Observations While Traveling Solo.

Much—actually most—of my traveling has been done solo. I love everything about traveling. My wife not so much. OK, I’m not all that fond of the flying part, but I thoroughly enjoy long-distance train tavel and I love classy old hotels . . . for example the Royal York in Toronto or the Palmer House in Chicago.

I take its of notes when I travel and I have more than two dozen notebooks here in my little office, all partly filled with scribblings from trips going back 10-15 years. Here are several pages from a notebook dated late Fall of 2009, scribbled while I was waiting for a train in the Main Hall of Chicago’s Union Station:

• Once we hit 40 or so, men all pretty much look alike; only the shapes vary. And the haircuts.

• An airline pilot hurries past. It’s not the uniform that makes him look so dashing, it’s the cap!

• Some women simply cannot manage high heels.

• Veteran travelers walk briskly, pulling small wheeled bags; rookies struggle with heavy oversized luggage.

• Western boots look absolutely fabulous on some women; ridiculous on others.

• How does a Jewish man prevent his yarmulke from slipping off?

• What prompts an overweight women in her 60s to get a tattoo of Tweety Bird on her bicep??

What? You were expecting something profound??