Monday mornings are NEVER pretty.  Seriously!  If it wasn't for Monday Night Football, there would be absolutley no reason to even get out of bed.  Monday is when the weekend comes crashing to an end and the bill collectors start pounding on the trailer door.  Until about 5p.m. (Pacific Standard Time - West Coast BABY!) when Monday Night Football kicks off, getting out of bed only costs us money.  But Sunday - now that was a different story!

So here's the deal - Kevin's dad and aunt (brother and sister/still speaking after 80 years/amazing!) living roughly in Sacramento, California (home of the "Governator" - ARNIE!) decided to visit some other relative (details elude us!) in Tucson, Arizona (famous for...ah....er....nothing).  Anyway, in an attempt to re-live the 1940's (when women wore garter belts and stockings EVERYDAY! and trains ran on time) they took Amtrack.   Okay, here's some guidence - train travel in Europe = "GOOD;"  train travel in America on Amtrack = "VERY BAD!"  How bad?  Well, just imagine 25,000 miles of track, $100 billion dollars in locomotives and sleeper cars and a $500 million dollar computer system all supplied by the lowest bidder and being run by government employees that couldn't get jobs at DMV. (pretty good imagery, huh?)

Anyway, on their way back to Sacramento it turns out the train actually comes through Palm Springs.  We figured we'd catch the bus out to the station and see them on the platform during the five minute stop - besides it'd be a great chance for Kevin to hit his dad up for a small loan (it's never to late with your dad!).  Ok, remember the part about Amtrack being run by government employees? - their train was ten hours late getting to Palm Springs!  Folks, do you realize that we could drive from Tucson to Palm Springs in about six hours in our 1984 Taurus? - and that includes stopping to top off the oil two or three times!  And get this! - even being ten hours late they were still happy, but that's because they'd been drinking "Night Train" and eating "Cheeze-its"all the way, and also because they're old and don't know any better.  Look, we can kill a case of Coors in the Taurus between here and Tucson, and that's in just six hours.  But you know what?  They were happy (dementia has it's plus side!), we were happy (alcoholism has a plus side too!) and tonight is Monday so it's Football at the Indian casino...

      
Scheduled arrival was 6a.m. - we just stayed up for it!                     At 4pm it finally arrived - you gotta love Amtrack!

      
They're smiling because they're drunk!                      There was time when they were both taller than Kevin!