I think it's a Saturday, I guess. No, wait... Yes! Yes. It is. Saturday, June something or other... who cares?
From Pomona, California where I went to sleep to Yuma, Arizona where we are now, is 220 miles. That's how far my train has managed to go since I went to sleep. It is now 6:35 am. No one really knows WHAT time zone, though, because Arizona doesn't participate in Daylight Savings Time. The rules for remembering what time it is in Arizona are far too complicated for me to ponder at this hour and before my Amtrak Coffee... I swear they should put a trademark on that stuff and sell it. I'd buy it. I ask Google what timezone I am in and she tells me Mountain Standard Time. Big help she is, but I learn that we did lose an hour during the night. One of the pitfalls of eastbound travel is shorter days.
Anyway, as usual, I digress. Since I went to sleep somewhere around midnight until I awoke at 6:35 am, so roughly 6 1/2 hours... we have traveled 220 miles. That's an average speed of 34.64 miles per hour. The train should have arrived at Yuma, Arizona at 2:47 am. I would rather this leg of my journey be early rather than late, since my scheduled arrival time in New Orleans is 9:40 pm on Sunday night. That just sounds late to me, even though I know there is no such time as "Late" in New Orleans. I'd rather get there early, get checked in, and be done with it. Looks like I can forget that.
Jay, my At-Times-Obnoxiously-Upbeat-Sleeping-Car-Attendant (ATOUSCA) says that it is far too early in the trip to start worrying about how far behind we are because there are hours {he stressed HOURS and made a hand motion I didn't quite understand} to play with at station stops like San Antonio and Houston and he wouldn't be surprised at all if we actually get into New Orleans on time or even a little early. Right. And then the unicorns and the leprechauns will form a magical chain with their hands and hooves and instantly transport you to your hotel on a river of sparkles!
If I'm a glass-half-full kind of guy then Jay is a Glass is Overflowing kind of guy. But we have some lemons, so let's make lemonade.
1) My ride will be longer than expected. That's nice. I like long train rides.
2) I'll get to see the desert of Arizona, which just might be my favorite state of all the ones I've seen so far, that I'd otherwise have missed if the train was not running 3:20 minutes late.
3) I've prepaid for my room in New Orleans so no matter how late we get in, my room will be waiting for me. The OCD in me will still call the hotel tomorrow from Lafayette, LA to confirm that I WILL be arriving, like they are sitting there drumming their fingers waiting for me to get there.
4) I don't have anything planned or paid for in advance aside from my hotel in New Orleans, so chill out and enjoy Arizona.
Off to the dining car for breakfast. It's a bit toasty in there, but it IS the desert of Arizona and it IS full of people... who are all looking a bit warm... I sit with the couple across the hall who live near me and we chat idly about the usual minutiae that train travelers chat about. Breakfast comes. It's noticeably hotter in here. We finish our meal and head back to our rooms, which of course Jay has expertly transformed for daytime use, and settle in to chat.
Not too long afterward the Dining Car Attendant comes through with lunch reservations. We have our choice of 12:00 or 12:30. Odd, since we are the first sleeper behind the diner and I know that they start there and not at the back of the train. So, OK, only 2 seatings for lunch. It must be because of the time zones thing making the lunch period shorter than usual. Eastbound I change my habit of taking the earliest seating and go for the later to extend the time between meals so I choose 12:30, and take my reservation ticket.
This part of the world is decorated differently than any other part. There are many dry washes, which can easily become raging torrents without warning if it happens to rain somewhere nearby. Moments later they are dry again. I've seen it happen with my own eyes. I see cactus. Saguaro (sah-WAH-roe) to be specific. It's been a very long time since I've seen one of those. Ocotillo (oh-coh-TEE-oh) abound here as well. These are the whip-tail like plants that you see in clumps. They have the unique ability to produce leaves and flowers in a ridiculously short time if they get rained on. Joshua trees. Yucca. Ball cactus. Cholla (CHOY-uh). Opuntia. Mesquite. Creosote. Sage brush. Agave. It's a gardener's dream here. These are things I just don't see at home. Behind it all are the mountains. Different from the Mojave desert mountains, these don't have the stria that indicate a sedimentary origin. These are volcanic in origin. Cinder cones dot the landscape. And the occasional basalt plug surrounded by an eroded cinder cone... a volcano that died young.
The sun is intense. I need my sunglasses in my room. I wonder if sunscreen would be advisable. I ask Google if U/V rays can pass through glass and I am relieved to learn that they can't so I forget about the sunscreen.
We stop at Tuscon. We are no later than we were at Yuma but no earlier either. It is 110 degrees out and not a cloud in the sky. I overhear the dining car attendant and the conductor discussing the situation in the diner. It's not looking good.
Back on board and back in my room the announcement no one wanted to hear comes: "Attention passengers. Those of you who HAD lunch reservations in the dining room no longer have them. The A/C in that car has failed. It is 120 degrees in the kitchen and 105 in the dining room. The conductor has made the decision to close that car. We will make a further announcement when we have figured out how we are going to feed you all." And, since she apparently thinks she is Elvis Presley, "Thank you. Thank you very much"... with muuuuuccchhhh drawn out in perhaps the worst E/P impression I have ever witnessed.
Ok. It's a little warm in the sleeper too but so far the A/C is keeping up with it. Time to break out one of those cookies I stashed back at Union Station. I don't know when or what I might get for lunch. We stop at El Paso, passing within 50 feet of the Mexican border. It is 105 F.
"Lunch" arrived at 4:57 pm in the form of Subway turkey sandwiches that they brought aboard at El Paso. This was handed to me by Jay along with a small bottle of water. Far from the Angus steak burger I had planned on, but at least it's food and I won't starve. If lunch comes at 4:57 pm when will dinner be? WHAT will dinner be?
At 10:45 pm I gave up waiting and went to bed. Amtrak has disappointed me again with regard to food service. Now, before I get nasty letters, I am NOT one of those people who thinks that Amtrak is a rolling hotel and that I should be pampered while I am on board. I understand that things break down. I understand that there are hundreds of miles between stations on this route so coordinating things is difficult. But what is NOT acceptable is that nothing at all was offered. They COULD have said: Take your sleeping car ticket with you to the Cafe Car and you can purchase up to X-dollars of food free. X should be the cost of the highest priced menu item plus enough to cover desert. That's NOT what they said. Instead they essentially said: "Despite the fact that you've paid us to feed you we are not going to. You MAY, however, go to the lounge car where you can pay us even more money for worse food." So, boo on Amtrak for the way they handled this.
This is the first time in all the trips I've taken that anything like this has happened. It will not change my opinion of Amtrak and it will not stop me from riding Amtrak again. I will, of course, let them know that I think they messed up, but to their credit the dining car staff made the best of an at best difficult situation. As with all things dining car related, you win some, and you lose some.
Tomorrow is another day.
Continued on Day 8
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