The Train Ride

I made it to Tucson! An EMU friend, Andrea Troyer, and I boarded a train in Washington D.C. at 4pm EST on Monday (8/22) and finally arrived at the Tucson station last night (Thursday 8/25) after 9 pm AZ time. Here's a glimpse of what those 80 hours looked like...

1. All that I packed.

2. Getting a ride through the DC station so Andrea did not have to carry all of my bags for miles.

3. A surprising amount of leg room in our coach seats.

4. Passing through Harpers Ferry.

5. Our packed dinner.

6. High spirits and excited for the journey.

7. Pulling out our entertainment and to-do lists.

8. Indiana views.

Tuesday morning we arrived in Chicago and got to explore a corner of the city during our 5 hour layover. I got really excited by the acoustics of a wall. And we met up with our friend Stephanie Kniss who is doing MVS in Chicago this year.

Tuesday evening we stopped in St. Louis for about 40 minutes. We used this time to stretch and pose in the evening sun.

Wednesday we woke up in Texas. Someone told us that taking the train was a really unique experience to see angles of the country that no one else ever sees. "You drive through people's back yards," they said. This was quite true. We saw back yards and city angles that you would otherwise have to be a local to see. Other than a quick stretch break in Dallas, Wednesday was consumed by views of Texas' flat cattle speckled fields.

Thursday morning an observation car was added to our train so we spent many hours in that space taking in the drastically changing landscape. Driving through El Paso, we were able to see La Ciudad Juárez, Mexico across the border wall. Mid-afternoon we finally entered New Mexico after over 30 hours in Texas!

We were picked up from the train station by one of the members of the Tucson MVS support Committee and taken to our new home! Because we arrived after dark, you will have to stay tuned for Arizona pictures!