Greetings and salutations!
Having retired roughly a year ago from a job that called for frequent travel, I had the good fortune to accumulate a fair number of frequent flyer miles and hotel points. Needless to say, being strapped into a tiny commuter jet, with the occasional obese passenger in the seat next to me (one of whom assumed it was just fine to put up the handrest between us all the way up, so he could spill into half my seat), the occasional turbulence that would elevate my drink six inches above my glass, the more than occasional delay and much, much more, did not in the end endear air travel to me in a big way.
But I've always liked going places, and I could see just how much better that could be without having to be on a tight schedule to get to a client site, without having to pull out my laptop at the airport to catch up on work, or even get on a conference call huddled at the least loud spot at the airport (along with twenty other road warriors) so I could get that Powerpoint deck updated before I got to the hotel.
Sound familiar?
No wonder it took me almost a year to venture out of the house!
Now, I may lack an expense account, but I had nothing but time. And best of all, I would have no anxiety towards the end of the trip - the slowly elevating blood pressure triggered by the anticipation of an overflowing email inbox or voicemails or just plain nasty surprises. Nope - I would return to the uneventful, languid mental landscape of a retiree. The only events to catch up on would be new shows on Netflix.
Given this backdrop, I decided it was time to check off a major bucket-list item - travel across the country by train.
So how did it all turn out? Well, I'm still in the middle of it, and hope to be back home in a week. I will then have the tedium of sorting through my pictures and uploading them. Then, the writing. I expect it will have roughly the following sections:
1. DC to Chicago
2. Chicago to Flagstaff
3. Flagstaff, Sedona and the Grand Canyon
4. Flagstaff to Seattle
5. Seattle - the whys, the whats
6. Seattle to DC
Bye for now!
Having retired roughly a year ago from a job that called for frequent travel, I had the good fortune to accumulate a fair number of frequent flyer miles and hotel points. Needless to say, being strapped into a tiny commuter jet, with the occasional obese passenger in the seat next to me (one of whom assumed it was just fine to put up the handrest between us all the way up, so he could spill into half my seat), the occasional turbulence that would elevate my drink six inches above my glass, the more than occasional delay and much, much more, did not in the end endear air travel to me in a big way.
But I've always liked going places, and I could see just how much better that could be without having to be on a tight schedule to get to a client site, without having to pull out my laptop at the airport to catch up on work, or even get on a conference call huddled at the least loud spot at the airport (along with twenty other road warriors) so I could get that Powerpoint deck updated before I got to the hotel.
Sound familiar?
No wonder it took me almost a year to venture out of the house!
Now, I may lack an expense account, but I had nothing but time. And best of all, I would have no anxiety towards the end of the trip - the slowly elevating blood pressure triggered by the anticipation of an overflowing email inbox or voicemails or just plain nasty surprises. Nope - I would return to the uneventful, languid mental landscape of a retiree. The only events to catch up on would be new shows on Netflix.
Given this backdrop, I decided it was time to check off a major bucket-list item - travel across the country by train.
So how did it all turn out? Well, I'm still in the middle of it, and hope to be back home in a week. I will then have the tedium of sorting through my pictures and uploading them. Then, the writing. I expect it will have roughly the following sections:
1. DC to Chicago
2. Chicago to Flagstaff
3. Flagstaff, Sedona and the Grand Canyon
4. Flagstaff to Seattle
5. Seattle - the whys, the whats
6. Seattle to DC
Bye for now!
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