2009-05-05 We arrived in San Antonio around 10:30 last night, but our car didn't leave until 5:40 am. So Mike, Darrick and I went and got some food at Denny's. Malcolm did too, but instead of returning to try and get some sleep he went clubbing. Malcolm rolled in before the train departed. He was clearly intoxicated, but I couldn't smell anything on his breath. He began spouting out some profound statements about "black is the dominant race!" Even in his altered state of mind he made a compelling argument based entirely on dominant genes and heredity. His monologue quickly devolved throughout the day however as he failed to get sleepy. By noon most everybody in two cars was tired of his energetic blathering. Late in the afternoon he calmed down. I figured he'd gotten whatever it was through his system. Mike thinks he did another whatever. Because our car was attached to a different engine during the night, we left San Antonio backwards. A few hours later we were shown how to turn all of the seats around to face the opposite direction. I'm still a little messed up. There is an older gentleman on the train who wears a snappy suit and several crosses who is convinced all the bathrooms have cameras behind the mirrors. The overarching sentiment throughout the day was, are we ever going to get out of Texas? Eventually farmland and even cows gave way to raw desert. And that went on forever. Very occasionally we would pass through small towns. I've seen more make-shift street-person shelters in the last two days than I've seen in the rest of my trip. Vinny runs the insanely overpriced snack bar. Occasionally he closes down. He always announces closing over the intercom and always includes the reason, which is usually because it's time for his personal meal break. Late in the day we finally arrived in El Paso, a "dirty little city" I have heard affectionately termed as the "armpit of America". I have heard less affectionate descriptions as well. We ate dinner at a KFC that smelled strongly of deviled eggs. A kid who was to depart there took a very keen interest in the gang logos spray painted on the other trains. It was like watching a dog sniff a tree in a public park. We left El Paso and quickly entered New Mexico where you could see over the border (past the patrolling agents) into Mexico. Everybody smiled and waved at the train from their little shanty towns. I watched a movie through New Mexico. When I did look out the window it always looked the same. We hit Arizona just after sunset, which is a pity because there are some cool sights here.

some ravine some hill Mexico! sunset in New Mexico