Day 97: So Near and Yet So Far

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Today dragged by. For some reason my shoulder seemed to hurt a lot more when I tried to get to sleep, though I did sink into my first really deep sleep on the train later in the night. Of course, then when I woke up two hours later I had, initially, no idea at all where I was, except that my bed was definitely moving. Earthquake! I sat up, intending to run to the door, and, even more surprisingly, the door was right in front of my nose. Then, fortunately, I woke up all the way.

I made the mistake of getting off the train at a 45-minute stop in Kansas City, Missouri to try to find a pay phone. As far as I could tell, there were no pay phones anywhere in the station, and the weather was cold enough to hurt my lungs.

As I walked towards the station elevator, I saw a large party of six or seven individuals boarding it. By the time I got there, the doors had closed, but to my surprise the car had not started up, so it opened for me again. I was glad, because it was cold out there, and I started to go in. It was a huge elevator, so there was plenty of room for me.

To my startlement, an officious little man shouted, "Coming out! Coming out! Get back there! He began to pull his luggage out with one hand, and he actually pushed me out of his way with the other -- and to make matters worse, he pushed the arm that was in the sling. It was a light push and it didn't hurt much, but I was irked by the principle of the thing.

He got a couple of steps out onto the platform, and said slowly, "Wait a bit. Wait a bit. This ain't right. We ain't gone anywhere!"

Meantime, I was standing out on the platform freezing to death. I tried to move around him to enter the elevator. He fended me off again, this time at least not touching me, as one of the women in the party explained to him that we were still on the ground floor.

"Just wait while I get this fixed again," he ordered, and began fussing with getting his bag back exactly square against the wall. I tried a couple more times to enter, since there really was plenty of room, and I was at that point worried that the door would shut, as he had moved back from it. Each time he flapped his arms at me, once complaining, "I've gotta get this fixed, and you keep on coming in!"

He finally got it "fixed," and I came in. One of the women in the party prompted him to push the button for the upper floor. He did so and turned to me again. "Now, you get out first!"

When I did not immediately say I would, mostly because I didn't think it needed a reply -- I mean, I generally expect gentlemen to allow me to exit elevators before them, as a matter of ordinary politeness -- he snapped, "If you don't, you're going to have to wait until all of us get out!"

In fact, as I said, it was an enormous elevator and there was no reason at all that several people could not have gotten out of it together, even with their luggage.

I was sufficiently nettled that I began to make an issue of his having bumped into my injured arm, more to assert myself than for any other reason. "All right, but I still think...."

"It doesn't matter what you think, ma'am," he snapped.

At breakfast, I told my tablemates of my disappointment, and one of them offered to let me call Jim on her cell phone. I did, and it was good to talk to him.

I had a turkey sandwich for lunch. I really only wanted half of it so I took the other half back to my room for later.

We crossed the Mississippi on a dual-purpose bridge; trains on the lower level; cars above us. It was an interesting concept. I wondered how many of the cars realized we were rolling by beneath them.

The Metropolitan Lounge was as empty as the Observation Car had been yesterday. I had no trouble finding a good seat, and no trouble keeping it, even though I got up several times to buy bottled water and to walk about the lounge.
Once again, their internet access held up for about half an hour after I arrived and then crashed.

My new roomette on the Capitol Limited was just like my Southwest Chief roomette, except that it was directly across the hall from my old one. But the car had been attached to the train in the opposite direction, so the motion of travel was still the same. Once again we were the car next to the dining car, which was convenient.

I had my usual steak and baked potato. The mixed vegetables on the Capitol Limited were better, but, sadly, they did not have apple pie.

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