Wridin' the Wrails!

Dec. 1, 2005

11:40 A.M.
Somewhere in eastern Arizona (about 12 miles from Lordsburg, NM)

We are on our way to see Danny on Amtrak. We were scheduled to leave Tucson at 2:20 a.m. today….however, the train was 6 HOURS LATE arriving in Tucson. We had called at midnight and were told the train was running an hour late. We called again at 1:30 a.m. and got the same info, so we loaded up the car and took off for the train station in downtown Tucson. We got to the station at 2:45 and found a sign that read “Amtrak delayed until 4:45 a.m. due to Union Pacific freight traffic”. GREAT! We checked in our luggage and decided we would go have breakfast, or a cup of coffee, or something! After discovering NOTHING is open in downtown Tucson at this hour, we headed out to I-10 and found a Denny’s open. Not in the best part of town, but we didn’t have a choice. We had breakfast and finally at 4:00 a.m. we headed back the train station. We parked the car in the parking garage and walked the 2 blocks to the station. We sat down and waited. At 4:40 a.m. the station agent made an announcement that the train was delayed due to an emergency and would arrive at 5:55 a.m. GRRRR! Have you ever tried to sleep on a bench in a train station? They are harder than the ground….Jo tried and gave up! 5:55 came and went -- people were getting a little (?) irritated…finally the station agent made yet another announcement (by the way, he had the personality of a rock) that the train was delayed about 35 minutes out due to a broken rail on the line. GOOD GRIEF! Scheduled arrival of 7:30 a.m! WE COULD HAVE GOTTEN A DECENT NIGHTS SLELEP! The crowd was getting antsy…one young woman had been there since midnight with her two small children; after taking a bus from somewhere north of Tucson. FINALLY at 7:20 Amtrak arrives. We board and get to our “room”…we have a sleeper on the trip. Our room is about 4 feet wide, two seats facing each other..very cozy! I could see a lot of time being spent in the observation car by us! Since the room was not made up for sleeping, we went up to the dining car (the entire length of the train from where we are) and had breakfast again! We got about 3 miles from the station and the train had to stop on a siding to let 3 freights pass. I should tell you here, that freight trains have priority on the rails….and Union Pacific owns these rails. We also found out that the southern route for Amtrak is always slow…and at least 2 hours late! By now we are over 6 hours late. Finally we get rolling again. We go back to our “room” and try to figure out how we are going to sleep. The attendant comes by and told us that the room across from us was unoccupied, and gave the room to Jo to use until someone boards for it.

It is now noon and we are still stopped in the middle of NO WHERE! All I can see is sage brush, weeds and I-10. You will never guess why! Apparently the train crew can only operate the train in 12 hour shifts (government regulations) and this crew has ended its shift. We are sitting here waiting for a replacement crew.---I hope they aren’t coming by Amtrak…we will be here a long time!