First Couple of Stops

As I write this post I am riding the Sunset Express train from Tucson to LA after two fun and somewhat adventurous days in southeast Arizona. Part of my planning for this trip involved thinking about places that I have heard about but never visited and despite living in Arizona many years ago I have never been the mining towns in the southeastern part of the state or even to downtown Tucson, so I figured I'd get off of the train in Tucson, rent a car and drive around and to some of the more storied places in Arizona. After a great stay in The Hotel Congress which is a very nice, albeit small, very old hotel right across the street from the Amtrak station I headed southeast towards the towns of Bisbee, Tombstone and some of the lesser known 'old west' towns. 

Tombstone was very quiet with just a handful of tourists milling in and out of the souvenir and western wear stores, saloons, and restaurants. Nothing in the stores really caught my eye but I did see a lot of good native American ceramics and a gunfight just outside of the OK Coral. I also met a few interesting characters at the Oriental Saloon and enjoyed hearing their stories of how they came to live in the Tombstone area. After an acceptable slice of '3 Berry' pie I headed to Bisbee and got to marvel at the landscape that is part of the attraction to the area. 

Bisbee is home to the Copper Queen mine and many other mines. and they have set up a small segment of the Copper Queen mine to give tours and talk about the history of mining in Arizona. Bisbee is also a very cool little town and does not have the theatrical feeling that Tombstone has. It was neat to walk around but at the time i was there many of the stores were closed. The pretour of the mine was very cool with a lot of displays and interesting film on the history of the mine. For the tour they put you on to a small train where you ride down into the mine. The train goes into a several large areas where the mining operation removed a substantial part of the interior of the mine and you can see the large areas where they removed the ore and a demonstration of how they blasted the ore out of the wall at the end of every shift. One of the most interesting things I learned is that for some period of time they actually used mules to pull the ore carts around inside the mine. They trained them, somehow, for years to work the mines and then moved them down into the mines where they stayed for several years working to pull ore carts around. After several years of continuous underground service they would be finally brought back up and put out to pasture as a retired mine mule. I could relate. 

 

 

I left Bisbee after a short walking tour of the town and headed to Sierra Vista to find a place to stay. Unfortunately I came to an intersection that said "Sierra Vista" straight and "Tombstone" left. I recalled that the Oriental Saloon bartender told me that I would be back to Tombstone 'soon', so I felt compelled to go that way. When I got there most of the shops were closed but the saloons were still open, so I dropped in to see what was on the schedule for entertainment that evening. When i was told that karaoke started at 7pm I asked for 'just one beer, I need to leave before karaoke'. Some of you are aware of what happened next, and to you I am truly sorry, for those of you who didn't receive a constant barrage of text messages let me give you the abbreviated story. I stayed way too long and ended up singing karaoke with two couples from Australia. Believe me when I tell you...Tombstone is two different cities and "Tombstone After Dark" is something that everyone one should experience.

The next day I did some more desert driving and a tour of the Kartchner Caverns which are really cool. I met my spirit animal, the Cave Sloth, there and got to see a lot of interesting geologic phenomena. It is a 'must see' if you're ever in the area. 

I scurried back to Tucson just in time to meet up with long time friend Jack for Mexican dinner and then hopped on the train to Los Angeles. 

I got down to San Diego for a weekend with other long time friends Scott & Angela and also managed to squeeze in dinner with pseudo niece Amanda, husband Philly and lovely daughter Cora. It is ALWAYS good to see extended Clemson family and get caught up with them when possible.  

 

Now I'm on the train to Flagstaff where I'll drive around northern Arizona (breaking my rule of not going to somewhere I have been to before) and having dinner in my favorite northern AZ town of Jerome with some Arizona Public Service alumna. 

 

Till next time.... follow your dream, unless it's becoming a world famous Karaoke signer, then find another dream.  

 

Photos Below: Wall art in Tucson, adding another smashed penny to my collection, luckily this guy let me off with a "cant sign karaoke" warning,  the cave sloth - my true spirit animal, entrance to Kartcher Cavern, and what is a trip to southern AZ without a saguaro cactus photo? 

 

And as before...if you comment anonymously please put your name in the body of your comment so we know who to attribute it to!  

IF we were ALL the Same, What Fun Would THAT Be?

 I usually do jump to conclusions quite quickly, and this may indeed be one of those times; but, here goes. 

There are A LOT of different KINDS of people in this world and many of them ride the train. Let's start with those who do not ride the train: rich people, especially nuevo rich people, and that is a good thing in my mind. Rich people, especially nuevo and young rich people, seem to be very self absorbed - "instagramers" if you will. That's not to say there are no instagramers on the train, but the ones that are seem to be more genuine than the ones that go to a place, pose, snap and leave,. The instagramers on the train do pose and snap, but they then go back to doing whatever it was they were doing before they compose and framed their post - to me, that is a good thing if you're going to have instagramers. Other than those pesky rich people it seems that EVERYONE else rides the train, and I mean EVERYONE else. There are old people, unhealthy people, young people, and tied for most of all - retired people and people who seem to be less well off. They both want to travel on the cheap and both seem to have plenty of time to do so. I suppose I fall into a crossover between those two groups :) 

There are also "Train People", and what an interesting subset of society they are! I met a young couple that have traveled around on Rail Passes for several years and always try to find train related things to see and do in the towns along the rail lines. They had good records from train engines they've seen and a spreadsheet showing the different rail routes and lines they've ridden. I think they've used at least one pass each year over the last several years and don't seem like they're giving up on the hobby anytime soon. Then there were the retired guys who have time and inclination to seek out bucket list things such as long distance train travel, and I suppose I also fall into that category. Some are experts at train riding and admit to have used  Rail Passes every year for years and ridden a high percentage of the rail lines. Oddly enough, they are not all widowers, while many are, many are just using time away from their spouses to do what they like and see the back yards of the US (more on that in a later blog) while getting some time to read, relax, and just sit and stare out of the window of the observation car.  

So yeah, there are different people on the train...different than a plane, different from a car and different from those that don't travel at all. One thing they all see to have in common is that they're enjoying the journey (and it's challenges) as much as their destinations. And that's a good thing - for a bumper sticker, a t-shirt AND life in general.  

And for those of you without access to the Book of Faces, here are a few photos from the observation car, mostly of landscapes in Texas and sunsets in western New Mexico and eastern Arizona along with a few of the railway stations. 

 

 

Amtrak Trip 2026

 Well, here we are...after 44+ years of full time work I've finally decided to join the leagues of the retirement crowd as of April 17, 2026. It has been interesting to say the least but I've almost always enjoyed my work and the people I worked with. I'll miss the camaraderie, but as you know "The Office" just hasn't been the same since COVID, so there isn't much of that good old bonding around the water cooler any more. 

"What are you going to do with your free time?" was the most prevalent question over the last couple of weeks and I figured I would reestablish this blog so I can tell the answers to that question in near real time. First up, and I do mean first as it started on Sunday morning after my last Friday, is an Amtrak trip around the western half of the country. So, let's get started with that story, shall we? 

Amtrak sells what they call a "USA Rail Pass" and it is a one price pass that is good for 10 segments over 30 days. They define a segment as any given set of city pairs...so Washington, DC to Baltimore, MD could be a segment OR New Orleans to Los Angeles, CA could be a segment. Once you start the first ride of the pass, you have 30 days to complete all 10. After looking at the map for not nearly long enough and thinking about how best to optimize the total pass I came up with a loose itinerary that I hope will be flexible enough to keep me amused and satisfied that I'm getting the most for the cost of the pass. Right now, on the first day, the plan is to start in Charlotte, NC and then take my first segment to New Orleans. I'll only be there for about 10 hours and then I'll take the "Sunset Limited" (Amtrak has these cute names for their routes) from New Orleans towards Los Angeles, CA as my second segment. The secondary goal of this adventure is trying to see parts of America that I have not seen in my previous travels. So, after studying the map for about 5 minutes I decided that I would get off of the Sunset LTD in Benson AZ and tour around southeast Arizona to places I have  NOT been to before. After a few google searches it turns out that there are no rental car agencies in Benson, so I changed my plan to Tucson where I could visit the historic part of town, get a car and drive around to some of the famous and infamous towns of the old west. After I'm done with that tour I will get back on the Sunset LTD and go to LA and then transfer to a train down to San Diego where I'll visit with old friends Scott & Angela for the weekend, which will be a nice cap to my first week of retirement. 

So, here I am, somewhere in the 'wilds' of southern Alabama in the early Sunday afternoon after leaving Charlotte this morning at 3AM and watching the world go by my large window from the comfort of my nearly 'first class sized' seat. There's a interesting collection of people riding and working on the train and I'm sure I'll build up enough tales about them over the next few days so that I can make a whole post just about them. In the meantime I'll get back to trying to plan my next stop(s) for the next week. 

Till next time.... Ever Forward my Friends.  

 

ps: Everyone loves a good comment, but if you're anonymous I don't know who to thank. Put your name in your comment and that way you don't have to sign in to the google overlords!