Sunset Limited

 We got a late start on Thursday due to a late arrival of another feeder train. We ended up leaving three hours later than planned, which didn’t matter to us because we had no time constraints once we were on the train and in our roomette, but by 6am that morning, we were already running six hours behind schedule. 

BTW, roomettes on a train are nice and comfy… if you’re a sardine. Truly, anyone taller than 4’6” and no wider than a fence post will have a difficult time even breathing, let alone changing into pajamas. Even turning in place was difficult without lifting up our arms and twirling in place like a belly dancer. Fortunately we had taken the Darling Mermaid Synchronized Swim classes at the Tualatin Valley Rec. Center earlier this month and found they were an asset for the trip and we should look at how to write them off on next year’s taxes. However cramped we were, the accommodations were so much more comfortable and luxurious compared to the coach seats of our previous leg. 

The train trip was long, and when we say long we mean mind numbingly long. What didn’t help was that our sleeping car was directly behind the train’s engines. 

Now normally, you don’t really think of where your rail car is in relation to the train’s engines. You really only count how many cars forward or back you are from the Lounge car. And when we say “Lounge car”, we really mean the car that stores and serves alcohol. 

In addition, cities and towns from Houston to New Orleans, have grown up around the rail lines and roads cross the tracks every half mile to get from one side of the tracks to the other (there’s a song title in there somewhere) and trains have to blow their horn, a very loud and obnoxious horn, before every crossing. 

Our train was making a B-line from Houston (leaving at 6pm) to New Orleans (arriving at 4am) at seventy miles an hour. The train covers a mile every minute, or a half mile every thirty seconds. Sleeping for those nine hours was not an option. We had noise canceling headphones on with Christmas music blasting through them, trying to keep our sanity, and headaches, under control.

Although we arrived in New Orleans safe and sound, we were disappointed that we did not have the opportunities to see the vistas and scenery through New Mexico and Louisiana that we were looking forward to, hence our limited photos.

Saying that, we did arrive in New Orleans at 3:30 in the morning, ready to hit the hay in a nice, spacious and  amazingly quiet hotel room.