Judi, born Judith Diane Gunderson to Phillip and Shirley Gunderson in Corona, California, March 25th, 1952 is a first time author, writes a lot of small stories and keeps other journals. She resides in Corona with her husband Chris of 40 years, her dog Andy of one year and her cat Mollysue of ten years. She is Acolyte coordinator, sings with the choir and plays hand bells at the Corona United Methodist Church where she has been going since she was registered there on the 'Cradle Roll" She loves train travel.

"MAMA" and The Autumn Train

By Judith D. Christensen

AuthorHouse

Copyright © 2011 Judith D. Christensen
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4634-1752-9

Contents

Tribute/Dedication.............................................ixELMO-Prelude to a Story........................................xiMama's Brood...................................................1Good Times.....................................................6Chapter 1 "New Orleans"........................................7"Laissez les bons temps rouler!"...............................16Chapter 2 "Niagara Falls"......................................22Chapter 3 "Montana and San Francisco"..........................29Chapter 4 "Charleston, South Carolina".........................35Chapter 5 "The Train to Everywhere"............................45Chapter 6 "Back to Oregon".....................................62Chapter 7 "But First a Memory".................................64Chapter 8 "Memphis, Tennessee".................................67Chapter 9 "Aunt Jackie's-Nokomis, Florida".....................73Chapter 10 "Savannah, Georgia".................................79Chapter 11 "2009"..............................................82Chapter 12 "New York at Thanksgiving"..........................85Chapter 13 "Watching a Decline"................................95Chapter 14 "Springfield, Missouri".............................98"Precious Moments".............................................101Chapter 15 "Going Home"........................................110Chapter 16 "Saddest Time of My Life"...........................112Epilogue.......................................................116Many Thanks....................................................118One Last Note..................................................122Maine Pictures.................................................128-130

Chapter One

NEW ORLEANS

I learned about this trip from my church newsletter, a post from travel agent and friend, Loretta. She was putting a group together for a barging trip down the Atchafalaya and Mississippi Rivers leaving from New Orleans in the coming autumn. The group was flying, and `yes', she could book us on the train. It would take us two days to get there.

10:30pm, Sunday November 25th, 2001 we boarded Amtrak. The adventure of a lifetime was about to begin.

By now it's way past our bedtimes, we were anxious and tired and my luggage was so heavy and hindering. I also had an afghan and a pillow, which I learned I didn't need and never took them again. But for comfort this first trip, I was glad I had them. Finally the train gets there we board and wave to father and start moving after walking up a thin flight of steps to the deluxe first class room quarters. Our beds are made up and we can hardly squeeze in the room with our luggage and us, though the room is a pretty good size, just not big. The bottom bed is sort of a small double and looks very cozy. The top bunk is nose to the ceiling up by the vent and doesn't look too cozy. That isn't first class I think, but, that's my bed. Mama gets the bottom, she's the oldest she says and the little ladder that goes up to the top bunk is really in the way and I dump it under the beds right away and with my long legs learn to climb up there without it. But first, we want to look out the windows and as I drove my route in Ontario for twenty years, I was seeing a whole different part of it, I was on the train instead of waiting for a train and drove over and if need be around these tracks daily. We are giddy with excitement and are too unorganized to get organized so we just, with mama going first and telling me not to look, and I don't, but she always does! get into our pajamas, mama's being flannel snowmen pajamas and get into bed. Mama can look out the window, up on the top bunk I can not and am jealous! But at least I have a light and can read my book and after awhile I did relax and fall asleep even though it was like being on a bed with perpetual earthquakes going on constantly. But it did finally rock us both to sleep and we didn't wake until many hours later somewhere in Arizona. It was still dark out and there were so many stars in the sky yet you could see forever off into the horizon the day that was going to break. There is coffee, orange juice, soda and water down the hall for us by 5am. Mama got us coffee and with that, we watched it get light out and Lynn, our attendant let us know later that we were in Texas when the sun came up. Its a real experience using the toilet. We are glad that we have one in our room and don't have to share it with other passengers. But this first morning on the train we managed to organize ourselves and get dressed, teeth brushed and hair combed without falling over too many times. Lynn came to make our beds when we made our way to the dining car for breakfast. This was no small easy feat. Speaking of feet, we were falling all over them and looking to be drunk while bouncing off the walls back and forth while mama held tight onto my braid. Lynn told us to `walk like a duck', so from that moment on, we practiced just that.

But practice it was going to take! We had a great breakfast. The food is delicious, there is table cloths and flowers on the tables and we share a table with two others who we knew not. That took some getting used to during meals, but it got to be pretty interesting sometimes. Every body is traveling and so therefore, in good moods and nice. We walked on down a few more cars to the observation car and downstairs to the snack bar too looking for souvenirs. We bought train blankets, which for the life of me can't figure out why we did because we never did use them!, coffee cups, magnets, nuts, candy and postcards. Already adding to our luggage that is totally in the way up in our room. Back in our room with the beds made up we had more room. The bed side is a couch then a table in the middle and a chair on the other side of that which I sat in where I wrote out dozens of postcards to mail somewhere along the way.

We would mix our candy and nuts and have them on the table for snacking.

We were missing our men and our animals already. I had a new fangled cell phone that I couldn't get a call thru to papa yet. So, as the day moved right along, so did the train. This was Monday, November 26th and we had a stop in Tucson for about twenty minutes where I got off the train and passed the smokers real glad I wasn't one of them, to look for a mailbox. I didn't find the mailbox until the train was leaving and I saw it around the other side of the depot. I didn't want to go too far because I was so afraid that the train would leave without me. We were going to be stopping in Houston later in the day so I could mail them there hopefully. So, settling down in the room for a day of riding along, looking out at scenery, reading, snoozing, talking and listening to mama tell me things, was pure heaven.

As we thunder on down the tracks a lot goes on in a train. The conductors and attendants are constantly busy walking the train, keeping passengers informed over an intercom if things don't seem to be going right, or points of interest out the windows that they want to inform us on, snack bar announcements, movie time announcements, eating reservation announcements. Train instructions. One instruction was funny, they don't want you to bring your own booze on the train. They do serve beer and wine, but, they don't want people going overboard and getting unruly. They will throw you off the train. "Budweiser does not make you wiser" they say.

They start talking on the intercom at 9 in the morning and end it at 9 at night. This particular set of tracks is often busy with freight and therefore passenger trains have to stop and wait for them and it often puts the train behind schedule. The attendants keep snacks for us in a little section in the middle of the sleeper cars for all sleepers. We are free to wander the train and look out other windows. The observation car has windows on the ceiling as well as large picture windows with ledges you can put your feet on, with little swivel chairs and tables if you want to eat snacks or play a game. Every passenger is welcome in the observation car. There is a snack bar downstairs in it and also tables and chairs down there as well. On the lower level you are closer to the ground and tracks and therefore it feels like the train is ever faster. You can sit on either side in this car and see more plus, seeing all around as we swish on by at high speed. You meet a lot of travelers and hear a lot of reasons for why people travel by train. Some are seasoned travelers, meaning they do this every year or several times a year and know the ins and outs of train travel and how to walk the train without falling in somebody's lap! It being the beginning of the Christmas season, the attendants decorate for the holiday and it is a sweet and cozy atmosphere and I can see I am going to love traveling this way and plan to become a seasoned traveler myself, with Mama in tow. She keeps telling people that I'm afraid to fly so that's why we are on the train and it infuriates me and I tell her don't tell people that. I'm not afraid to fly. I have flown lots. I just don't like it. You get there too fast and looking out a train window is much more fun than looking out a plane window. Trains intrigue me. If you need to get somewhere in a hurry, then flying is always the way to go because trains don't get you anywhere fast. We got to know and like our attendant Lynn. As time will go, she will stay our favorite. Also, as time will go, Mama will quit saying that I'm afraid to fly!

Houston. Big huge city, small ugly train depot. Nothing like the Harvey houses that I wish were still in working order. We weren't there long and that suited me just fine. Going thru cities is interesting. We have been thru so many since we left Ontario. Places I've never been and not likely to go. The train makes many stops, so one can say, "I've been there". We went thru Sugarland. I had never even heard of it. But, I can say I've been there now! We went over the Rio Grande.

Bayou Country. We're five hours behind schedule, out of food, tired and weary, just went over the Mississippi River, but in the dark and ready for some solid ground. Still liking the train, but, ready to be off of it. In New Orleans the train well re-supply and move on to the end of its route in Jacksonville, Florida. We arrive just before midnight and just in time to check in at our hotel The Old Hampton Inn where we have a room on the fourth floor. Midnight they would have given our room away, as there was an attorney convention going on this weekend. But we made it, weary travelers that we were, but excited for the adventure ahead.

We were up early and out on the streets before 8 am looking for souvenirs. We were only a block away from Bourbon Street, the most popular street here I think, dirty and well walked you could tell and were like giddy kids in a candy shop as soon as we found open shops. We started buying everything in sight that said New Orleans on it. Tee shirts, coffee cups, magnets, pens and pencils, Mardi Gras beads galore. Bags, to carry everything in. We had to buy something for everyone we knew. We were so heavy laden with stuff within an hour that it got to be difficult taking pictures of ourselves because we had so much stuff to deal with. We were ridiculous and nuts to boot! We were totally out of place on this early morning, but the shop owners were loving us because we were spending like we were rich. Then we had to drag all this stuff back to our hotel and add it to our already full and bulging suitcases, which of course, were not going to hold anything more, so thank goodness we bought canvas bags! We had until noon to check onto the River Barge. So after taking our stuff back, we left and wandered around some more to other places around the hotel, and bought more stuff and then checked out of the hotel, that had a shopping center attached and a big huge beautiful Christmas tree to stand in front of and take pictures of each other. Oh and shop some more. We laugh and laugh at ourselves!

The Barge, The River Explorer, was docked on the Atchafalaya River where we boarded. Jackson Square and the River Walk was where we spent some hours after loading our stuff into our room and checking in. We still had some hours before leaving the dock. We shopped some more. I had never shopped this much in my whole entire life!

Mama caught a cold, or, had an allergy to this moist city with all the new smells that we were breathing in. She had a sore throat and headache and all of a sudden the pep went out of her and I felt horrible for her. This is how we started out on down the river on the barge the next morning. Our room was awesome. We were in the South Carolina Room 208. It had two twin beds, a nice desk, TV, bathroom was big and had a nice tub. Plenty of closet space and drawers and places to put all of our bags we had accumulated. We had a balcony with chairs. We moved right in, got cozy and I drew mother a bubble bath got her some aspirin trying to make her feel better and she was trying with all her might to feel better and have a positive attitude. Personally, I think it was an allergy even though, I ended up with the same sort of thing, but it didn't seem like a cold. We got over it too quickly, but both of us ended up with annoying dry coughs. We did not let this hinder our good time, but it did a little unfortunately.

I loved sitting at the desk in the evening which looked out over the water and writing postcards and posting in my journal. I would sit there for hours before going to bed. It rained the first day we traveled, but that was okay because we weren't to any destinations yet where we would be getting off the Barge and out in the open. The food was delicious with all sorts of Cajun dishes and things we have never eaten before. I'm a big chicken and didn't even bother with some of the stuff, but it was serve yourself with all sorts of culinary delights. There was also cookie jars throughout the barge for us to delight in.

We had a nice sunny day for our first adventure into Cajun country on a bus, with our tour guide Ivy, a Cajun, who had gifts, snacks, Mardi Gras beads and stories and lessons galore for us.

First stop was St. Martinsdale, a town called the Plymouth Rock of the Acadians. We saw the Evangeline Oak tree. Longfellow's poem "Evangeline" immortalized the tragedy of the Acadian exile from Nova Scotia in 1755. The oak marks the legendary meeting place of Emmeline Labiche and Louis Arceneaux, the counterparts of Evangeline and Gabriel.

We toured the really beautiful old St. Martin De Tours Catholic Church.

We also went to this old Acadian Village, that according to the small pamphlet, says, it is a project of the Lafayette Association for Retarded Citizens. It's a replica of a latter 1800 Acadian Village. It had a General Store that was a replica built on site in 1976. It was constructed of old red cypress and Louisiana long leaf pine and is an example of briquette entre poteaux (bricks between posts). The exposed wiring in the store is typical of the first wiring when electricity came to Acadiana. Between the years of 1860 and 1900 the old country store was the main gathering place in most small communities. Next was the Aurelie Bernard House constructed in St. Martinsville. It is the oldest structure in the Village. The section on the left was built first (circa 1800) while that on the right is an addition, (1840). Upon entering this house one sees a large painting of the exile of the Acadians from Nova Scotia in 1755. A painting in a small rear room depicts their arrival and settling along the bayous of Louisiana in 1763 and 1785. The oldest section of the house contains an exhibit on Cajun Music. More mud between posts for insulation as well. Then the Thibodeaux House, which was constructed of cypress, the "wood eternal", that is rot and insect resistant. In this house, each pre-cut beam and post was marked with Roman numerals for ease in assembling. The house dated to circa 1820 and came to Acadian Village from the Breaux Bridge area. The small rear "cabinet" room, the daughter's room was accessible only through the parent's room. The boys slept in the attic or loft, the garconniere, reached by way of an outside staircase. The next house was The LeBlanc House built between 1821 and 1856 near Youngsville and was the birthplace of Acadian Senator Dudley J. LeBlanc. Statesman, spokesman and politician, he also was author of "The True Story of the Acadians" and "The Acadian Miracle". His claim to fame was the invention of a very famous vitamin tonic by the name of Hadcol. 12% alcohol, it was guaranteed to cure all ills. The LaBlanc exhibit contains memorabilia from the life and times of "Cousin Dud." The next house was The St. John House and it dated to circa 1840 and was donated to the village by a local dentist. It was located on St. John Street there in Lafayette, thus its name. It was built of salvages cypress timbers from another building. It still had in it original old books, ink wells, lunch pails and its wooden stove. The next place in the Village was the Blacksmith Shop. A replica built on site with weather-beaten, aged cypress boards. Added here were tools of the Blacksmiths trade. Then The Billeaud House that came from the Billeaud Sugar Plantation in Broussard, built prior to the Civil War. Today it is used as a spinning and weaving cottage. One of the looms is an original being 150 years old. The other is a replica built by a local 72 year old Mr. Whitney Breaux for the Bicentennial. Homespun blankets and clothes were woven from white cotton, native to Louisiana and brown cotton introduced from Mexico to the Acadians by the Spaniards. Next on the small street is New Hope Chapel, a replica of an 1850 Chapel. It was built through an effort of the Knights of Columbus and opened for the Bicentennial. The ceiling was built of cypress and is held up by pegs. The floor was made of Louisiana long leaf pine that is about 200 years old. There is only one original pew; it is 150 years old. The rest are copies, made by Mr. Whitney Breaux. The Stations of the Cross were hand carved by a local sculptor, Mr. Lester Duhon. The main altar was the type used before Vatican Council II. It originally served St. Anne's church in Youngsville and later St. Joseph's in Milton. A side altar given anonymously portrayed The Last Supper scene.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from "MAMA" and The Autumn Trainby Judith D. Christensen Copyright © 2011 by Judith D. Christensen. Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.