A Ride on the Southwest Chief - part 2

I did not have a lot of trouble sleeping in the car. I woke up a few times, and I was a little paranoid about rolling out of the upper bunk, but overall not bad. The bunks were on the firm side, probably as a result of the thin mattress. A Benadryl helped me get some sleep. The temperature in the cabin was alright - hot then cold then hot again. We managed to adjust it well enough to be comfortable.

When we awoke, it was about 7:30am, and we were nearly in Colorado. I didn't notice the stops in Kansas while we were sleeping - the train stops and starts very smoothly. The dining car attendant made an announcement over the intercom that there were seats available for breakfast and we decided to go. We cleaned up a bit, changed clothes, and made it to the next car for some food.

Breakfast was pretty good. The menu is limited, including a "continental breakfast," French toast, scrambled eggs, and the omelet of the day. We were seated with a gentleman going home to California after visiting his daughter in Kansas. The meal started with a welcome cup of coffee.

I had the continental, and I chose the steel cut oatmeal (the other choice is cold cereal). You also get fresh fruit (a grapefruit half and a small dish of strawberries), Activia yogurt (which I don't eat because it has gelatin), milk and brown sugar and raisins for the oatmeal, and a choice of bread (I had the cinnamon raisin toast).   The oatmeal was quite good and hit the spot, and the fruit was fresh and juicy. Unfortunately, the  brown sugar for the oatmeal was rather dried out. Dear husband had the French toast and said it was tasty. Our booth-mate ordered the omelet.  It looked pretty good.

Meals are included in the fare if you get a sleeper car. If you're in coach you have to pay for meals.  It isn't cheap, but it's not bad, running between $8.00-$12.00 per entree or so.

Then back to the room to watch the world go by. We folded up the upper bunk, packed up the lower bunk mattress, and set up the two face to face seats. Now we had ourselves a little cubby to camp out.

Had I been paying attention, I would have taken more pictures to document the journey - you'd think after blogging for 4 years, I would know better.  What can I say... I'm more of a writer than photographer.

Here I am in our car, passing the time with a knitting project:

On the Southwest Chief 11/23/11

Yes indeed, the window is on the right side of the shot, the door on the left. It's a narrow little room. And yes, its not the most flattering shot ever.

The rest of the morning we lounged in the car, looked out the window, stepped off the train briefly to stretch our legs in La Junta, CO (a 10 or 15 minute stop), and played with all the toys we brought with us. In addition to my knitting, I also brought a couple of e-books on the Kindle and the how-to book I also received with my new camera.

Train travel is not very fast. At times, we crawled along at 10mph or less, and at other times, it seemed we went up to about 70mph. I was surprised by this, having only had longer-distance experience on the Shinkansen in Japan (upwards of 300mph). The train lurches sideways on the tracks and makes all kinds of weird mechanical noises. I was surprised how much of the time the whistle blows.

Lunch was at 12:30. We were seated with a couple from Michigan who were going to San Diego to visit their son for Thanksgiving and we had a nice conversation with them over our veggie burgers. The  menu was short again, but we were thrilled to see vegetarian choices. Curiously, though, the vegetarian salad of the day, which our booth-mates each ordered, was topped with bacon. Bacon?!?!

Since when is bacon a vegetable?

Probably since Congress acted on the matter.... Ha ha ha ha ha!
(This is a reference to a recent news story that the United States Congress was considering counting pizza as a vegetable on school lunches)

Anyway, lunch was pretty good and we indulged in dessert to top it off. I had the Tiramisu parfait, which was creamy and rich. Husband had the bourbon pecan pie, and said it packed a punch from the bourbon. One of our booth companions had the ice cream, which turned out to be a prepackaged cup of Haagen Dasz.

By the time lunch was done, we realized we only had about 3 hours til our destination. We wanted to see some more of the train so we went down to the lounge car, which was on the opposite end of the dining car.  I pulled out the camera to play a bit.

Here's what much of the landscape looked like. 

We are in northern New Mexico at this time, north of Santa Fe

The lounge car has sideways facing seats, a few bench seats, and larger windows. In the shot above, you can see the reflection of the windows behind me. There are several tables with bench seats for snacking or playing cards or games.  It was not crowded. 

Looking down the lounge car

Snack cafe is on the lower level

We sat for a while, but ultimately decided we liked our little berth better. We could take our shoes off and stretch out. I understand a lot of the coach passengers sleep in this car.

In another 90 minutes, we were pulling into Albuquerque. About 10 minutes before you arrive, they warn you that the next stop is coming, and they tell you how long the stop will be. Some stops you can get out (and smoke, if you need to) and some stops are just to drop off and pick up. There are a few long stops where you have a good 30-45 minutes to wander around, but on our leg of the trip, we got on during a long stop, and we got off at a long stop. In Albuquerque, there were vendors set up ready to sell their goodies to the passengers.

We met our family easily at the train station in Albuquerque. The train station was really quite beautiful, in the middle of town, not too far from University of New Mexico.

Our Thanksgiving with the family was ready to start, officially!

A Ride on the Southwest Chief - Part 1

As I wrote earlier, we went on the Southwest Chief Amtrak train from Kansas City to Albuquerque for Thanksgiving. I have never traveled by train for a long ride before and I learned quite a bit about train travel.

It's a lot of fun... a little magical even.

We reserved the smallest sleeper cabin, called a roomette, and it was tiny. We boarded at Kansas City's Union Station at 10:30 pm. The sleeper cars were in the front of the train, and I'm not sure how many sleeper cars there were. Maybe 4?  We were in the last sleeper car, nearest to the dining car.

It was hard to find the right car. There weren't many employees down by the tracks to point you in the right direction. The cars are marked as "sleeper" (something like Streamliner Sleeper). Your ticket tells you which car and which room you're in. Ours was 6/330 : room 6 in car 330.

We found the car by luck. Our car attendant was Pinky, and she took our tickets and had us wait in the downstairs of the car. She finished up making up our car and then we climbed the narrow spiral staircase to the second floor.

Yes, these cars are two stories. The cars connect to each other on the second floor. The first floor had several rooms (including a big one at the end of the car) three bathrooms and one shower room. There were luggage racks for bulkier items. We only had 2 bags and all of our stuff were in those bags, so we didn't check them or put them on the rack. No security for those bags...but it just didn't seem like a high-risk situation.

You know, like the old days, when people respected each others' property, minded their own business, helped each other, etc.

Up to the room we went! There's an upper bunk and a lower bunk in our tiny little room. We were on the south side of the car. The sliding door is glass, but you have curtains to draw for privacy.  It felt like we were little kids playing house under a large piece of furniture!  We could sit up on the lower bunk. We tucked our possessions where ever we could (not much room at all - we had to be creative) and we were on our way.

I took the upper bunk, where I could not sit up. The front of the room has about 10 inches between the edge of the bunk and the sliding door. After watching The Soup on the iPad, we settled in for sleep.

Plans for Thanksgiving

This year we are going to see dear husband's parents, who live near Albuquerque, NM. It has been 6 years since we went to their place, and I thought they'd enjoy seeing us. They travel to see us much more than we travel to see them - it's high time we went to their place.

This trip, we're doing something different - taking the train! We have tickets on the Southwest Chief Amtrak train for Tuesday, and we will arrive in Albuquerque on Wednesday late afternoon. We reserved a sleeper car, since it is an 18 hour trip and we leave Kansas City at 10:30 pm.

I sure hope it is on time.

I'm excited to try something different in travel. The book "Life's Little Instruction Book" (which was very popular in the early 90s) put the idea in my head to take the train. Then, when we went to the Missouri state fair back in August, we saw that the Southwest Chief line goes from Kansas City to Albuquerque, well, it was meant to be.

18 hours on a train is fun. But 36 hours? Uh, not so much. We're taking a flight back home.

I plan to blog on the experience. I really hope it is fun!!

Birthday 2011

Last Tuesday was my birthday. I did not plan a great celebration - the absence of a card and a present from Mom seemed a bit daunting. In reality, it wasn't bad at all.

I did get one really nice present - a Nikkon 7000 digital camera from my husband. Since I have been blogging for 4 years now, and pictures really help make a blog stand out, I decided it was time to upgrade. I got my original point and shoot digital camera in 2005, so it was definitely time. I told him he could get me a new camera for my birthday.

I have a lot to learn and I'm looking forward to playing with my new "toy." Expect some awesome pictures on my blog...yeah, as soon as I learn how to use it.

I received several cards from family and friends, a sweet little present from my sister, and a carrot cake at work. That day I did go to work and I did go to yoga class. When I got home, there was dinner waiting for me and a Ben and Jerry's ice cream cake. I love ice cream cakes, and this one was just sublime. The top half was a sweet cream/vanilla with chocolate chunks. The bottom half was chocolate brownie chunk.  Rich and creamy.

So, starting the slide towards 50 wasn't all that bad after all. I felt well and a got a little harmless spoilin'. Now back to reality!!

The mood swings, too

Today I'm fine. Go figure.

Maybe the fact that it's Saturday has something to with my mood.

I gave a pint of blood this morning and now I'm working on Bev's quilt. I hope to get the top done today. See my post about seeing Martha Stewart last night, at a book signing event. So exciting!

Discomfort

I am going through a rough time physically. I ache. I sweat. I bloat. I am tired.

It is the joy of perimenopause.

At least that's what I think. I hope it's nothing worse - it could be I guess. How am I to know until its too late? Go get expensive invasive tests, only to be told I am having "normal" menopausal symptoms? Or worse yet, to be told I do have something serious?

My life has been very healthy and I am afraid something will come up. Statistically, my turn is coming round. I am afraid of ovarian cancer and/or colon cancer. 

I try to comfort myself saying that these things don't happen to me, they happen to other people. Historically, that has been true - maybe one day it won't be.  I don't have any evidence that I have these conditions, just ambiguous aches and pains that could be interpreted.

I am besieged by worry. I needed to name my fear to work through it.   That's what motivated my post.

Four years!

Tomorrow marks the fourth anniversary of my humble blog, the Thoughtful Quilter. I think its terrific that it's still around, and it has been so interesting to watch it evolve.  No one really reads it, I don't think... maybe my sister and a few friends I have mentioned it to.

After all, the mundane stuff of someone's life is not really literature.

I don't care. I get my narcissistic musings out and I record my life for posterity. It may not be a monumental life, but it is mine. It's as precious and worthless as anyone's.  That's the mysticism in it.