A great finish

We slept much better on the train. We put the mattress that goes on the bottom bunk on the top, making it soft enough for Evelyn. The cushions on the actual seats that form the bottom bunk were soft enough for me. The train continued moving through the night unlike last time when we hit the grocery cart. We were wakened at 7 by the breakfast announcement in El Paso. We ate with a couple from Marquette, Michigan who travel by train exclusively. They had been maneuvering around the West for about 3 weeks. They boarded in Maricopa just before I went to bed last night. We have noticed that the dining car crew are not nearly as efficient as the one on the trip west. They can’t remember the orders and forget special orders entirely. We finished our meal and returned to look for some items Evelyn had removed last night and my eyeglasses. We found the glasses, Evelyn’s necklace but could not find the earrings she had removed during the night. She read and I played on the computer for a while before I took a nap. We ate a light lunch with 2 ladies who were widowed sisters in law. They were lively. We returned to our roomette for a while but went to play the sorriest trivia game imaginable. One of car attendants who made up the questions was difficult to understand. One of the questions pitted one side of the observation car to the other. She asked for 1 volunteer from each side to sing a song she selected. The other people on the selected side of the car could help the singer. The other side volunteer sang his song and hit a third of the correct notes. Then the original volunteer (a young man who kept bouncing his head in time to whatever he was hearing on his i-pod) backed out. After begging for another volunteer, the attendant chose an older, handsome gentleman as a replacement. That distinguished, handsome man with a good voice and knowledge of tunes was none other than MOI! I had 2 relatively easy songs: God Bless America and I say a little prayer for you. I didn’t need help with the lyrics of the first one but solicited help to involve the group. I did need help on the second but involved them by asking them to snap their fingers in a Latin style beat. After the competition, I won a complimentary bottle of wine that I shared with a young man who sat with us and was fine company. We returned to Evelyn’s reading room. I watched the desolate west Texas landscape roll by. There are many areas that appear to be uninhabitable. It causes me to wonder what purpose God intended to bless us with through their creation. We stopped at a quaint little depot in Alpine which looked better. We continued toward San Antonio and ate our final meal on the train. I collected my bottle of wine and went to the coach section to share it with the young man who helped me win it. I had a small amount and gave him the rest. The train arrived just a bit early and we waited for our luggage to be unloaded. While waiting we got a taxi that we shared with another couple. We were loading our cruise suitcases into the car. We came to the room, knelt and prayed thanks to God for the fun and safety of our trip. We both showered and went to bed happy and grateful.