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| The Southwest Chief in La Junta Colorado |
Taking the Southwest Chief out of Chicago means spending a
good 15 minutes traveling through one train yard after another, followed by a
seemingly endless stretch of suburbs. But once you get past Naperville you are
in farm country and the vista opens up. Flat fields off to the horizon. The
trees are wind breaks, or provide shade for houses. On a grey day like the day
we traveled the sky and ground just kind of blend into each other like an
impressionist painting, losing distinction in the distance.
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| Mendota IL |
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| Mendota Water Tower |
Coming into the town of Mendota IL, past the Del Monte
Factory and the silos, we are met with a very quiet Easter Sunday afternoon. A
few square blocks of downtown, then it is back to the farms. Truthfully, I can’t
imagine living in a town like Mendota. As a city kid it would drive me nuts,
but I know that there are people here who feel the same way about living in New
York City.
But here I am, passing the brown fields of late March. To my
untrained eye it looks like they are not planted yet. I can see the dead stalks
of last year’s growth laying over the soil, light brown over dark. There is no
other evidence of work on the fields. They are not plowed, and there is no one
out in the rainy Sunday gloom working on them. Just a whole lot of empty roads
and crossings. We pass through one farm town after another, through the width
of Illinois and across the Mississippi River into Iowa.
This is the 5th time in my life I have crossed it at ground level. I
always forget how wide it is, even this far from its mouth.
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| The Fort Madison Bridge - a double decker - cars on top and the trains underneath. photo by Ommnomnomgulp at en.wikipedia, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=16200697 |
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| Crossing the Misissippi |
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| Fort Madison MO |
At about 10:30pm we pulled in to Kansas City MO. which has maintained
its old terminal – Union Station. Like Chicago, this is a grand old station,
and even at night is worth the time to go inside to get a few pictures.
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| Southwest Chief in KC |
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| Kansas City |
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| KC Union Station |
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| KC Union Station |
The first night out I hit a real road block. The upper berth
in the skyliner trains is a coffin. It has maybe 15 inches of height from the
bed to the roof. It is extremely difficult to in to or out of, or even to move
around once you are in it. I woke up at 12:30 in the morning in the middle of a
major claustrophobic panic attack. I had to get our RIGHT AWAY! It was not a
good feeling, and it was one I had never had before. So now I know – travel coach
west of Chicago.
One advantage of taking the train instead of driving is that
the train keeps moving while you sleep, and so I got to sleep through all of
Kansas. I woke up the next morning on the plains of Colorado. No more farming.
The industry here is cattle. Huge dusty brown fields, speckled with black dots.
The soil is sandy, desert like, and with nicer weather on the horizon is a
sharp line. You can follow where the land is lower by looking for the lines of
trees. Though not yet green, you can how life clings to water, the difference
between the dry and wet areas. I wonder what this land would look like after a
May rain. It must bloom with green grass and flowers.
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| First sighting of the Rockies as we enter Trinidad CO |
Then out of the plains and into the town of Trinidad CO,
gateway to the Rockies. From here it is up and over Raton Pass and down into
New Mexico. Once we came through the pass, New Mexico seemed like a blur, or at
least a somewhat monotonous trip. The train bypasses almost all civilization,
except for Las Vegas NM until we reached the pueblos north of Albuquerque.
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| Snow in the Rockies |
Going west from Albuquerque, the train follows old Route 66.
It was dark by the time we go to Gallup and time for bed before we got to
Flagstaff. We woke up the next morning near Victorville CA and then down into San
Bernardino by 7AM. We reached Los Angeles a little after 8 in the morning.
One thing in concluding this piece, and this goes for both
my trips on the Lake Shore Limited and The Southwest Chief. The staff on the
trains were, without exception friendly, helpful and thoughtful. They really
helped make this three day journey fun and interesting. Even in a sleeper, they
made sure that no one was truly alone, and that we all had a great trip.
My husband took this route to Flagstaff earlier this year, and had the exact same impression of the staff. But he didn't choose a sleeper, and arrived back in New York State in pretty rough shape. He liked the meals the best since everyone eats together in the dining car, strangers seated with strangers. KC Union Station was extraordinary--I would have confused it with Chicago if I'd seen it out of context. And the barren flats of Colorado, the distant Rockies, then snow in the mountains and New Mexico--I traveled far without leaving my chair. Thanks, Jonathan!
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