Two Thumbs Up for Community Seating

The Dining Car is expensive, and it was a bit of a legend in coach.  Many of the people I traveled with didn’t want to spend that kind of money on food, and I don’t blame them.  I was even one of those people.  I tried to spend $10 or less on each meal during my trip.  That left me with a variety of options—Chef Boyardee ravioli out of the can, McDonald’s cheeseburgers, TCBY parfaits, and lint from my belly button.  You can’t live off that kind of stuff for forever, though, not even three days.  Not me, at least.  I wanted vegetables.  I wanted salad.  I wanted something substantial. 

So, when I couldn’t find anything good to eat in the Albuquerque Union Station, I decided to take the plunge.  I ran up to the Dining Car and asked if they could squeeze me in for a reservation at 7:45PM.  Jackie, the Dining Car attendant on the Southwest Chief, gladly obliged and sat me down next to a gentleman I didn’t know. 

A gentleman I now call Denton Smedley.  Unfortunately, I didn’t come up with that myself.  He did.  Not that day, but some time before that.  It was the name he suggested for himself in a book that his friend wrote that included a character based on him, Smedley.  Dr. Smedley is a professor at Colgate University in Syracuse, New York.  He’s from LA but got his degrees on the east coast.  On breaks, he used to hitchhike home.  Only one way, though, he never hitchhiked both ways.  I wish I could do that—hitchhike.  Don’t throw a fit...I won’t.  Promise.

Speaking of hitchhiking, though, I actually met a guy in Union Station who hitchhiked across the U.S. when he was twenty.  He looked to be about in his 30s when I met him.

I’m going to stick to the alias thing and call Australia “Australia” despite him introducing himself with his real name.  After all, aliases up the excitement level about 50%.  Australia was in the states for Holiday.  He had just spent a week in Telluride, Colorado, skiing.  Thanks to Oprah Winfrey, I do know one thing about Telluride—Tom Cruise has a house there.  As you may have guessed, I couldn’t really contribute much to Telluride as a topic, but there was one conversation I could surprisingly contribute to—a conversation about Einstein.  Thanks, Dr. P!  Hopefully, you’re reading this.  According to Smedley, I have to read Steve Martin’s Picasso at the Lapin Agile, and I will…eventually. 

In the Dining Car, Monongahela took care of us, and Monongahela told us some fascinating stories.  Like Tony, she listed a bunch of celebrities she had met.  I didn’t recognize a lot of the names, but my eyes lit up when she said she had met Lucille Ball and Bob Hope.  Monongahela had even held a real Oscar, and this past year, her float in the town parade was awarded “Most Humorous Float.”  She said her and a bunch of other “little old ladies” dressed as elves; I wish I could have seen that.  I also wish I could have spent more time with Monongahela.  She seemed so full of stories.  The saddest one she told me, though, was that her mother almost died from the Yellow Smog in Pittsburgh? In 1949. 

You may be asking yourself why I call Monongahela, Monongahela.  I’m pretty sure she said you used to live there as a kid.  She also liked saying the word, “Monongahela” and was able to clock in five Monongahelas before the end of our conversation. 

I will end this post with a couple of thank yous.  Thank you, Dr. Smedley for ordering a cream puff and giving it to me so I didn’t have to pay, and thank you, Monongahela for the excellent service and the free chocolate peanut butter ice cream.

Besides, who needs Roast Beast when you have salad, bread, spinach lasagna, a cream puff, ice cream, tea, and coffee for less than $20 including tip?  Not me, that’s for sure.  Glad I took the plunge.  The Southwest Chief Dining Car was quite the train travel experience.  Community seating is such a great idea........