Welcome to The Southwest Chief, Amtrak’s mid-southern route. As its name indicates, this route travels the southwest, in fact, going from it’s eastern starting point, Chicago, it travels 2,265 miles/3645 km. to Los Angeles, daily. If you want to relive the west as it stood 100 + years ago, when it was home to old west cattle trails, the Santa Fe Trail, Route 66 and home to many of the North American tribes, this is the train for you. You’ll pass through eight states, huge fields of crops, namely corn in the east and wheat in the mid section of the route, small towns, big cities, cattle ranches, a national park, and comes very close to other national parks such as Petrified Forest National Park and Grand Canyon National Park. We’ll also see snowy mountain passes, deep canyons, deserts, and the nation’s hottest town, Needles, CA. It’s quite a diversified trip and one packed with marvellous view,s so get comfy and let’s go scenery sight seeing.

Once again, we’re going to start off in that historic, center of the USA, Chicago and travel westward. Our train departs at a very reasonable 2:25 P.M., which allows for a good 5-6 hours of daylight in which to get the gist of how this section of the US has become known as ‘‘The Bread Basket of America’’. We’ll get through Illinois, Iowa and about half of Missouri before the sun dips to meet the earth and we witness a spectacular Prairie Sunset. The land here is the stuff of “Little House on the Prairie”, ‘‘The Grapes of Wrath’’, ‘‘Oh Pioneers’’, and ‘‘Antonia’’. Just looking at the vast fields where you can literally see for miles and miles. The lights go down as we arrive in Kansas City. Due to staff and equipment changes K.C. has a long stop-over. Plenty of time to admire the museum-like architecture of Union Station, Kansas City. Perhaps I’ll do a jump-off here one day as there is so much to see and do in KC. It’s alive with a great Jazz scene, mouth-watering barbecue and some very beautiful fountains, to say nothing of perhaps the greatest Football Fans this country has. It was no big surprise to me, then, when I passed through here in 2023, that there was a huge memorial to the ‘‘Chiefs’’ right in the middle of the station.

At Kansas City, we’ll cross over into the State of Kansas, which we will pass through during the evening hours. In 2023, I stopped off at Dodge City for a day. There is a remarkable reproduction of Old Dodge City, taken from a 1880s perspective. It has just about every type of commercial venture one would find on a town’s main street. General stores, Saloons, Restaurants, Dentists Shop, Haberdashery, Drug Store, Hardware Store, etc. At the end find yourself in Boot Hill and stand among some of Dodge City’s more colourful citizens. Even if you’re not planning a stop-over keep your eyes peeled on the right-hand side for the statue of Marshall Dillon.

We cross over into the south-eastern corner of Colorado and strike out on a diagonal route towards New Mexico. We will begin to leave the flatlands of the Great Plains behind us and begin to see outcrops of the Rockies and other mountains. In a short while, we pick up the Santa Fe Trail and loosely travel along it all the way into Albuquerque NM. This is some of the prettiest scenery on this route with its gentle, rolling green hills that seem to reach for the mountain peaks in the background. Get yourself a seat or table in the lounge car and just sit back and enjoy. Let your imagination wander as you envisage wagon trains or cattle drives struggling alongside you. Can’t you smell that hot dust as it gets in your clothes, your hair, your nose? The 100 degree heat beating you down as you coax your oxen up another steep, rocky incline. Now, say a little thank you to the Big Guy above for letting you be a train traveller rather than a pioneer and thank them, of course, for exploring and developing this great land of ours. We don’t go right into Santa Fe as the trains stopped travelling there some 60 years ago. To get into Santa Fe, you need to depart the train in Lamy and then bus it into Lamy. Amtrak provides the connection which is the Road Runner Shuttle. This past Sept. I jumped off in Lamy and stayed a day in Santa Fe, and it was one of my better ideas. Loved it there. What a pretty drive to a pretty city, which is chock-full of Pueblo-style buildings. I stayed at The Sage Hotel on 725 Cerrillos Rd, Sante Fe. https://www.thesagesf.com/ and thoroughly enjoyed myself. The welcome I received was so friendly that I felt as if I had made a friend for life in just a matter of moments. Their free shuttle was a life and time saver. They took me right to the spot I wanted, which was the San Miguel Chapel. This is supposedly the oldest church in the US, having been built in 1610. There is something about the Spanish-Mexican Catholic Churches, Monasteries and Chapels that brings out the nicest feelings of wonderment and awe within me. A very knowledgeable tour guide/volunteer was on hand to answer any questions about the building, especially the original bell, which now sits by the front entrance. Visitors are encouraged to strike the bell with a special tool to feel its deep vibrations. The bell, which was cast in Spain in 1356 is among the oldest bells in North America. Next door to the Chapel is the Oldest House Museum and it quite adequately shows how a regular family would have lived in this region in 1646. Well worth a 30-minute stop and then it was on to Sante Fe Plaza, a colourful, vibrant shopping district full of stores and stalls. But before I got too far along Cathedral Place, I found The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi. What a beautiful Cathedral, so much to see, so much to explore. Virtually across the street is the Loretto Chapel, which houses The Miraculous Staircase, a circular stairway that rises 22 feet to the balcony. This stairway is called The Miraculous Staircase as it was designed by an unknown, mysterious, travelling carpenter who departed as soon as the stairway was completed. I completed my tour of Santa Fe with a stroll around its Santa Fe Plaza, a lovely plaza in the centre of Old Santa Fe. The plaza is now marked by structures in the Pueblo, Spanish and Territorial styles that reflect its history. Then it was back to The Sage for some great local eats done the New Mexico way. Next morning I returned to Lamy on the Roadrunner Shuttle and I’ve got to say that the drive back excels the drive in. There were only the driver and myself so it was like having my own personal Tour Guide. This is the way to travel, folks, you learn so much about an area and get the inside scoop on all of its treasured history. That 30-minute drive was like taking a semester in a History/Geograpy course led by your favourite teacher. The things he pointed out to me, you couldn’t get out of a $50 Travel Book. All too soon, we arrived in Lamy, NM. Now this is what you might consider a bump in the road. It consisted of the station, a bar/canteen/restaurant, and a couple of houses. Sadly, the bar was closed, it being a Sunday morning, but as I had an hour before my train arrived, I decided to take a walk up this single-track dusty road. There was a house at the bottom of the road, you then walked uphill and around a bend for about 50 yards, and then you came upon another house, and that’s pretty much it. The houses were of the Pueblo style with stick fences around the yard. It was one of those little adventures that stay with you forever. Here I am in the middle of ‘‘nowhere’’ New Mexico, going for a stroll on a hot, dusty, cloudy Sunday morning. I stopped and turned a 360-degree circle and just absorbed it all. This is why I travel, folks, to get off the beaten path and experience the world however my mind will let me. This walk was the culmination of some daydreaming I had done over the past winter while I was updating my journals. Last year I was on this same train, and when we stopped at Lamy, there was a middle-aged Mexican couple leaning against the fence just watching the train, locals, I supposed. They were smiling as they watched, and so I gave them a wave and got one straight back with the biggest smiles attached. When I was planning this trip, I remembered them, and when I discovered that I could get to Santa Fe from there, I put Lamy on my ‘‘jump-off’’ list. I had walked around a bit using Google Maps when I was journaling and knew that this was just the spot for me to get a little closer to the wonderful places I had been viewing from my seat. The fences in front of the homes intrigued me, so I just had to get a closer look. Well, the train’s here, so I guess I’m movin’ on.

We’re travelling through the Cerrillos hills now. This was the centre of a vibrant mining community where gold was found in 1821, and for thousands of years before that the Native Americans were mining turquoise, silver, copper and other minerals. Kewa Pueblo, seen on the right, has been the homeland for many peoples for thousands of years. Their ancestral ties can be traced back to Mesa Verde and Chaco Canyon ancestors. As we make our way into Albuquerque, the Cibola National Forest, which features mountains 10,000 ft. high can be viewed on the left. Our stopover in Abuquerquie is usually a lengthy one, at least 30 minutes. Plenty of time to examine the wares for sale by the local artisans who have an array of items for sale, including lovely wraps, ponchos, blankets, table mats, jewellery, and trinkets. As we leave Albuquerque the landscape begins to change once again. We are now seeing the High Desert and Mesas and Buttes begin to appear as we make our way towards the Colorado Plateau, as it is we are presently travelling through the Colorado Plateau’s high desert terrain. The elevation is around 6,500 ft., which makes for sparse vegetation, cooler winters and big skies. In winter, they have what I call Canadian Winters, who knew?? As we cross over into Arizona, we come out on the Colorado Plain, which stretches away from us for some 3-400 miles to the north and spans the 4 states of Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico. There are several National and State Parks within driving distance of Flagstaff which we will arrive at in a couple of hours. This is such a great ‘‘jump-off’’ spot. I have did it twice. The first time I rented a car for 2 days. The first day I drove a short 70 miles to the Grand Canyon and will never get over the goosebumped thrill of my first glimpse of this monstrous tear in the earth’s surface. I kept pretending to be the first explorer to have happened upon this awesome sight. Can you just imagine their shock and awe? It certainly wasn’t in their travel brochures, so I hope they didn’t arrive in the dark and walk over the edge. The next day I took a drive east to the Petrified Forest which was pretty neat. The landscape is so colourful, no wonder it’s known as ‘‘The Painted Desert’. Driving west back to Flagstaff I travelled the interesting Route 66. Holbrook is full of kitchyish old Motels that are still in operation. One motel has Tee Pees for cabins and the yard surrounding them is full of antique automobiles. Winslow is another great little town on the famous Rte. 66 and is quite famous in itself because of the reference made to it in the Eagles ‘‘Take it Easy’’. We all remember the line ‘‘I was standin’ on a corner in Winslow, Arizona’’, well the town has taken this gift and run with it. There is a corner, now known as Glenn Frey Drive and this is where a huge mural, statues of Glenn Frey and Jackson Browne and, of course, a flat red Ford. There’s a great souvenir shop on the opposite corner with just about anything related to the song and Rte. 66 as well. I bought my first bottle of Rte. 66 Root Beer here, the bottle is, of course, prominently displayed on my Travel Book Shelf. Did you ever leave a great dinner saying to yourself, ‘‘I so could have eaten more’’? Well that’s exactly how I felt as soon as I boarded the train leaving Flagstaff. I knew I’d be back to try and get my fill of this corner of the country and so I was, the next year. This time, I rented a car for 5 days and made the National Park loop that turned out to become about the best drive I have ever taken. I’m sure my jaw was on the floor of the car the entire trip. Starting off in Flagstaff I was abit concerned. The train was supposed to have gotten in at 8:30 P.M. but ran 10 hours late. I had a room booked so that I could grab some sleep, in a bed, before venturing off across the west. As it turned out I had to give up the room and went straight to the lot to pick up my car. With little sleep, I started out and was a little worried that I might doze off, but perish the thought. From the get-go, it was just one spectacular sight after another. The trip deserves a blog of its own, and to try to fit it in here would never allow me to do it the justice that it deserves. Besides, we’re here to talk about the train and all that it has to offer.

I rejoined the Southwest Chief 5 days later and continued my journey westward. It’s 9:15 P.M. when we depart Flagstaff and should begin to prepare for another night riding the rails, but it’s easier said than done. One of the more enjoyable things about travelling by train is one’s ability ot just sit and stare out the window, even in the dark. There’s just something about cruising through all the small towns and villages we pass along the way that gets my heart beating and has my imagination working overtime. Who lives in these little communities? What drives them to live so far off the beaten path? We crossed into California at Needles around 12:10 A.M., and it’s about 3 1/2 hours to Barstow. We are now traversing the Mojave Desert, and how I wish it were daylight so that I could get a good look at this vast desert. Another 2 hours brings us to San Bernardino and from here all the way into LA, it’s urban and well-lit, so we can clearly see the communities we’re passing through. We greet the sunrise as we come to Riverside and are now pretty well in the suburbs of LA. Yes, it’s that huge of a city. The city of Los Angeles covers some 1,302 square kilometres, the county of LA or what most people mean when they speak of LA, is about 10,570 square kilometres and has a population of over 9.7 million. We’ve reached our destination and unless we’re going to stop overnight here, we should have a layover of about 15 hours if we’re catching the Sunset Ltd. but only 2 hours if we’re headed north towards Sacramento on the Coast Starlight. As it is, we’re headed back east so we’ll be catching the Sunset Ltd. at 10 P.M. which gives us plenty of sightseeing time, and there’s plenty to see within walking distance of the station. Just a short 15 minute walk and we’re in Chinatown. A bustling beehive of sidewalk activity with vendors selling everything from fresh vegetables to clothes to every sort of household goods imaginable. They even have items that have been restricted for sale in Canada for years such as firecrackers, yes, the little boy in me bought a package, and turtles in plastic aquariums. Sad to say, they weren’t very transportable, or I would have had to purchase a couple for my Granddaughters. Next, I go for a long hike, about 30 minutes to a hugmungous bookstore called The Last Bookstore. It is the largest bookstore I’ve ever been in and can easily spend a couple of hours just browsing the many nooks and crannies and hidden spaces that hold just about any book you’ve ever wanted. Heading back towards the station is my favourite area in LA, the Mexican section. First we come upon Our Lady Queen of Angels Church, which dates back to 1784 and houses a beautiful and still active place of worship. It is one of the oldest buildings in Los Angeles and is steeped in a wonderful, historic atmosphere. Up the street is Olvera St. It begins at the El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument a plaza that holds a fountain and a large gazebo where musicians are often performing causing many a couple to dance around the plaza. Olvera Street then forms into a block long market place where Mexican souvenirs, colourful clothing and Mexican candy are sold. Too soon it’s getting dark and it’s time to head back to the station, the perfect time for photos of this iconic station. The constantly changing lights that light up the front of the building change from red to blue to green and illumine the tall palms that border the station. The familiar scene, seen in many movies and photos makes it difficult to believe this is a train station. The inside is just as beautiful with it’s high ceilings and walls of stucco and wooden beams and gives one a sense of being in a rather large Cathedral.