Life on The High Plains: Dark is the Night

It's 6 am and I don't know where we are. We're on an Amtrak train but it's still dark outside and I can't see anything but lights going by. The problem is that we're not supposed be anywhere at this time yet we clearly just left a station. Therefore, we're either ½ hour ahead of time or ½ behind. Well, we could be more than that behind, which would be fine with me since we have a 6 hour layover in Chicago and I'd rather spend it on the train than off the train in a noisy terminal. But anyway, we're kicking along in the dark and I'm awake so here I am typing by feel.

The journey home has been a little bit different. First, we have different crew. Every crew so far has their own ways of doing things. My sleeping car guy is young and maybe a little inexperienced and he insists on doing everything. Me, I'm old and experienced- some would say “set in my ways”, but I prefer “experienced”- and there are ways that I like to do things. For instance, I've been making my own beds when the time comes. I can do it, for one. But for another, I travel with my own little fleece “sleeping bag” and I sleep in that. I don't sleep in hotel or train sheets. I don't know how clean they are for one (if I were outlining this story, this would be a sub-point), but (sub point 2) by sleeping in a consistent cover (.ie my fleece bag), I can regulate my temp better. I know about how warm or cool I'm going to be and can kick or cover appropriately. In strange sheets? Who knows?! Every night's an adventure and that makes for tough sleep. My fleece bag is like an elf blanket and seems to magically regulate my temp so that I'm just perfect every night.

Here's another reason I like to do it myself. I let the porter do his job and when we came back, he had my head facing the rear of the train. That in itself wouldn't matter, but there's a little niche built into the headrest that's perfect for storing eye glasses at night. The night light switch is on that console, and the steps leading up to the upper bunk are also on the console. Therefore, it makes more sense to me to have my head over there. I can drop my glasses in the cubbyhole, reach up and flip the light switch on/off, and help David down the steps should he need to come down in the middle of the night. All this stuff was at my feet. So, after the porter had done his job, I just closed the curtains and re-did it the way I wanted it. I hope I don't sound like a grumpy old man.

Speaking of David, though... there's a safety net in the upper bunk designed to keep people from rolling out in the middle of the night. David, however, is not a normal person. He tosses and turns and rolls and flips and flops and kicks and contorts all thru the night. When I'm ever forced to share a bed with him, the first thing I do is build a wall of pillows down the middle to keep him on his side of the bed. I've learned this the hard way. But anyway, 'round midnight, I awoke and took a look-see and what I saw were David's legs dangling over the edge of the top bunk. I pushed him back into place and built a wall of pillows on the edge, but from there on, all I could see in my mind's eye was David tossing and turning and throwing himself off the edge of the bunk, striking his head on the steps, breaking his nose...blood everywhere...screaming....blah, blah, blah. Maybe I'm over-protective, but the image of him tumbling down the church steps was still hot on my brain and the scrapes and bruises on his face are very real. So, I ended up waking up every 5 minutes to check on him. The wall of pillows held him in place pretty good, and all was well for the rest of the night. Except that here I am, wide-awake at 6 am typing by feel in the dark. We are now away from whatever town that was and it's REALLY dark so I think I'll shut this down and just drink my railroad coffee in sensory deprivation. Dark night, dark coffee, dark thoughts.. they all go together.

Later: Here we are in Chicago, sitting in the Amtrak lounge. After writing the above, I got another hour or so of sleep and I feel perky enough right now. David and I ate a good breakfast on the train and now we're ready to go explore Union Station Chicago.

Mo' later: we're back from exploring. This is a big station. Not as big as Union Station DC but still pretty good sized. I'm sure everyone's tired of hearing about this, but that sleeping car ticket is the way to go. We're sitting here in this nice lounge with TV, comfortable chairs, tables, free soft drinks and coffee, and lounge bathrooms. About 30-45 minutes before departure, someone comes around, gathers us up, and leads us like sheep to our train. It's just about fool proof and WAY better than airline waiting lounges. Granted, the sleeper car cost me $328 per leg of the trip (Raton → DC, DC → Raton) which effectively doubled the price of my tickets, but even so the total bill was $1250 for me and David to DC and back via sleeping cars the whole way. All meals on the train were paid for and we've eaten at least 2 on each train. It would be hard to match that via airplane.

As I noted earlier, I'm reading several books. I finished Don Miller's “Blue Like Jazz” and really liked it. I mean, it's not going to replace my Bible or anything, but Miller wrote a very honest, introspective, and thoughtful book and really nailed, IMHO, some critical points about the Christian walk. I'll probably write some more about his book later on when I don't have Internet access and put 'em on here at a later time. By contrast, Brent Crowe's “Chasing Elephants- wrestling with the gray areas of life” is a little disappointing so far. Maybe because he reflects some of the attitude that Miller writes about, maybe because this is material I've already wrestled with myself and I think he's missing some points. I dunno. It's just not resonating with me, but that's fine. I'm sure it'll resonate with someone. I'm simultaneously reading Timothy Keller's “The Reason for God” and “The Prodigal God”. The former is good, but again, I've tackled so many of these points already. “The Prodigal God”, on the other hand, immediately brought up some interesting angles that I hadn't considered and he also is singing a solo over the tune that Miller introduced, so for now, I'm focusing over there. And while we're here, let me put in a plug for William P. Young's “The Shack”. I was asked to read this by a church member and found it to be a really good book. It challenges some dogmatic thought, but I was easily able to back up his thought with Scripture. Young Miller, and to an extent Keller are all challenging their readers to think about what “freedom in Christ” really means. We could quibble on small theological points, but I greatly appreciate that they're trying to get people to think instead of just act dogmatically robotic.