There's something to be said about not having phone or wifi access for nearly two days straight in 2014. To most who consciously, or subconsciously, lean heavily on modern communication it can be a cold hard slap in the face and have you saying overly dramatic things like "I can't survive." or "I feel naked without my phone." But when you're on holidays the thought of not waiting on a call or checking a status update can be pure bliss. And for those of us old enough to remember what it was like to live in 1989 it's a throwback to the 'good ole days' where asking how somebody was required hearing their voice or heaven forbid asking them to their three dimensional face. When I, perhaps subconsciously, forgot to pocket my phone before leaving my hotel for Hollywood on Monday I found myself striking up conversation with a friendly stranger after asking her for the time. I don't think I've asked anybody for the time in at least a couple of years and I doubt most others have either. It actually got me to thinking about just how many of these random strange conversations exist today as compared to generations past. If I were to hazard a guess I'd say tragically not many.

The South West Chief Amtrak train has no wifi, and as I discovered while changing the time zone on my phone manually from Pacific time to desert time as we trekked into Arizona, it has little to no reception. I suppose that's what you get when you go through a vast array of desert with sparse civilian life. For all I knew Hell could have frozen over and I would have been none-the-wiser, blissfully.

Finding other ways to entertain yourself on a long haul train ride aside from taking in some rolling hilly scenery, of which I have captured and will post soon, is easy. You talk to people. If there's one thing I discovered on the trip it is that people on long haul train trips here are passionate about train travel. So many I've spoken to say they've done this numerous times and loved everything from the service to the views to the relaxed nature of most of their fellow travellers while on board. I had a conversation with a retired couple from Tulsa, Oklahoma in the dining car and the wife's sister from Saint Louis. We talked guns, hunting, college football, the differences between our country's high school systems and of all things Mark 'Jacko' Jackson. Yes, the larrikin we all know from the Energiser commercials, standup comedy and of course AFL is known around the world. I also had an attempt to explain some of the finer details of 'Aussie Rules'. A mum and daughter combo from Kansas are travelling across the country for the daughter's beauty pageant contests of which they are both passionate about and I spent breakfast travelling through some of the poorer reservation areas of New Mexico learning about the alcoholism that has plagued many of the state's towns. An elderly man in the observation car tells me New Mexico at one point in time generations ago had a boom from the discovery of uranium, only to have it collapse when the country discovered shortly thereafter it was cheaper to import it in from Germany.

We reached an ear popping height of eight thousand feet crossing the New Mexico - Colorado border.

History lesson aside I've never before had I had a steak on a train, or a shower, or a bed, or drank alcohol legally but now I have. Granted I have my doubts about the method one can serve up a medium rare steak in fifteen minutes but it tasted great and the shower, although rocky and unsteady, was long and hot. In fact it was so long that I didn't even realise I was beginning to flood the tiny bathroom in the restroom car. Some frantic toweling up before others came through was performed with some embarrassment. A negative was the toilet, where my phone took a swim in my own urine when the train hit a rough patch and knocked it off the basin bench. Guys need to picture it like taking a toilet break in an airplane toilet during the roughest of turbulent patches. You're getting thrown around that little room like a ping pong ball. Awkward much?

For anybody that has ever lost a wallet overseas, at least for ten minutes, I know how you feel. That dreaded feeling of being stranded with no credit card or access to my funds made me a nervous wreck after I went to get it to grab a bite to eat in Albuquerque. I was tossing things out of my bags like crazy and bothering anybody walking past to keep a look out. Needless to say I was ready to dry hump the attendant who managed to find it wedged between the wall and my bed. It also forced me to take some security measures to ensure I'm not poverty stricken for the rest of my trip.

All in all the train was fantastic and something I'm certainly looking forward to doing again as this trip continues. I don't think there's a better way to take in the vast country side the States have to offer as well as getting some amazing views of the cities it stops at or passes through.

Kansas City and thermals here I come.