One Year Ago - Went From Bad To Worse

The day started with waking up at 4am to see a group of people outside the window having a smoke. The train had stopped for a 15 minute smoke break because it was going to be a long stretch before it stopped again for any length of time. We were still about 8 hours away from what would be a 90 minute scheduled stop in Albuquerque.

I went back to sleep and woke up again to a really beautiful sunrise. The train was somewhere in Arizona. I just sat there watching the scenery out the window and thinking of how far I was from the familiarity of L.A. and how excited I was for all that I hadn't seen yet. This day started with a lot of optimism.

Soon the train reached the Arizona/New Mexico border and the scenery went from beautiful to gorgeous. Unfortunately, I was so in the moment of these rock formations that I didn't think to take any photos for posterity. To this day, the stretch through New Mexico remains as one of my favorite memories.

The train gets to Albuquerque for a long stop and I decide to get off the train and stretch my legs as it were. At the station there were people selling their hand-made jewelry and I couldn't resist getting a necklace. Getting back on the train I was still feeling so optimistic about getting into Chicago by 3pm the next day. Well...

Then Raton, NM and 5pm happened. There was a mechanical issue. I wasn't panicking yet. But then 1hr became 2 hours and then I realized that all of us who needed to make that connection in Chicago were screwed. The train was due in Chicago the next day at 3pm and the connection left at 9:30pm.

I went through a gamut of emotions. Anger especially but I knew it was the least productive emotion. There was nothing I could do about this situation but WHY was the universe making it so damn hard for me to get to NYC?! I cried an ugly cry in my little corner then I pulled myself together and resolved to enjoy the journey as best I could.

I was sort of prepared for this to happen as far as to say I had been following the route via the app the past few months. And there were a few times where the train arrived over 12 hrs late into Chicago but I had hoped that wasn't going to happen to me. Hope springs eternal.

What made things even worse is that it turns out the engineers knew of the engine trouble 5 hours back in Albuquerque but decided not to do anything about it and push on. And so there we were in Raton waiting for an engine from Albuquerque to be delivered.

After sitting in Raton for 8 hours though, the engine was hooked up and the train started going again at 1am.

I was so looking forward to seeing Colorado in the daylight but that wasn't going to happen now...