The Southwest Chief

Monday, September 28, 2009

Well, since I am on vacation, I guess I had better do a blog. So here we go, now 4 days into this time off....

It all begins on Thursday night, when we leave and drive to the Best Western Hotel at the Toronto Airport. Got there about 9:00 (PM), and settled in. Now here is where darlene and I are different. We both knew that we would be getting up at about 4:00 AM to catch our plane, but we react to this knowledge differently. I want to go to bed immediately; Darlene figures this is a cue for staying awake and eating and talking through the night. So we compromised: we stayed up and ate a bit, then I went to bed bu about 10:30, with the clock set for a gawd-awful time of the morning.

That call came far too early, and in the dark, we stumbled around and got ready to leave. Caught the shuttle by 4:40 and were at the airport in time to check in and go through the song-and-dance required to enter the US of A. A little puddle-jump across a few Great Lakes, and we were there, at O'Hare.

It was surprisingly easy to get from O'Hare downtown. There is a rapid-transit line that goes the whole way (called the "El" in Chicago), and for $4.50 for the two of us, we got to the Union Station in about an hour. Why can't Toronto, a so-called "World City", do something like that? It was just fine, and relatively painless.

So we got to the train station by about 9:30, had a nice talk with the ticket agent, who issued us our tickets, checked into the lounge reserved for the hoi-polloi who have some kind of sleeping arrangement, and left our bags there, before going out for a walk and a bit of breakfast. That part of Chicago was quite safe and easy to navigate, and we found a pleasant enough place for some food (decidedly lacking on the airlines). the went back to the lounge, which is a kind of place where people can sleep or gather, or do their Internet thing, or whatever. there were lots of seniors who were in groups, and labelled to keep from getting lost. So I felt kind of at home.

After a while, we were led down to the train platform, and found the car we were to be in. Got in and immediately had a problem. We had assumed we would have our bags with us in our roomette, but it was suggested by the nice lady who was looking after us that there wold not be enough room. And was she ever right! The roomette was two seats facing each other, and not a lot of additional room to move. Minimalist, but sufficient. There was room for the two of us, plus a small bag for each of us, and that was it.

Settling in, and looking out the window, we passed through the suburbs of Chicago for a long time, before getting to the farmland of Southern Illinois. We were going southwest, as befits a train called the Southwest Chief. And the land to the southwest of Chicago was flat - flatter than our Prairies, I think. Full of corn fields and soybean fields, with a few cows thrown in as well, and the odd down-on-their-times small towns. Darlene got off at some of them, I stayed in our "cabin" and read. Then we had supper: odd to sit in the dining car, eating okay food off plastic plates. Not exactly what I had expected. But we got to wtch the sunset over the Plains, an that was great.

After supper, we read and then to bed. Getting me up into the upper birth and into bed was like slipping into a sleeping bag inside a pup tent. But, once in, I slept well with the rocking and bumping of the train not disturbing at all. We passed through most of Kansas during our sleep, and woke with a bit left before heading into Colorado. Had breakfast watching the sun come up. And crossed the wide Missouri about then as well.

Colorado began quietly enough, with the same type of flat country. But then became hillier, developing ridges, cut by water and wind. And rivers eroded into the ground. And high plains in places, bare except for sage and chaparral. I kept expecting to see John Wayne riding towards us, but it didn't happen.

After a longer stop to attach another engine for the final climb, we started what was for us the final part of a wonderful trip: over the Santa Fe Pass into the town of Lamy. Wonderful scenery, beautiful skies, and so much better than driving. When we got to Lamy, we were met by Irvin Santoval, brother of a friend of Darlene's. He drove us into town, and we were then on Stage Two, the part in Santa Fe.