Locomotive Hits the Brakes!!!

Today in Texas I ran 10 miles parallel to the railroad tracks, when a train came from behind. As the locomotive was passing by, I saw two train engineers waving at me and saying something, but I couldn’t understand a word because the brakes of the train were too noisy. So I just smiled, nodded and waved back. The train slowed down and stopped. In the distance I saw an engineer jumping out of the train.

I couldn’t believe my eyes, just the size of the train alone must have been at least a mile long, if not more. I then saw the engineer was waiting for me at the shoulder of the street. And guess what, he had a bottle of water for me. I was simply speechless!

I never had a train stopping to give me water so far.

Then the second engineer came. We had a nice conversation about world harmony, sports and Texas. They also told me that it took them a mile to stop the train for me. Then I gratefully and happily took off with my bottle of icy cold water. Believe it or not I was able to run much faster in the Texan heat after meeting the two kind gentlemen from Amarillo.

Elke, Austria

Oh Beautiful, For Spacious Skies….

Almost as soon as Morris and I began running just beyond the Texas border into New Mexico we started climbing. The scenery quickly changed to desert shrubs with lots of fragrant sage stretching away to the horizon. The rich red earth of Oklahoma had faded through the Texas panhandle to the tan and ochre colored sand and loam in New Mexico. Here was the entrance to the vast desert of the southwest that I had been both looking forward to and slightly fearing. I really felt exposed running in such vast surroundings under a brilliant clear sky with the intense sun piercing the dry air.

The terrain elevation rose at a seemingly constant pitch. The road was running dead straight into the horizon as you could see for many miles. More elevation brought us to the desert plateau and we entered on of the last great tracts of true American wilderness.

After five weeks of steady civilization, this feels like stepping back in time to the great push westwards when today’s America was being born. The scale of the land here is magnificent with its broken plains and stepping mesas. The sky seems somehow grander with no trees or houses to obscure it in any direction. It is powerful scenery that truly makes us feel that we are now in ‘America the Beautiful’.

Damon (New Zealand)

This truly was a special day as we crossed into New Mexico, described quite clearly by Damon as we entered into a new phase of the World Harmony Run in the U.S.A. We are now in the high desert plains and we will be running at an elevation of 4,000 feet or higher for weeks to come. The weather is certainly different than the past five weeks as the air is hot, dry and fresh. The aroma of sage and other herbs pervading the entire atmosphere here is magical and energizing. Even though it seems always to be very hot, 90’s F or over 30C most of the time, the arid air makes it easy to cool down as long there is enough water to drink and to wash down with.

Last night we camped out at the lovely Sumner Lake State Park in New Mexico. We are so grateful to Richard Terrell, Park Manager, Raymond Drake, and the other park Rangers for allowing us to enjoy this idyllic setting by this clean and cool man-made lake. It was so refreshing after a very long and hot day on the road. One can feel a deep sense of harmony with nature here which renews the spirits and energizes the body.

Last night we also had a visit by some local residents who saw us running on the road today outside of Clovis. Mark and Linda Sumner were very excited as they stopped to take photos with us today. They came to the Lake to visit us and bring us locally grown peanuts, shirts with their logo called, ‘Nothing 2 Lose’, and a board game they developed, to play with some of us. This act of kindness and friendship truly was uplifting to us and we are very grateful to them.

Arpan and Team Harmony

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