Synopsis

On May 1, 2007 Rich, Gail's brother, Mark Harris and Mark's friend, Russ White, boarded an Amtrak train (The Capitol Limited) at the Rockville, MD train station. We headed for Chicago, IL on the first leg of a two-train adventure to Santa Fe, NM.

The train stopped at a plethora of towns and cities enroute. Many of them were (some still are) steel mill and mining towns. We arrived in Chicago four hours late. The late arrival was due to many factors including; stopping for many freight trains to yield the right of way, smoke breaks for passengers and crew members, very bad rail beds that caused the train to sway and rock, not to mention a mistake in Cleveland, OH that caused the train to miss the station stop. The engineer then had to back the train up three miles to correct the error.

Several times during the trip, Russ decided to sleep on the floor in the area directly behind our seats. He found a clean piece of cardboard that doubled as a low class mattress.

Upon arrival in Chicago, we went up to the Skydeck in the Sears tower, where we enjoyed a 360 degree panoramic view of the city. Visibility was 30-40 miles.

The next leg of the trip was on the Southwest Chief. This portion of the trip was more picturesque, including a whole lot of farmland. The route took us through a portion of the Rocky Mountain range. When we crossed the Colorado border into New Mexico, the landscape transformed itself into the typical southwest high desert terrain, with alternating colors of light beige sandstone, and varieties of reds and burnt oranges.

The train stopped for about 15 minutes north of Lamy, NM to allow its sister train to pass us heading north on the one-track stretch. We arrived in Lamy about 30 minutes late, with Gail and her sister, Susan Benjamin, waiting for us.

On the day after our arrival, we took a day trip to Madrid, NM, where the movie Wild Hogs was filmed. The weather was beautiful with Santa Fe blue skies and billowing clouds. Along the way we stopped for a few minutes in the village of Cerrilos to visit the petting zoo and gift shop.

The next several days turned into winter again, with temperatures in the high 40's and low 50's, including intermittent snow flurries interspersed with sleet, hail and rain. We had planned to hike on Cinco de Mayo, but went to see the movie ÒFractureÓ instead due to foul weather.

That evening we enjoyed a wonderful time at Susan's when several of her friends joined us at her house for a great meal, drinks and frivolity. A good time was had by all.

The next day we went to Abiquiu, former home of Georgia O'Keefe.

On May 7 Susan, Mark, Russ and Rich hiked the Tent Rocks National Monument Canyon Trail in the Cochiti Pueblo located between Santa Fe and Albuquerque. Rich is still working on this section of the web site - too many photos, not enough time! Air temperature was in the low to mid 60's and mostly sunny. The Bureau of Land Management web site offers information on the formation of the hoodoos located in the canyon, along with other information here:

http://www.nm.blm.gov/recreation/albuquerque/kasha_katuwe.htm