By 8:30 my breakfast was over and we were passing Laughlin Air Force Base. We had a very brief stop in Del Rio, the “Queen City of the Rio Grande”. The cigarette fiends didn’t even get to finish them. The train comes fairly close to the Rio Grande here. Ciudad Acuna is just across … Read more
Close to 2:00 in the morning we were approaching San Antonio. We went through a large exchange yard on the outskirts, and then came to a stop in the station along several sets of parallel tracks where we jockeyed to add two cars to the train. We sat idle for a while alongside another train … Read more
Along the route today we saw the small Rio Grande (granted, it was below the Amistad Reservoir), and then passed the impressive Pecos river. To make the Pecos even more impressive, the bridge we went over on was for many years the highest span in the United States. The Pecos High Bridge: video of the … Read more
As I sit in the waiting area of the Houston Amtrak station just after 9pm, a wide variety of life is dribbling through the front door. Young, old; couples, singles; white, black, brown. A few families with kids are in the mix. The TV blerts out programming, and overwhelms the meek voice that comes from … Read more
I’m in Marfa today, and all weekend. Next week I’ll be visiting my friend Bret Bloomquist in El Paso. But today he’s having his hip replaced. Again. The first time was when he was 30-ish. The replacements wear out, and it’s time to do it again. They tell him he’ll be mobile (on crutches) five … Read more
Slate has an interesting article about why the trains I’ll be traveling on over the next 31 days are slower than they were 100 years ago. “Weighed in terms of the congestion, carbon emissions, and comfort of other travel modes, it seems time to reach for the way-back machine.”