looks like a jungle.  It isn't only green it looks like the vegetation wants to take over everything. There is water standing everywhere, too, so that is keeping everything green and growing.

Home was fine and Watson was happy to see me.