Albuquerque and Back Part 3

I’m sitting in my living room on Monday evening watching an episode of Phinehas and Ferb with my daughter and grandson. For those of you who haven’t ever seen it you really have to check it out. It’s purely mindless entertainment, but very funny.

My wife and I have been back home for three days now. Last Thursday morning we had a great breakfast of quiche and fruit stuffed french toast. We were the only guests for breakfast that morning so we got to have some good conversation with our hostess Kara. We found out she was a former public school teacher who decided many years ago to home school her four children. They are currently between 9 and 15 years old. This was particularly interesting to us since we home schooled our son once he entered high school. He is now successfully navigating his way through school as a college junior.

Anyway we talked with her a little bit about faith, children, and differences in cattle ranching between New Mexico and Michigan. In New Mexico a 5000 acre farm will support about 250 head of cattle. Here in Michigan you can graze that many cattle on a 10th of that area. New Mexico has so much beauty, but it is not green and lush like here in the Midwest states.

After breakfast we made dropped off our rental car and taxied our way of to the train station. The great thing about the train is the simplicity of boarding and finding exactly where you need to go. Basically if you have a ticket in hand you walk outside to the train, find the particular car you are assigned to, show your ticket and get on. They allow a good amount of carry on luggage so many people don’t even check baggage. Even security is minimal. My wife and I have flown many times in our life and Amtrak is by far an easier, more relaxed experience.

The return trip was filled with meeting interesting people too. We had lunch with two elderly ladies from the Los Angeles area, Elsa and Francis who were heading all the way to Massachusetts for a graduation of some kind. Francis is 77 years old and volunteers to help youth in the local park system. My wife lived in that area for several years as a child and so was able to appreciate some of the local references. Francis was very openly religious and conservative in her views. She expounded on the fallacy of wishing someone luck instead of offering them a blessing. It was a delightful conversation.

One meal we sat with a young lady named Dorothy who had been visiting her father in Los Angeles and was returning home to Garden City, Kansas. She was only 17, but already had a semester of pre-veterinary school behind her.

We also met Nick and Jean a mid 50s couple from Buffalo NY. They had been in Las Vegas visiting one of their sons. They have another 21 year old son who had played junior hockey in Canada and was still trying to find a way to break into the pros. I love hockey so we had quite an enjoyable conversation. They had even met the goalie of our local semi professional hockey team who we were informed was from their hometown of Buffalo.

It’s amazing how much people will open up about themselves, how unguarded they can be, when they know they will probably never see you again. I realized though that everybody we meet has something to teach us. In spite of differences in beliefs and philosophies, even personalities, most of us want the same things in life. We want to love and be loved. We want some freedom to express ourselves. And we want to have something that gives us significance, that gives us a reason for getting up tomorrow, to building something better for those we love.

26 hours after leaving Albuquerque we were back in Union Station in Chicago. Our children were there waiting for us. We made our way to our car. After several days away the familiarity of our own vehicle made it seem almost like we were back home. The 2 ½ ride to Michigan was pleasant and uneventful. We shared our experiences with our children. They told us of theirs. And we decided it would be quite a while before we would embark on anther adventure like this again.