Summer 2010 Road Trip

July 5, 2010: Houston to El Paso. We boarded Amtrak at 10 pm. My idea was that this would put most of what I wanted to see -- the stretch between Del Rio and El Paso -- in daylight.

Just a couple things to start: I usually pack a couple of novels to read during my summer trips, but this year I decided to include non-fiction instead. I've been reading, back and forth, a book called The Heart of Christianity by Marcus Borg. The kernel of this book is that the paradigm of main stream Christianity is shifting away from the idea that Christianity is about believing the right claims in order to gain some kind of blissful reward at some later time and failing that suffering for eternity. Instead of some kind of divine Jeopardy, Christianity is a way of living that includes ideas about social justice, tolerance and acceptance.

The second thing: We are taking the Amtrak Sunset Limited route from Houston to El Paso. We'll drive, with my parents, from El Paso to Alamogordo. Second day we'll drive parts of old Route 66 to and through Albuquerque. Day three we'll travel to Aztec to visit the ruins and then to Farmington, Day four takes us to Durango and back to Farmington. In Durango we'll take the narrow gauge railroad to Silverton and back. Day five we'll travel from Farmington to Moab. Day six starts with a scenic flight over Canyonlands followed by a driving tour of the Island in the Sky section of the park. Day seven takes is to Blanding and visits to Natural Bridges and Hovenweep. Day eight we travel to Canyon de Chelly and Window Rock. Day nine we rejoin Route 66 just east of Gallup and follow it to I -25. We'll exit at San Antonio (NM) and return to Alamogordo. We'll spend a few days in Alamogordo exploring nearby attractions until day 14 when we return to El Paso to take Amtrak back to Houston.

Initial impressions from the trip: It's hard to sleep on a moving train. We took a sleeper which has an upper and lower bunk. Karen wanted the upper bunk for the trip to El Paso, but she also likes to get up several times a night. So, in addition to the narrow quarters and unusual noises and movements, I found that I woke up every time she stepped on me getting down from the upper bunk. Hmmm. Note to self -- take the upper bunk on the return trip.