DAVIS, CALIFORNIA–This was an interesting trip in several different ways.   First, both the Southwest Chief taking me to Chicago and the California Zephyr that brought me here to Davis,...

As I write this, the Southwest Chief is sitting in the Albuquerque station, the locomotives refueled, the windows washed. Earlier today, somewhere near Gallup, I went on line with my...

I typically make my travel plans well in advance. In fact, I’m already thinking about what trains I’d like to take when I travel to NARP’s annual meeting in Washington,...

OK, here’s a question for you about VIA Rail’s iconic train, The Canadian: Is one direction more scenic than the other? This would probably not occur to someone planning a...

At 5:00 a.m., as promised, Kurt, my host at the Boot Hill B&B, was waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs ready to drive me to the Dodge...

OK, here’s a weird one.   My wife and I are going to be taking a Mississippi River cruise in May and we’re in the process of clearing up a...

Yesterday an email popped up from a couple planning a cross-country train ride. They want to know which of the western trains out of Chicago I would recommend.   I...

I got a listicle by email this morning. That’s a recently created word referring to a newspaper or magazine article that lists ten or twelve of anything: the ten most...

 Ralph Branca was on the mound for the Brooklyn Dodgers in the Fall of 1951 for the deciding game with the then New York Giants to determine who would be...

A lot of Americans—my wife is one of them—are reluctant to travel abroad on the grounds that there are whole sections of this country that they have never seen. I...