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!