The second night on the train was a lot better than the first. I took the top bunk and we both slept a lot better. Graham was suitably impressed with how well I climbed up and down in the very cramped space!
During Monday we passed through Arizona and New Mexico which are pretty much deserts with nothing to see but wide open spaces with sparse vegetation and the odd mountain in the distance. Interestingly, some of these had snow on the tops!
We came close to the Mexican border just before moving into Texas. At El Paso, a large city not far from the New Mexico/Texas border, there were some fairly ordinary houses and gottage-type things on one side of the tracks, but on the Mexican side was a shantytown that would rival anything you'd see on TV of Soweto.
We have met some great people on the trip, changed Graham's mind about Americans to some degree. The staff have been awesome and considering they have been on duty for about 60 hours non stop incredibly friendly and helpful. They insist you sit at tables in fours in the dining car so we have met couples from California and Denmark, so locals as well as visitors.
The train broke all speed records after Houston, when there were finally no more freight trains in our way. The parts of Houston the train went through were not what they would want visitors to see. Shacks barely standing up, surrounded by dead cars, piles of rubbish and black men sitting in the shade.
We arrived in New Orleans at 11.30pm, took a taxi to the hotel, and then went to bed..... not! We went out, and walked half a block to Bourbon Street. But maybe we were at the wrong end as apart from one OK bar all we could find were empty VERY noisy bars playing today's music, and strip joints. So we didn't last long before returning to our room and flopping into s king size bed that felt HUGE after my 2.4ft bunk. Maybe the French Quarter will be more to our liking tomorrow!
Sorry no pics as the train was going too fast for pics on my phone.
;-) Ann-a-Gram
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