Day 3 On the Train

I can never be too proud of my daughter.  I woke her up at 3:15 (though after all the re-arrangement, she went to bed at 10:40), saying, "Hey, wake up.  We're going to airport, take an airplane to catch the train."  She opened her eyes in the second she heard the word "train."  She rubbed her eyes, went to potty and started the day.

The taxi zipped through the early morning (midnight?) downtown LA to the LAX airport.  The airline was United Airways, that means we have to make each of our check-in baggage under 50 lbs with no exception nor negotiation.  After a little pick-and-drop, we managed it.  After the security check, which my daughter and I got picked up randomly for a close look-up, it was just a little waiting and breakfast smoothie from Starbucks for my daughter before getting on board.

My husband has an amazing statistics on getting delayed his flights.  About half of his flights get delayed.  I sincerely prayed to whoever has the holy power for arriving at Albuquerque on time.  My prayer was heard.  Getting there on time,  we could even take a luxurious time to take a southwestern breakfast at Albuquerque Airport.  From the airport to the Amtrak station was a short 4-mile ride on taxi, routing on the historic Route 66.

After that was like a happy ending of a cheap movie, backgrounded by tra-la-ri-la-la kind of a music.   We waited in the waiting room, the train came, and asking the conductors where our designated seat (which was a family room) is, welcomed by the conductor saying "so glad you folks show up!", calling to the travel agency (who had called to my husband at the train station to make sure everything is going on OK) that we were really really on the train.

Lunch; at dining car.  "Chef's special" (roast beef and mushed potato), chicken salad with cranberry sandwich, mac-and-cheese

Dinner; at dining car.  Flat-iron steak, roasted game hen.  For our daughter, chocolate ice cream for desert.  She well deserves it.

The landscape from the train window was amazing.  We drove to Colorado Springs from The Woodlands (30 miles north of Houston) last summer.  It was my husband's words during the drive , "Hey, I see a train track.  How I wish I could ride a train goin' on that!" which grew into  this train trip   (At that time, we didn't even know there runs a passenger train.)  The train went on the exact train track we saw from the car, the car we sold less than a week ago.  At that time, we didn't imagine that we would leave the USA in the next summer.  My daughter was on the way of potty training.  Long drive was a challenge.  Now, she managed to keep up on us with this crazy schedule change, carrying all the important stuff such as Handy Manny coloring book and a crayon box by herself in her Hello Kitty bag.  Time flies.  Child grows up.

I finished Back to Basic socks and casted on a pink scarf.

Sleeping; in Southwest Chief running through the state of Kansas.

No internet connection (exactly as expected.)  This post is done in Chicago.

8 days in America