When the sun came up this morning ALL the snow was gone! Not a snowflake to be seen anywhere.  I do kinda miss it, but not really. We are running about an hour and a half behind schedule. One of our first daylight stops was at Atlanta, Georgia. I was able to step out for some fresh air and to get a picture, but there was no time to go see the station building for any pictures there. Snow on top of the train was melting and running down the sides of the train.

Atlanta, GA, Train Stop

Somebody told us that the most scenic part of this train trip happened while it was dark. That’s a pity. Every once in a while I get a glimpse of the train as we round a corner. Due to the weather and the length of the trip the windows on the train are getting pretty dirty on the outside. That, plus taking pictures from a moving train, doesn’t make my pictures very nice.

Crossing the Georgia/Alabama border brings us into the Central Time Zone, so now we have to do that last hour over again.

At Birmingham, Alabama, we were able to step out for another breather, otherwise known as a “smoke break” for the smokers. But that, too, was short and sweet. We gotta get this train moving.  I did spot a random old train car sitting on the tracks, I wonder what its story is.

Birmingham, Alabama

As we pass through Mississippi we see more water and swamp land.

Most of our station stops are quick, just drop off passengers and get the new ones on and get going. It only takes a couple of minutes.

It’s dark now as I write this. We should be arriving in New Orleans, Louisiana, shortly, over one hour late. New Orleans is the end of the line for this train, so everybody off. Tomorrow it heads back to New York. We will spend the night at a hotel in New Orleans and then in the morning board the 1 Sunset Limited which will take us the rest of the way, to Benson, Arizona, our destination.