Thursday 19 June – “Drama at the station!”

We're up at 3.30 am – the train for Albuquerque leaves Flagstaff at 4.40 am. It's the only train that will call at Flagstaff today; it's come a long way, from Los Angeles, and is going all the way to Chicago, where it will arrive tomorrow afternoon. We'll be catching that train from Albuquerque to Chicago on Sunday.

We arrive at the station in our hire car at about 4.00 am – the little ticket office/waiting room is heaving with people. We bring all our luggage into the waiting room, and I wait with it while Reg takes the car to the long-stay car park next to the station. He then drops the car keys into the the car rental firm's box inside the waiting room, as arranged. Then I hear the dreaded words

“Where's my tablet?”

Reg is in a panic now as the train is due in 15 minutes. Has he been to the loo, or stopped anywhere else since we've arrived? No. We come to the conclusion that the tablet must still be in the car, although we thought we checked the car thoroughly. We go to look in the car with the torch, but it's still really dark, the interior of the car is black carpets, and we can't see anything. 10 minutes until the train is due.

“I wonder if the ticket office can help?” I venture. “They might just have a spare key to the car hire box.”

We don't think they will, but Reg asks anyway. The ticket office man doesn't have a key, but he has a wire coat hanger, already lengthened out with the hook on the end – this must have happened before! A fellow passenger holds a torch while Reg tries to hook the car keys out of the box.

Reg manages to extract the keys! There's a look of triumph on his face! But he's not smiling yet – he still hasn't found his tablet. The train is due any minute, and people have started moving from the waiting room onto the (only) station platform. Reg strides purposefully out of the station. While he is gone the train pulls in, but luckily there's quite a few passengers to get off and on.

Reg returns clutching the tablet – it was on the dashboard! He doesn't even have time to thank the man who held the torch as he's already left the waiting room. Reg drops the car keys back in the car rental box and we're zipping along the platform with our luggage, to our sleeping car; people are still queuing to get on.

We sink gratefully into our seats in our little cabin, as the train moves off. Reg's adrenalin is flowing – it will be hard to go back to sleep now! After a while we decide we will convert our seats back into bunks (Reg knows how to do this now, although the guard in our carriage is excellent this time and would have done it for us). I set my phone alarm for 8.30 am so that we don't miss breakfast; when it goes off, my watch still says 7.30 am. My phone has automatically changed to an hour ahead as we entered the state of New Mexico. We aren't sure whether breakfast ends at 9.00 am Arizona time, or 9.00 am New Mexico time (in which case it ends in 30 minutes) so decide we'd better get up.

The scenery is still desert scrubland, but with quite a few trees. Albuquerque itself is in the middle of the desert. We thought we'd be arriving in Albuquerque at 11.40 am – but that was Arizona time! An voice over the speaker system announces we'll be there in 15 minutes – that's 10.15 am New Mexico time! The train is early and we hadn't allowed for the time change. This is good as it means Reg might be able to watch England v Uruguay in the World Cup. We sort ourselves out – our sleeping cabins are on the top deck of the train (most trains in the USA have two tiers), whereas our big suitcases are in the luggage rack downstairs, near the door.

Our efficient and helpful train guard has already got our suitcases out of the luggage rack and put them near the door. We are the only passengers in his carriage who are getting off at Albuquerque.

As we alight from the train the warm sunshine greets us – it's hot, but not the searing heat of Las Vegas. We're grateful to see a taxi waiting outside the station. It's only a short distance to our hotel; as we enter the lobby I can tell this will be a lovely place to stay. Although we aren't supposed to check in until 3.00 pm, thankfully our room is ready for us.

The room couldn't be more different from “The L Motel” where we've stayed for the last few nights. It's a beautiful room, with a kingsized bed, bathroom with a bath (there's actually a plug, so it will be possible to have a bath!), wide-screen TV (Reg soon finds the sports channel to watch the England game), and really good Wifi.

We watch England v Uruquay – disappointingly England lose and are probably out of the World Cup. We sleep for a couple of hours, then I go for a swim – my first swim in America – in the lovely hotel pool.

Our evening meal by a fountain in the garden of the Italian restaurant across the road from our hotel is a perfect end to a day which started quite badly!

We decide to find a film to watch on the TV – I enjoy it, but Reg isn't really watching it – he's enjoying browsing the internet with the fast wifi – on his rescued tablet.