Sunday, April 22, 2007

DAY SIX


I had a fitful sleep involving motel rooms and an overactive imagination. I was glad to get back on the train this morning. I went to breakfast where I observed a snooty old man and his wife refusing to share a table. They was fat anyways but even still. I sat with two quiet single people who were not together. I had the Tuscan omelette for breakfast. Fried potatoes were just as dismal as I remembered them but the omelette was okay.

I got a lower bunker this time-- and the bottom half of the train is easier to manage in walking. We went through miles of mountains and snow-covered mountains following the Colorado River. I saw a blue heron, a shitload of geese, some other brown ducks, a mallard, and a couple of ?western-style? vultures. Then came six miles of tunnels and
then the canyons started.

All I could think of when surrounded by canyons is holy shit how small we are in comparison to this. The scrubby pines and tumbleweeds, square glacial rocks and slides, little ranches and cows, and a few people floating down the river on blue rafts. It was the perfect day for all of it.

I sat lunch with a single middle aged man from Utica-Rome who had undisclosed business or fun to attend to a couple hours outside of Salt Lake City and a nice elderly couple from Pennsylvania celebrating their 58th wedding anniversary. The chicken caesar was a winner.

Red rocks and water and canyons and ducks seemed to be the order of the day. I love my Adirondacks but I sure as shit could get used to this. Corny I don't care: I understand John Denver just a tiny bit better now.

At Grand Junction Colorado there was a stampede toward the little gift shop in back of the waiting room. I was no exception. I got an Amtrak hat and a neckerchief with trains on it and a chocolate bar and some ice cream.

Later on the afternoon clouded up a bit as the teevee said there would be rain and storms in the plain states. I had dinner with an elderly tour guide named Mary Alice B. and her friend, both widowed. Mary Alice had some troubles with swallowing I guess and I wanted to suggest the chin tuck thing. But I didn't cuz we were strangers. I don't know if she'd had a stroke or if she has Parkinsons or maybe both. The two of them split a chicken dinner. I had one of my own.

The last little town in Utah looked like a little old-fashioned western town with the old storefronts intact. The Holiday Inn van seemed rather out of place to the whole thing.

a p.s. goes here: Husband said some guy from [agency in another county] called about a job.
Husband told him I was gone cross-country for three weeks.
I am to call him back when I get back home.

Some time ago for a lark, I submitted an on-line application to their t.b.i. program. I never got a response so I figured that was that thank-you ms. ex-boss airhead who is currently working there.
What if they hire me? What if they don't?
Aw shit.

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