Up at 6:30 again. Train running about 2 hours late. Over night we paused at Kansas City but I slept through it. Not much to say about Kansas farm land either. Crossed into Colorado about 10:00 am. Eastern Colorado is about the same as Kansas. We arrived in Trinidad at 11:45 and started up Raton Pass. Here I start retracing part of my journey from earlier this summer as we roughly follow I-25 and the Santa Fe Trail from Trinidad to Albuquerque. It's nice to be able to watch the scenery instead of the road. We crossed the summit of Raton Pass at 12:10. After Raton, things sort of flatten out again and the area appears to be mostly ranch land. We just passed a tree off in the distance. Not a very big tree but the ONLY tree that I can see for miles and miles. There has to be a story there somewhere. Las vegas, NM ... they have a unusual building here, next to the depot. It's mission style but built of bricks and had the name Castanada on the center section. First guess is that it's an old Harvey House Hotel but I'll have to look it up.

(Got on the web and sure enough ... check out http://harvey.library.arizona.edu/finding_aid/8nm/3/gr8-3-2.html )

Lamy, NM ... I've been here on a train before this summer, just not this train. Lamy was the destination of the Santa Fe Southern excursion railroad that I rode back on July 26th. Seems like a lot longer ago than that. I had lunch there last time, this time I almost had dinner as we are running a little over 2 hours late and just about a half hour before my dinner reservation time.

Albuquerque ... managed to finish dinner before we arrived in ABQ. I didn't get off even though we had an extended stay. From the train I noticed a building very close to the tracks that had all the doors and windows sealed shut with plywood and signs on the outside warning of asbestos danger, "do not enter without respirators and protective suits." It would have made a perfect place for the Amtrak station which is located instead a long walk away and in a cramped little build near the street. Wonder how long that building was used before someone noticed the asbestos problem.

After Albuquerque we turned west and followed the route of another trip I had taken two years ago. With two friends, we drove to California following the tracks of previous Santa Fe Railroad as closely as possible. Darkness soon prevailed however and I saw little more until the next morning when ...