Judi, born Judith Diane Gunderson to Phillip and Shirley Gunderson in Corona, California, March 25th, 1952 is a first time author, writes a lot of small stories and keeps other journals. She resides in Corona with her husband Chris of 40 years, her dog Andy of one year and her cat Mollysue of ten years. She is Acolyte coordinator, sings with the choir and plays hand bells at the Corona United Methodist Church where she has been going since she was registered there on the 'Cradle Roll" She loves train travel.

Auszug. � Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

"MAMA" and The Autumn Train

By Judith D. Christensen

AuthorHouse

Copyright � 2011 Judith D. Christensen
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4634-1752-9

Tribute/Dedication.............................................ixELMO-Prelude to a Story........................................xiMama's Brood...................................................1Good Times.....................................................6Chapter 1 "New Orleans"........................................7"Laissez les bons temps rouler!"...............................16Chapter 2 "Niagara Falls"......................................22Chapter 3 "Montana and San Francisco"..........................29Chapter 4 "Charleston, South Carolina".........................35Chapter 5 "The Train to Everywhere"............................45Chapter 6 "Back to Oregon".....................................62Chapter 7 "But First a Memory".................................64Chapter 8 "Memphis, Tennessee".................................67Chapter 9 "Aunt Jackie's-Nokomis, Florida".....................73Chapter 10 "Savannah, Georgia".................................79Chapter 11 "2009"..............................................82Chapter 12 "New York at Thanksgiving"..........................85Chapter 13 "Watching a Decline"................................95Chapter 14 "Springfield, Missouri".............................98"Precious Moments".............................................101Chapter 15 "Going Home"........................................110Chapter 16 "Saddest Time of My Life"...........................112Epilogue.......................................................116Many Thanks....................................................118One Last Note..................................................122Maine Pictures.................................................128-130

Chapter One

NEW ORLEANS

I learned about this trip from my church newsletter, a post from travel agent and friend, Loretta. She was putting a group together for a barging trip down the Atchafalaya and Mississippi Rivers leaving from New Orleans in the coming autumn. The group was flying, and `yes', she could book us on the train. It would take us two days to get there.

10:30pm, Sunday November 25th, 2001 we boarded Amtrak. The adventure of a lifetime was about to begin.

By now it's way past our bedtimes, we were anxious and tired and my luggage was so heavy and hindering. I also had an afghan and a pillow, which I learned I didn't need and never took them again. But for comfort this first trip, I was glad I had them. Finally the train gets there we board and wave to father and start moving after walking up a thin flight of steps to the deluxe first class room quarters. Our beds are made up and we can hardly squeeze in the room with our luggage and us, though the room is a pretty good size, just not big. The bottom bed is sort of a small double and looks very cozy. The top bunk is nose to the ceiling up by the vent and doesn't look too cozy. That isn't first class I think, but, that's my bed. Mama gets the bottom, she's the oldest she says and the little ladder that goes up to the top bunk is really in the way and I dump it under the beds right away and with my long legs learn to climb up there without it. But first, we want to look out the windows and as I drove my route in Ontario for twenty years, I was seeing a whole different part of it, I was on the train instead of waiting for a train and drove over and if need be around these tracks daily. We are giddy with excitement and are too unorganized to get organized so we just, with mama going first and telling me not to look, and I don't, but she always does! get into our pajamas, mama's being flannel snowmen pajamas and get into bed. Mama can look out the window, up on the top bunk I can not and am jealous! But at least I have a light and can read my book and after awhile I did relax and fall asleep even though it was like being on a bed with perpetual earthquakes going on constantly. But it did finally rock us both to sleep and we didn't wake until many hours later somewhere in Arizona. It was still dark out and there were so many stars in the sky yet you could see forever off into the horizon the day that was going to break. There is coffee, orange juice, soda and water down the hall for us by 5am. Mama got us coffee and with that, we watched it get light out and Lynn, our attendant let us know later that we were in Texas when the sun came up. Its a real experience using the toilet. We are glad that we have one in our room and don't have to share it with other passengers. But this first morning on the train we managed to organize ourselves and get dressed, teeth brushed and hair combed without falling over too many times. Lynn came to make our beds when we made our way to the dining car for breakfast. This was no small easy feat. Speaking of feet, we were falling all over them and looking to be drunk while bouncing off the walls back and forth while mama held tight onto my braid. Lynn told us to `walk like a duck', so from that moment on, we practiced just that.

But practice it was going to take! We had a great breakfast. The food is delicious, there is table cloths and flowers on the tables and we share a table with two others who we knew not. That took some getting used to during meals, but it got to be pretty interesting sometimes. Every body is traveling and so therefore, in good moods and nice. We walked on down a few more cars to the observation car and downstairs to the snack bar too looking for souvenirs. We bought train blankets, which for the life of me can't figure out why we did because we never did use them!, coffee cups, magnets, nuts, candy and postcards. Already adding to our luggage that is totally in the way up in our room. Back in our room with the beds made up we had more room. The bed side is a couch then a table in the middle and a chair on the other side of that which I sat in where I wrote out dozens of postcards to mail somewhere along the way.

We would mix our candy and nuts and have them on the table for snacking.

We were missing our men and our animals already. I had a new fangled cell phone that I couldn't get a call thru to papa yet. So, as the day moved right along, so did the train. This was Monday, November 26th and we had a stop in Tucson for about twenty minutes where I got off the train and passed the smokers real glad I wasn't one of them, to look for a mailbox. I didn't find the mailbox until the train was leaving and I saw it around the other side of the depot. I didn't want to go too far because I was so afraid that the train would leave without me. We were going to be stopping in Houston later in the day so I could mail them there hopefully. So, settling down in the room for a day of riding along, looking out at scenery, reading, snoozing, talking and listening to mama tell me things, was pure heaven.

As we thunder on down the tracks a lot goes on in a train. The conductors and attendants are constantly busy walking the train, keeping passengers informed over an intercom if things don't seem to be going right, or points of interest out the windows that they want to inform us on, snack bar announcements, movie time announcements, eating reservation announcements. Train instructions. One instruction was funny, they don't want you to bring your own booze on the train. They do serve beer and wine, but, they don't want people going overboard and getting unruly. They will throw you off the train. "Budweiser does not make you wiser" they say.

They start...

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