Houston’s Amtrak station may qualify as one of the most unimpressive train stations in the United States, especially considering the size of the city. During our 10-minute stop, I get some ice cream from the vending machines in the station. I talk to George and he says he received a 4:30 a.m. wakeup call in San Antonio for the refrigeration unit. It turns out the problem was pretty simple; the circuit breaker had tripped. He definitely gets my MVP vote. As for my complaint of the day, the state of Texas gets the early nod. When I get my dog from George for lunch at 11:15 a.m. CT, George is unable to sell me a beer as Texas doesn’t allow such behavior before noon. When we pull out of Houston, we are now 4:55 behind schedule.

On Saturday afternoon/evening, we go through southwest Texas. There is no wireless Internet access, nor do I even have cell phone access. I have Verizon for both; I can’t rip on them since the service has been great throughout the trip and we are in the middle of nowhere. There is not much to report during this time. About 50 miles Southeast of El Paso, Texas, we pass the Westbound Sunset Limited Train No. 1. They seem to be making a lot better time than our train. At Sanderson, Texas – the last stop before I go to bed – we are 5:38 behind.

I wake up this morning while we are in San Antonio and the Texas Eagle cars are being removed. We pull out of the station before I have a chance to walk outside, get some fresh air and update the consist. We are now 6:07 behind.

Our lounge car attendant, George, gets my early vote as MVP. He just made an announcement that he was up early today in San Antonio, helping the maintenance crew fix our refrigeration unit. They were successful and we now have cold food all the time in the lounge, as well as beer, I’m sure.

Entering El Paso, the train runs parallel to the Mexican border for a small stretch, about 100 feet away from the fences. Wow. It’s a different world on the other side of the border. I’ve heard the term shanty town before. Now I’ve seen one.

Stepping off the train for a brief stop in El Paso, we are hit by a sweltering wave of heat. Football practice at the University of Texas-El Paso, which we passed on the way to the station, must be brutal in late August.

After our extended stop outside of Deming, New Mexico, we didn’t stop at the Deming station for some reason. Must not have been any passengers getting on or off at that location. Anyway, I’ll count our siding stop outside of Deming as our station stop, which now puts us 6:22 behind schedule.

We’ve been following Interstate 10 all day. No longer. About 10 miles east of Deming, we begin heading southeast toward El Paso.