We woke up to dry dry Arizona climate. What a contrast from our wet wet LA departure. We called our attendant who seemed a little put out that we asked her to bring food for us. We’re trying to avoid mingling with many people and viruses, not only for our own health but also for the health of the folks we will be visiting on this journey. She said, “OK, and I’ll get your lunch and dinner orders now too”. So we scrambled a bit to make the decisions for lunch and dinner as well, realizing later that we made a few mistakes which we had to correct when she delivered breakfast.
Our room is on the south side of the train, so the sun has been pouring in. I decided to go exploring and get a little fresh air. I discovered we are the last car on the train. Ahead of us is a sleeper with the (slightly) larger rooms in it, then two coach cars, then an observation car with tall windows and lots of fresh air circulating. Ahead of that is the dining car, and then another sleeper.
I staked out a seat on the shady side of the observation car and typed and read for a while. We passed within spitting distance of the US – Mexico border and I snapped some pictures of the “wall”. More like a metal fence. The funny thing was, there was a gaping hole in it where it ran into a hillside and everyone in the observation car laughed. Even without the hole, a person could easily walk ten feet up the shallow hill and down the other side.
Dinner back in our cozy roomette. We enjoyed watching the sunset as we sped along.
We packed up everything to be ready for a 5am arrival in San Antonio, set two alarms (our grumpy attendant didn’t say anything about getting us up), and tried to sleep.
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Adrian Dee, flutist, composer 