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On Friday August 4, we met in the Northeast corner in the Chicago's Union Station at 5:30 pm. Mr. Ostergard bought everyone in our council contingent white pith helmets (Safari hats) to shade our heads from the sun while on the trail at Philmont. They actually served two purposes, they made great flying saucers too as Mike Kammerer can give testimony to. After everyone was accounted for we headed to our train and boarded and stored away our packs and were greeted by John Jazwinski and his staff and were advised to move to the high level dining car where we were fed dinner of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, peas, rolls & butter and cold milk.
Rolling west in the light of the moon, our train crossed the Mississippi river into Fort Madison, Iowa at 10:20 pm. Then into the night we rolled bound for Philmont. Our ride was not dull for we met Arthur H Harding, President of India's Finest,Inc. of 1133 Broadway New York City, NY. What a character this Indian Importer was. Like Groucho Marks chasing girls half his age on the train and at train stops. He also showed us the fine art of using a paddle ball. He was quite good at it too. He kept us entertained 2 hours past Kansas City with his wild antics.
At 6:00 am for those who slept, we woke up and promptly headed for the dining car for a breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, orange juice, toast and cold milk. After breakfast we moved to the observation car where our paddle ball expert led our crew in devotions from his bible. He taught everyone the fine art of how to communicate the gospel.
At 11:51 am we descending down the Raton Pass in the town of Raton, NM which was our rail head for the Philmont Scout Ranch. In Raton we unloaded our gear and formed our first pack line one of many we would form on our trek at Philmont. Mr. Swope met us at the train depot and with our gear in the rear of his big yellow bus we boarded and breezed out on the highway toward Philmont. Our ride we were entertained by "Mrs. Swope's singing" via 8-track player.
On the right side of the bus we passed a pasture of a herd of buffalo and we were able to shortly see a glimpse of the Tooth of Time at Philmont.
We arrived at Philmont Headquarters passing under the famous gateway to adventure of tired scout boots thrown over the of top beam of the entrance to Philmont Scout Ranch.
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