Train debacle...

We had an 18 hour journey ahead of us.

A little snow in Flagstaff.

Our departure time was supposed to be 5:41 a.m., and at 11:47 a.m. there were blizzard conditions outside the window, we were waiting on a crew, and just hoping to depart Flagstaff, Arizona by 1 p.m. 

What an adventure we had. 

The morning started off great. Then the travel foo caught up with us when four bus loads of people showed up. You know, those big coach buses, four of them were packed full of people. Train passengers that were removed from the train down the line and bussed to Flagstaff. There had to be about 120 people that joined the 20 to 30 in the waiting room at 8 a.m. 

It was raining pretty hard so everyone crammed into the Amtrak station to wait for the train. They assured us it was on its way. There were all kinds of kinds. At this point I'm wondering if peopleofamtak.com is taken yet. 

Snacks on a train.

The train did pull up at about 9 a.m. and all 140 ish people piled outside in the pouring rain to board. We were soaking wet and cold as we climbed aboard. They had handed out seats and that wasn't smooth. We had to move around and people even were pushed the dining and lounge cars to wait for seats to open up as the train dumped people off along the route.

We sat in our seats (which are pretty nice, by the way) and behind us a woman started talking about meth mouth, oranges burning her stomach, and smelly coochies. That's right. She had an entire diatribe about and experience on the train not too long ago where another woman on the train was not exactly fresh. Phrases like, "she had VD or somethin'," and "you gots to get yoself checked" are the only ones I'm comfortable typing. She also had a few other words of wisdom about the situation, among some other colorful language used to demand free food for being inconvenienced. I would have liked to have seen earplugs handed out. 

One of us made a face and that was it. We couldn't hold it in. We cried we were laughing so hard. In the seat in front of us a woman was apparently working a help line with a family member. "Hang up and take your medicine, I'll be there when I get there" was spoken in soft soothing tones. She continued this therapy session not once, but three times in the two hours we sat waiting. Waiting. On the crew. We were already four hours behind schedule and we were without a crew. Apparently they didn't foresee the warned snowstorm either.  We waited another two hours before we pulled out of Flagstaff. We were all holding our breath. 

Some scenery.

We did make it to Winslow, Arizona where we were stopped for an inspection. Then moved along to Gallup, New Mexico where we stopped for a fresh air break. Here you can get off the train for a smoky treat or just to breath something other than recycled air. Once we swapped crews we were delayed again. The derailment caused a traffic problem for freight cars and we were red flagged to wait on an approaching freight train. I wasn't going to complain!

As we got down the track we made it to just outside of Albuquerque and we were stopped for a hot axle detection sensor. We were literally sitting in the middle of the desert waiting. We only waited about 10 to 15 minutes and we were off again. 

We made it to 6:30 and had dinner in the dining car and then back to our seats by 9 p.m. and we were all pretty tired. At 10 p.m. the quiet hours kicked in and that was that.  I have to admit I slept decent for being upright most of the night and not having a blanket. I did wake up every few hours or so, but for the most part I got what I would call heavy napping in. 

Home at last.

At 6 a.m. we all kind of came to and realized we were slowing way down. They told us that we were in single track country and that meant we had to pull over (literally, like a small section of rail like a passing lane) and let the other train go through. This was another Amtrak line and this one was actually one time. So we sat for another 20 minutes and our delay time increased to 8.5 hours. That's like a work day. 

We made a stop in Garden City and this is where we started getting excited. We were only one hour away from home. We had just hit the 24-hour on the train mark and we were all ready to just get off the train, get home and shower, and maybe take a brief nap before our Tuesday began. 

At 9:44 a.m. we pulled into the Dodge City Depot and were finally let off the train. I never thought I would want to see Dodge City that badly, but I did. 

Now, I just hope I got all of the bad travel karma gone before the big South Africa trip!