Anyone who’s travelled with Amtrak knows
that the schedule, while not quite a work of fiction, is more of a suggestion
than a real timetable. So it was that I sat for over an hour in the railway
station at Houston waiting for the Sunset service that runs from Los Angeles to
New Orleans. It was, as old hands like me pretty much expected, delayed by
having to cede precedence to freight trains (whose companies actually own the
tracks, unlike Amtrak which just has access); an even older hand than me was
just glad it wasn’t three hours late, like the last time she travelled.
Never mind. My first trip was only Houston
to Lafayette, a journey of about 5 hours, leaving at around lunchtime. At first
it’s a bit disappointing that there’s no wifi, but it doesn’t take long to get
into the vibe: mining the depths of your music collection, gazing at the
scenery, eavesdropping and people-watching – like the two old black men yarning
away, one of them explaining in friendly tones that the other has
“misconstrued” what he said; the lady sitting down in the lounge car and
praying for a solid three minutes before starting on her lunch; the National
Park service guys with their travelling exhibition of coyote, otter and beaver
pelts, turtle shells and alligator skulls (Norbert was particularly chatty).
Time passed, as did the scenery: lots of
trees, some farmland, much rice (who knew?), a huge and horrible refinery,
rivers and swamps all muddy brown from recent rains and harbouring ‘gators –
not that I saw any, though one man did. We stopped and waited, for freight
trains, for the new crew to turn up at Beaumont, for more time to pass. The
train hooted, classically and frequently. And eventually, and only an hour late,
we got to Lafayette, a pretty little town of around 200,000 souls all told,
which I will explore over the next couple of days. So y’all come back now, hear?
No comments:
Post a Comment