Desert Messenger

16 www.DesertMessenger.com June 13, 2018 By Jackie Deal TRAVEL #6 From Oregon to Missouri: by plane, all you see is clouds and wee, little buildings; by car and you're focused on the highway. But by train? Awe, then you can see the scenery and relax too. (At least that's what they say in the propaganda.) My brother had come from Missouri to see me twice; it was my turn to go back there and joy of joys! My best friend wanted to go on a long train ride too. Another good friend made the reservations; I hadn't the foggiest idea how to do that. And off we went...two little old ladies. We were sharing a closet, euphemistically called a "sleep- ing car." Said car was composed of two lovely reclining chairs, great for daytime relaxation. At night they pulled together and became the bottom bunk. Bunk?? Yah, that meant there was an upper bunk with about two inches of head room. Now doesn't it seem right to you that the old- est should have the lower bunk? Come on now, I could barely reach the fi rst step and the top step was a jump made on pure faith that I'd land on the bunk and not thin air. Once up there I discovered that I was backwards: my head was where my feet had to be if I wanted to get back down without a parachute. Next I discovered the bunk was about fi ve inches wide; I didn't dare turn over (even if I could have without bang- ing my head on the ceiling.) My piteous pleas fell on deaf ears, as my "friend" pointed out she was "a little larger" than I was and she couldn't possibly get up there. (I would make nasty comments but she might read this.) This, then, meant I spent the entire night hanging on for dear life. There was a mesh strip along the wall, undoubtedly meant for glasses, books etc. I wound my arm through it and never let go. Did I sleep? Hah! Add to this the fact that at a certain age, one must get up and empty the bladder several times a night or the roommate below might be unhappy! I slithered and slid down what was re- ferred to as "steps," slipped into my slippers and slip-slapped to the, ahem, bathroom. Note to potential train rid- ers: be sure to have fl ip-fl ops or slip- pers, you don't want your bare feet on the "bathroom" fl oor, believe me. I'm sure they try to keep the "bath- rooms" clean but it must be an im- possible job. The only thing worse would be not having any "facilities." One does not dress in the "bath- room", nor does one take a bath in it, needless to say, since it's hardly pos- sible to turn around in it. One dresses in the two inch square space in front Travelogue of the lower bunk, that is if the low- er bunk mate will get the blank out of there. Standing up, your nose is pressed against the privacy(??) cur- tain so it's best to dress sitting down. Now when I was in grade school, that was possible but it's a lot more dif- fi cult now. We went "fi rst class", which did have it's advantages; all our meals were included. You could have anything on the menu and as much as you wanted. That meant we could have fi let migon every night. Believe it or not, I got tired of that. There was no extra charge for meals; keep in mind, we were paying enough to wall paper the White House. The dining car was thoughtfully positioned about eight cars ahead of us. That meant an adventurous hike through the adjoining cars, across trembling steel plates between cars (or was that me trembling?) Swaying and staggering, practically ending up in somebody's lap, we ventured forth to the dining car. I must admit, the food was delicious, the service was faultless and table mates were inter- esting and fun. Would I do it again? You bet! I did! Maybe I'll tell you more about that. DO YOU HAVE EXPIRED OR UNUSED MEDICATIONS? DUMP THE DRUGS at QPD! Dispose safely at QUARTZSITE POLICE DEPT. Mon - Fri. 8am-5pm 305 N. Plymouth, Quartzsite 928-927-4644 Space donated by Desert Messenger Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ DesertMessengerNews Follow on Twitter @DesertMessenger @QuartzsiteRain

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