Coming Home

The Sunset Limited snaked its way through the urban sprawl known as Los Angeles, carefully tiptoeing its way around skyscrapers, city streets, and palm trees. As the train found a way east through the concrete jungle, home was only five days, three trains, and 4,000 miles away. Eventually the buildings got further apart, the carefully irrigated grass turned to dirt, and palm trees became windmills. Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean were behind me, the train was crossing another desert. The sun set when we were near Arizona, it was dark by the time the train pulled into Yuma, right on schedule.

I woke the next morning to one of the most beautiful sunrises I have ever seen, over the New Mexico desert. I wandered over to the dining car for breakfast. I ordered the scrambled eggs, which is not my usual breakfast choice. I always get the french toast, because it is amazing, but I decided to try something different this time. The eggs were delicious as well, but I still prefer the french toast. There were only four of us in the diner at that time of the morning, so we all sat together. I was traveling the furthest out of the four of us.

That morning the train crossed the Rio Grande from New Mexico into Texas, stopping in El Paso shortly after. El Paso is only feet from the Mexican border; another city, Juarez, lies right across the river from El Paso. You can see both cities from the train, and there is a vast difference between the two. Juarez is basically a dump, while El Paso is a very clean and modern looking city. El Paso is also crawling with border patrol vehicles. It was kind of an eye-opener to see the two cities, there's no wonder why everyone wants to come to this side of the border.

The train spent the next two days crossing Texas. There was nothing but desert that whole day. The train stopped in Alpine and Del Rio before reaching San Antonio. The desert was pretty...for the first hour or so. After that, it got boring. Real boring. This was even more of a desert than I had seen on the Southwest Chief. This desert had the cracked dirt, animal bones, vultures, cactuses, the whole works. And it lasted all day with no break. However, a cool family sat with me in the lounge car. They got on at Alpine, which is kind of near Big Bend State Park. They had been camping there when their car broke down. That is usually a death sentence in that park, but they were lucky enough to be in one of the only places with cell phone service in the whole park. They managed to get out of the park and get to the train station at Alpine. The ticket agent felt bad for them and sold them seats on the Sunset Limited even thought the train was sold out. They were getting off at San Antonio, which was the same day, so they just sat in the lounge since those were the only available seats on the train. They had two young boys, both 4, who were crazy. They actually reminded me of an awesome 3 year old that I know who is a handful by himself, but here there were two of them! They were a lot of fun.

The train made it to San Antonio right on time. The Sunset Limited would continue on to New Orleans, and the Texas Eagle would originate here to go to Chicago. That is the route I was taking. You can book it as the Texas Eagle all the way to Los Angeles, which is what I did. The train splits in San Antonio, but not the same way the Empire Builder or Lake Shore Limited split. The last two cars on the Sunset Limited, a coach and a sleeper, were uncoupled from the train at San Antonio. When the Sunset Limited left, the Texas Eagle trainset backed onto the coach and sleeper to haul them to Chicago. In Spokane and Seattle, the trains split into two sections that go two different directions. But here, they pulled two cars off one train and stuck them on another train.

The Texas Eagle would sit in San Antonio all night and leave in the morning, so I got off and wandered around the city a bit. I found the Alamo, which was not far from the train station. The Alamo is not actually the name of the place. I forget the name, it was a long Spanish name that I couldn't possibly remember, mostly because I don't speak any Spanish. It earned the nickname Alamo after it was a mission, there are a few conflicting stories as to how it earned that nickname. But the name has stuck, and that's what everybody knows it by at this point. I also walked over to the famed Riverwalk in San Antonio. I was a little disappointed though. I had heard all about how great and wonderful it was and how it's a must-see in San Antonio...it was a sidewalk next to a tiny river. That's all. Nothing special. After that, I went back to the train so I could sleep for the night.

I woke up the next morning just before the Texas Eagle left San Antonio. Two people from the national park service got on board there to narrate the ride to Fort Worth. This is considered the scenic area of Texas, but honestly I don't know what scenery they are referring to. But maybe that's because New Hampshire is a forest, like all of eastern Texas. It was just trees. I didn't think it was anything special, but that may be because that's what I live in. Scenery or not, the narration was interesting. They talked about the different towns along the route and how they got started. They also talked about things I had only learned about in school, like cowboys and the Chisholm Trail. It was all very interesting. The train left Texas at Texarkana. The station there is on the Texas/Arkansas state line, and in the schedule it is listed as being in both states.

I woke up the next morning in St. Louis. In its day, this was the second biggest railroad town in the country, second only to Chicago, the Texas Eagle's destination. We spent the day crossing Illinois, arriving in Chicago right on time. I had eight hours before the Lake Shore Limited went anywhere, so I checked my suitcase to Boston and walked around the city. My first stop was the Willis Tower, formerly the Sears Tower. The Willis Tower is only a few short blocks from Union Station. There was a three hour wait to get to the top, but I had the time, so I waited in line. I finally got to the top and I could see for miles. There were these glass boxes on the side of the building that you could stand in and look down. It was a little scary, but kind of cool. After the Willis Tower I walked down to Lake Michigan and just sat there and enjoyed the view and the breeze. The lake is about a mile and a half from Union Station. When it was time, I walked back to Union Station to get on the Lake Shore Limited, the last train on my trip.

The Lake Shore Limited, with Amtrak's Phase 2 heritage locomotive leading, left Chicago about half an hour late. They held the train for the California Zephyr, which was running very late, arriving about when the Lake Shore Limited was supposed to leave. We didn't lose any more time by the time we got to Albany. In Albany, everyone going to Massachusetts got off the train. Because of track work, Amtrak was running buses between Albany and Boston. This was actually a good thing, because the buses made less stops and ran faster than the train, so I ended up getting to Boston a little ahead of schedule. I claimed my baggage and got on the Red Line to Alewife, where my parents were waiting for me. They drove me back home to Nashua, and the first thing I did was jump in the shower. That is the biggest disadvantage to riding the train. It had been about a week since my last real shower, and despite it being midnight, I took one anyway.

It was a great trip. But it is nice to be home. I have a bed, which doesn't move or make noise. I have a shower. I also have over 2,000 photos to go through. All the photos I have shared, and plenty more (but not all 2,000) can be seen in a Facebook photo album, viewable here.