Spring Break came late this year, and the last couple weeks have seemed even longer to me than to my students. When the bell rang at 12:35 today they bolted happily from the room and I would have thrown my hat in the air … if I were wearing one.
I did have to wait until evening to start my Spring Break adventure, our trip to New Orleans and the Delta. We had decided after a couple of pleasant Amtrak adventures to take the Sunset Limited to the Crescent City. It would no doubt have been cheaper to fly, but there is something magical about having your own bed on the train and being lulled to sleep by the movement of the car from side to side. I remembered our first long train trip to Chicago many years ago, and hearing the conductors call the names of the stations as I drifted off to sleep: “Pasadena!” “Cucamonga!” “San Bernardino!"
We took a Lyft to Union Station and arrived there around nine in the evening. The iconic tower of the 1939 station glowed in the night.
From between the trunks of Mexican Fan Palms, we could see the equally iconic cupola of City Hall.
We found our train and Paul, a friendly man whose twang suggested a boyhood somewhere in Central Texas, introduced himself as our cabin steward. He showed us to our room, and told us that we had about forty minutes before the train left. We decided to wander around the station for a while. I took some pictures of the train
and of John and the station.
We pulled out around ten, just as promised. Our Spring Break adventures begin!
