22 January

After a full night’s sleep I woke at 5, then dozed until 5:15 when as we pulled into Houston. It was out for a little walk, a small look and then back in. We left Houston on time at 6:15, and after a short time, stopped, backed up, and then continued on. I was up at 6:30 for breakfast – first there. I had tea (hot!) and scrambled eggs with bacon and biscuit. The tea was not quite as at home, but I will either fiddle or accept it. Just before I finished, along came another passenger. He was Ray, and over breakfast I found out he was a retired engineer from Denver. He enjoys riding trains and has a website railpassengerUSA.com. We spoke about retiring, “baby boomers” moving around the country, education and economic conditions around the country. The outside scenery included Lake Houston and then the spindly trees and wet conditions which would eventually become bayou country. Then I took the opportunity to wash and change. My clothes, which had been worn since Sunday morning (well, through two Sundays and one Monday to be exact) were showing signs and smells of being on too long. The train stopped briefly at Beaumont and I went to go outside but didn’t make it. Ended up chatting to Ben, originally from Iran (Tehran) but now from California (Silicon Valley). He had emigrated at 20, set up his own bus company, then sold up and retired at 42. Since then he has been retired and mainly travelled. Currently he is going around by train. We discussed a little politics (he was aware that John Howard was Prime Minister, but not that he had been replaced by Kevin Rudd. However he did think we had a president. The conversation turned to travel, country conditions (I wasn’t aware 11% of Iran was jungle; he wasn’t aware most of Australia was desert nor that we had a drought) and friendliness of people (he thought Australians were very friendly people. Americans were not a classless society, despite what appearances may have been. Then we went upstairs, and watched the scenery go by. Now the scenery had become swampy, with spindly trees, little foliage and varying degrees of water around the base of the trees. Occasionally we passed through towns, with nearly all houses having shingle roofs, which looked very different to me. Some places were neat, but many showed signs of neglect and decay. This could just be a consequence of railways, as it is common in most countries, or a sign of poverty in the area. We stopped at Lake Charles TX, across a road, and picked up passengers. We were there for quite a few minutes, blocking traffic. A fellow passenger said that in another town, a freight train blocked the road each morning for an hour and traffic didn’t flow. After that the scenery was new, reasonably large, estates. It quickly changed back to bayou or more cleared, but still swampy, country. This is supposed to be the view for the majority of the day into New Orleans. There were rice fields (we assume) visible from the train as we were around La Fayette. Most of the area looked industrial and most of the housing looked to be occupied by lower economic groups. Off the train at LaFayette I spoke with the conductor and took his photo with the train, then chatted with Carlin, from Tallahassee. She had grown up in the Bahamas with Canadians and British and had just returned from five weeks in the Czech Republic. We discussed regional accents, moving around the US and good places to visit, education systems and a little on Australia (she has friends from Perth, at ACU).
At 12:40 I was going to get lunch, as we will be into New Orleans not long after 4, but the café was shut. I will get it just after 1. Although I’ve only been on the train since Sunday afternoon, I have felt comfortable with conditions and very comfortable with the people I have travelled with and especially those I have met. I will be sorry to get off and finish this section of my trip.
Ron and LaVonne, Larelea, the corrections officer, the man from California and the woman from New York, the German tourist, the Carny and the woman from Louisiana, Scott and Gary (staff), Ben and Carlin have all made parts of the trip memorable.
The late afternoon was spent amusing two children who went along the carriage demanding attention from each and every adult. Finally, just after five, we pulled (well, backed in actually) in to New Orleans. I took a cab to the Hotel le Cirque, booked in, had a looooong shower, did the computer stuff and then to sleep.