Dallas County

The Sunset Limited sped through the night via Palm Springs and into Nebraska. The landscape is now much more desert-like, with great cacti lining the track. My lunch companions were interesting - Rob, a young, overweight railroad worker whose only trip outside the USA was to China where his wife comes from. ‘They do great Chinese food there’ he explained. Really?

We were joined by a loud voice approaching our table which exclaimed ‘Hi, am Hooleeana and am a cansa suvayva fom Mehico.’ Come again? Oh, you’re a cancer survivor from Mexico, Juliana - thanks for sharing that. ‘Yo wanna see ma scas?’ No thank you ... but it was too late, the top was raised. ‘You like ma haya?’ she said, pointing to her bright red Tina Turner coiffure. ‘Ees a wig’ . ‘El Paso looks nice’ I said, trying to change the subject. ‘El Paso - yoo kidding - ees the ampit of yoo ess of a.’ Ah well, back to lunch.

We travelled through the great belly of Texas - hour after hour of endless desert and scrubland with occasional mountain ranges - like scenes from so many westerns. Early on the morning of day 2 on the Sunset Limited we arrived in San Antonio. My planned connection to Dallas was interrupted due to flooding on the line, and the Texas Eagle train only went as far as Fort Worth. From here I caught a local train for the hour-long trip to Dallas (sings: ‘Big D, Little A, Double L,, A S’ - name the musical).

Big D was hot and humid but still cloudy. Went for a walk to the Texas Book Depositary and Dealey Plaza where President John F Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. It was a strange feeling to be standing on the spot so familiar from TV documentaries.Read more