Train Travel LA to NOLA

For the first three weeks of May, we traveled via Amtrak around the continental US.  With very few exceptions, we found the trip to be an extremely rewarding experience.  We met many people that we were able to spend hours chatting with and swapping tales.  We left May 1st around noon.  By the time we settled into our sleeper compartment, we were already passing San Jacinto and the wind farms. 

We had traveled the night through Arizona. Dawn broke just as we were leaving New Mexico, the train come within 35 feet of the border. Patrol agents roamed the hillsides and boarded the train during stops.  The Brown Shirts of Nazi Germany came to mind.  I pondered my response as they asked various people who they were, where they were going.  I was thinking that free travel was part of our rights and I would make a loud statement as to their right to interrogate, but   no I was passed over. 

Having rolled into El Paso early Saturday morning, we reached San Antonio at nightfall.  Traveling across west Texas is an experience of observation, the hours are spent gazing at landscapes lightly touched by today's urban homogenization. Rutted dirt roads washed clean of tracks from the few vehicles capable of venturing this far from support services. Amtrak's Texas Limited shakes one from what appears as extreme speed, into a perception of crawling across this sparse existence.

In San Antonio, there was just enough of a lay-over to walk to the famous River Walk, and spend  an hour walking along the river maze.  The train soon proceeded on to Houston and finally New Orleans by the next evening.

We found that Amtrak provides very nice meals in the dining car; the selection is limited, but sufficient for a hungry traveler. When comparing the selection at the various stops I've made on the road, Amtrak is by far more delicious. Maybe, from the lack of stress, no anti-acids are required for this trip.

New Orleans is Next