Strom Travel Diaries

Day 11 – Monday, December 27, 2021

When we woke up on Monday we were in Arizona. I was a bit annoyed because Lisa, our sleeping-car attendant, had made an announcement the night before that after 10 p.m. it was considered “quiet hours” on the train until 7 a.m., but several people got on around 5:30 or 6 a.m. and apparently decided not to abide by that idea. Mom and I got ourselves up around 7 a.m. and did our morning ablutions. We didn’t hear any announcements about the dining car, so we decided to head up there around 8 a.m. since on our previous trains breakfast had been on a first-come, first-served basis and was usually operated from about 6:30 to 9, depending on the train’s schedule. I had an omelet and Mom had a continental—of course, we both also had tea.

The morning was spent mostly in the roomette, looking at passing scenery and looking up where we were. Of course, Arizona and New Mexico (as well as a lot of Texas) looked pretty similar. Lots of scrub brush, mountains in the distance, and mystery farms. Mystery because we couldn’t figure out what they were growing.

After lunch, we headed to the observation car to pass a few hours. We saw a lot of the same type of scenery, and a large metal fence appeared as we neared El Paso. At first, I wasn’t sure what it was, but after a few minutes, I realized I was staring at the border! As we got closer to El Paso we started seeing more hints of human habitation on both sides of the fence. One thing we saw was some writing on the side of the hill on the Mexico side of the border, in Ciudad Juárez, reading “La Biblia es la verdad, leela” (which translates to “The Bible is the truth, read it”). So I did a little research online and found out that it had been put there by an evangelical group, which seems a bit obvious in hindsight.

What struck me at first, in being able to see both the US and Mexico at the same time, was how much more colorful the houses and buildings were in Ciudad Juarez—it was also pretty cool seeing all the Spanish-language advertising just across the way! El Paso itself wasn’t too shabby on the decoration, though. The bridges in particular were surprisingly artsy, with a sun motif carved and painted on each and several under-bridge or underpass areas with a kind of mountain design in the concrete. When we came to a stop at the station (another Union Station?!), the conductor announced that the burrito lady was out on the platform for anyone who wanted to buy a burrito. If I’d known that, I wouldn’t have gotten lunch!

Once we pulled out of El Paso, Mom and I didn’t spend too much more time in the observation car. The dining car attendant would usually come by in the afternoons to set your dinner time and we didn’t want to miss her! But before we left the observation car, we saw a large, red, sculpture “X” in Ciudad Juarez. I did a little more research and found out it was symbolic of the bloodshed during the drug wars in Juárez. ¡Muy interesante!

We had a very quiet rest of the evening. Dinner in the dining car, of course. What kind of caught us off-guard was the attitude of our sleeping-car attendant. She put down our beds relatively early (before dinner) and made more than one announcement about her lack of availability during the night. Since our beds were down anyway, Mom and I mostly read after dinner and tried to see out the window every once in a while. Throughout the trip, it was fun to see the occasional flashes of Christmas decorations in the darkness. And some houses and towns really went all out!