Chapter 27

They rode the Kansas & Arizona Southern Railroad coach from Texas Creek to the junction with the Acheson, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad on the northeast edge of Fort Birney. They were eight more hours in coach seats on the Santa Fe local before linking with the AT&SF transcontinental train. There, they enjoyed the relative comforts of first class seating and the use of Pullman car sleeper accommodations. The train also featured one of the newly-styled parlor cars, for the collective use of first class passengers.

Meals were at Fred Harvey restaurants at various stops where the trains had to refuel and take on water. At the Harvey House dining rooms, Malik took notes on some of the service methods and staffing standards that he observed. Among other things, he was impressed with the consistency of the service and quality at the widely-separated sites. He asked questions of the waitresses and even gained access to one of the kitchens to talk to the cooks and scullery help.

Back aboard the train, they raced east across the Great Plains. At one point, the conductor assured them that the train was going as fast as sixty miles an hour on some stretches. He told them they could time the passage of the mile posts to mark their velocity. Gabriela was nearly breathless watching the countryside speed by.

Eventually, they reached Chicago, where they took a two-day break to relax after the demands of more than three days of railroad travel. They went to look at the boundless waters of Lake Michigan and the pounding surf that was driven before the wind. They also had a hansom driver take them past the stockyards. Here, many of the cattle from the Malik and Lestly ranches were slaughtered and butchered for distribution throughout the northeastern states. Both were impressed by the extent of the various packing companies’ stockyards, seemingly extending for miles and cleaved in various places by busy railroad switch lines.

Two days later, they were in New York City. Its size, populace, and hectic pace were a revelation. Western cities, even Chicago, did not prepare them for the extensive urbanization, the shoulder-to-shoulder density, or the overwhelming bustle of Manhattan Island.

They spent a week enjoying restaurants, shopping, theatres, shopping, museums, shopping, sightseeing, and shopping. They sent two large, tightly-packed, shipping crates of tableware, clothing, guns, linens, shoes, hats, bolts of silk and Egyptian cotton, Persian rugs, and a variety of gifts for friends and family, in care of Jacob Baylor. Both he and Olin Wisser had returned to town and business as usual, save for the presence of an armed man who patrolled between Baylor’s store and Wisser’s smithy during business hours.

They had planned a trip by packet steamer to Boston and a return by rail. However, an excursion to historic revolutionary war battle sites around New York’s harbor area changed their minds. They had embarked on a steam tour boat for that excursion, but that morning’s rough bay waters left both of them seasick and feeling they had sailed all they cared to. They did take a train to Coney Island and enjoyed walking on the beach, even though autumn temperatures prevailed.

Notable of their four days in Boston were the historic sites associated with the early days of the revolution, the delicious varieties of fresh seafood, and the gaudy display of autumn leaves, presenting a much wider palette than seen in the Rocky Mountain west. And some shopping.