Year 3 Day 6 – “Living the Dream”. Monday, 5/08/2023. Day 2 on the Amtrak Sunset Limited 2 from Los Angeles. California to Houston, Texas. We will be traveling 1,633 miles in 37 hours. This train travels from Los Angeles to New Orleans, but our car is parked in Galveston. Before I get started about our journey on this train last night and today, I have some pictures from being in Los Angeles, California yesterday. Hey what can I say laying in the top bunk last night I found these pictures to share. No windows in that top bunk. I needed some entertainment and needed to keep my mind off of the confined area and the speed we were traveling. Also, as much as this is a daily blog for you to see and travel in your mind it is a dairy of my days after retiring from the corporate world.
I cannot understand how this car got upside down like this.
We boarded the train and went to our roomette yesterday which is small but comfortable.
Last night we had dinner in the dining car at 8pm. The food was good. The rolls were soft. The Rigatoni was very spicy. The cheesecake was really good. The servings were huge. The dining car is nice with white table clothes and flowers on the table.
We sat with a young couple from the UK that are on a six-month holiday. While at dinner the attendant turned down our beds. I climbed up into the top bunk and laid down. You cannot sit up and there is no window. It is like hurtling through space not knowing anything. At 1:30am I came down to the lower bunk and sat next to Steve and looked out the window. It is huge down here. That top bunk is horrible. Outside is desert. We are in Welton, Arizona. The roomette is plenty big for one person or for two people if one of you can stand being in a box while sleeping in that top bunk. The bathrooms are larger than an airplane and much nicer. I haven’t looked at the shower yet. There are cement railroad ties. In the morning we stopped at Tucson. Arizona where I stepped off the train. We were doing 79 mph last night. After showering we went to the Dining car for Breakfast. Coffee, I need coffee. Hope I sleep better tonight. The food was good, but the best part is meeting different people.
We then went and sat in the observation car for a while. It was so bright and nice. Here are two videos of our car 230 and our roomette number 13 in Amtrak Sunset Limited 2.
At 8am we are going through Bowie, Arizona and there are miles and miles of some kind of tree farm. At 9am we are in Lordsburg, New Mexico. We traveled alongside Route 10 a lot of the day. There is nothing here but countryside and lonely route 10.
Occasionally we see a few small black cows. It is amazing how deserted some of the towns where we stop are. I have never seen countryside like this before. It is spellbinding to stare at it as it whisks by.
We have met a lot of people so far and people are kind of addicted to train riding and do it over and over again. Showers are nice and clean. It was odd showering with so much movement going on. We are starting to get a little used to the train. It is very different than cruising. Breakfast was good, but they give you way too much food.
The car attendant and servers are so nice. Amtrak employs 20,000 employees and has been around for more than 49 years. Amtrak serves more than 500 destinations in 46 states, the District of Columbia and three Canadian provinces, on more than 21,400 miles of routes. The Federal Government owns Amtrak. Similar to your local Post Office, Amtrak is a government agency that was created to serve the needs of Americans. Though they charge you for their services, they are heavily subsidized by government funds, because intercity passenger trains are considered an essential service. National Railroad Passenger Corporation is Amtrak’s official business name. It’s an independent government agency, a term that means Amtrak is outside of the direct control of the executive branch of government. Amtrak is part of the executive branch, but it makes its own rules and isn’t directly controlled by cabinet members or the office of the president. Amtrak is influenced by the office of the President; it isn’t a completely separate entity, nor is it a private business that contracts with the government. Instead, Amtrak is in a sort of special middle ground between being a private and public entity. The government owns it, but the government doesn’t involve itself with running things most of the time. Amtrak makes a significant portion of its money from ticket sales, but the company could not exist without the help of federal/state subsidies and billions of dollars in grants. Amtrak typically sees between 1 and 2 billion dollars of federal money come its way each year. Amtrak employees do not get the benefits of government jobs. Amtrak train attendants make roughly $53,000 a year. A flight attendant makes about $45,000 a year. Amtrak employees, their spouse and eligible dependents are entitled to unlimited free and reduced-rate rail transportation on Amtrak. They also can have a guest accompany them while using their personal travel privilege. Our train has 9 cars (2 locomotives, 1 baggage car, 1 sleeping car, 1 dining car, 1 lounge car, 2 coach class cars and another sleeping car).
Our car attendant said he works one week on the car and one week off. He likes to be off every other week.
At about three am tonight the last 3 cars will break off and connect to the Texas Eagle train and head to Chicago. Lunch was delicious. I had the Savory Chili Bowl.
At 1pm we are in El Paso, Texas. Before El Paso we rode along the USA/Mexico border wall and went over the Rio Grande River.
El Paso stands on the Rio Grande across the Mexico–United States border from Ciudad Juárez, the most populous city in the Mexican state of Chihuahua with over 1.5 million people. The Las Cruces area, in the neighboring U.S. state of New Mexico, has a population of 219,561. The Rio Grande River is 1,896 miles long. Here the river is dry most of the year. It has lost as much as 93% due to dam construction, building diversions and levees for flood control. People have transformed wetlands to support agriculture and development.
Here we refueled and were able to get off the train for about twenty minutes. A lot of passengers boarded here.
I will leave you with this thought for the day. I know I needed it today.
Today’s product recommendations are for keeping your skin looking its best at sea and in the sun. My favorite skin care products are made by Elemis. Although I do sometimes try a new product here and there. I actually find myself going back to Elemis. 1) I start my morning in the shower with a face wash. Currently I am using ELEMIS Dynamic Resurfacing Facial Wash https://amzn.to/3qZkwqC 2) After showering I am currently using ELEMIS Superfood Facial Oil https://amzn.to/3XvfUVu 3) Then the Elemis Pro-Collagen Maine Cream with spf30 gets applied. It is the best. It costs a little more than the drug store creams but wow it works. Whenever I decide I want to buy another less expensive brand I am sorry and head right back to this cream. https://amzn.to/46sJZsH 4) Steve also uses an Elemis product. He tends to break out when he uses sunscreen often. He finds the ELEMIS Dynamic Resurfacing Facial Pads excellent to use. It cleans that sunscreen out of his pores. When he uses these pads to cleanse his face he does not break out. https://amzn.to/3px1oQn
To see more about Amtrak Trains, click here: https://deestimes.com/train-travel/
To view the complete daily diary, click here – This starts at Year 1 Day 1: Living the Dream – Deestimes – Make every step of the journey count