10:05 a.m. Welcome to the Colorado foothills. Since we're on the south side of the car, as the train occasionally tilts north we can see the snow-capped Rocky Mountains rising above the hills, my first ever glimpse of them. Here the layers of soil and rock each have their own color and texture, and you sense the enormity of the task it must have been to carve the railroad into the hillside.
10:29 Pitch blackness! We just entered the Raton Tunnel, climbing toward the highest point of the old Santa Fe railroad. During those sixty seconds the mind drifts:
- How old is this tunnel?
- How much did they pay the guys that built this thing?
- How often are the safety inspections?
- Surely there would be pockets of air even for a large cave-in, right?
- When that Colorado coal mine collapsed, that rescue effort sure was great. Amazing how anyone can be rescued, given the right technology.
- Is my cell phone charged?
Santa Fe means "Holy Faith." How appropriate...
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