The train left Union Station at 8.30. It has been my experience that the only time that Amtrak trains are on schedule is at the time of departure. After that they are typically delayed and rarely make up time.
This is because Amtrak does not own the tracks. They are owned by the freight companies and Amtrak trains have to give way to the freight trains even though under the law, passengers trains have first priority to use the tracks. The freight companies simply ignore the law.
Across Arizona into Texas
The train headed off into the night.
When I woke up in the morning, we had crossed the border into Arizona and where heading to a major stop at Tucson.
The view from the train was interesting, but like the train across the Nullabor in Australia, it is very similar for a very long time.
We had a long stop in Tucson, which provided the opportunity for the passengers to stretch their legs. A number of passengers also took the opportunity to smoke. A surprisingly large number of people in the USA still smoke.
Arriving in El Paso
I arrived in El Paso in the late afternoon and headed to my hotel, the Gardener, that is located in the ‘Old Town’ area not far from the station.
The Gardener Hotel is a classic. It was like walking back in time. Check out the Flickr photos.
Remembering my Last Visit to El Paso
This was my second visit to El Paso. The last time was in July 1979 when I was travelling in the USA on my way back to Australia after living in London. I had a Greyhound bus pass and was trying to see as much of the country in fairly short period of time. I will post about that trip one day.
Anyway, part of that trip was from Los Angeles travelling east. I found myself travelling with a group of people of various nationalities all around the same age. Among the group were two sisters form Sweden.
We stopped in Las Vegas and Phoenix Arizona. For some reason the Swedish girls and I decided to stop in El Paso. I have quite vivid recollections of when we cross of the border from El Paso into Mexico. The girls with their blonde hair and height caused quite a stir. As we walked around we were followed by an ever-increasing number of young children and some, not so young men.
I recalled that it was a bit of a relief when we got back over the border in to the USA.
Checking out the Town
In the morning, I walked around the area close to the hotel. This included going down to the border crossing with Mexico.
As is the case with crossing near San Diego, there was a constant stream of people crossing in both directions. I decided to wait until till ne next day before crossing the border.
In the afternoon I took a bus took a outside the downtown area to visit a bike shop that advertised group MTB rides. As it turned out, they weren’t offering the rides on the days I was in town.
Baseball Game
Back in I stopped briefly at a AAA based game. The local team plays in the league which is below the Major League. However, the game still seemed to attract a reasonable crowd
Craft Beer and Chat about being a ‘Digital Nomad’
In the evening I had a meal in the bar next to the Hotel. As well as reasonable food, it served good craft beer.
In the bar I chatted with a bloke I had seen in the hotel. He told me that he was a musician but also did “other stuff”. The other stuff was a couple of jobs he did on the internet.
One of these jobs was being an “evaluator” for a record company.
The company gets him to listen to, rate and make comments on music that potential recording artists have sent them. He gets paid by the hour for this work. He told me that there are four levels of ‘evaluator’ and it is a filtering process. If a song or piece of music is rated ‘good’ at the bottom level is passed up the line to the next level and so on.
At the higher levels, the ‘evaluators’ are expected to make more detailed evaluations and make suggestions on improving the music. They are also expected to make suggestions at to who the candidate may think about collaborating with. The higher level ‘evaluators’ also get paid more.
This bloke is a ‘level 3 evaluator’ but expects to move to ‘level 2’ soon.
He told me that his other ‘job’ was writing articles for an on-line music magazine. These articles are mainly about music venues that he visits. He is “paid by the word” for this work.
He also told that he gets some work as a ‘musician’ – guitarist and singer. However, most of his income is doing the internet stuff.
He told me that he would be staying El Paso for at least two week because “it is cheap, the internet was okay and there were some music venues to write about”.
This bloke is one of many ‘digital nomads’ I have met. These people make a living working on the internet. They often have no permanent place of residence.
An example is a Brazilian couple would are travel writers. I met them in Chiang Mia. They travel the world and write about their travels. Their stuff is published magazines like the ‘Gourmet Traveller’. They also have a blog that makes money. They write in both English and Portuguese.
Another example is an English girl that I met in Santiago in Chile. She writes about wine.
She also writes for well known magazines, but also makes money from a blog.
Other people I have met do editing for publishing houses.
It is all very interesting.
Ride up Mount Franklin
The next day I went on a ride on my bike up Mount Franklin that towers over the city.
The ride was spoiled by a very strong wind that got stronger as the day progressed.
When I got back into the ‘Downtown’, the weather was so crap I decided to skip the border crossing into Mexico.
Tram
One other thing. El Paso is putting in the tram system. It is being done on a very low budget – less that USD 100 million and is mainly designed for use by tourists. Anyway, it is a good initiative. I hope it goes well.
Flickr Links
Train to El Paso
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmb1aBsA
El Paso
https://flic.kr/s/aHsmf5NdKy
Garmin Link
https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/2670906036
About the Tram Project
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Paso_Streetcar
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