The Texas Adventure-part 4

Just finished a stop at Marshall Texas with quite a depot. Marshall is an old town on the rail road.It also has a long history of being a major player during the War of Rebellion or the Civil war. Functioning as capital of Missouri in exile when the state reverted to the Union. Also as a major supply base for the south in the early years of the Civil war.  East Texas is green and not much different from Illinois although the difference is subtle and in the rain it’s somewhat swampy. The soil when exposed is reddish rather than black or brown. At this time I am listening to a pod-cast about the route of the “Texas Eagle.”( I should have done this earlier but I thought it would be nice to do it while on the train.) Texas is the second biggest state in growing peanuts! So all the green crops I have been seeing was not soy beans but peanuts. As we get further into Texas the country changes, more scrub oak and pine trees. As I have mentioned in blogs before traveling on the train is a bit like being a peeping tom as you get to see into a lot of back yards and hidden parts of the land. And we Americans are messy lot. Piles of trash, old cars and in Texas old oil wells and the obsolete equipment there of. Stories every where, tumbled down houses, garages, old businesses, rail spurs that go off nowhere. The ones that interest me are ones with yellow derailures attached to one side of the rails. What is up that track that is so important to keep from the main line? 

We have been stopped in Ft. Worth for almost an hour for crew changes and servicing. We were early coming in and we will be early leaving according to the projected time of arrival we will be early into Los Angeles tomorrow. ( that will be fun as we are early in the morning as is and now earlier still! ) At least, in Ft Worth, the monsoons have let up and it is just cloudy. From here we will start south towards Houston and San Antonio. Now it gets exciting as this is unknown territory for this train rider. All the better, that’s my philosophy!