I Wish I Was a Headlight on a Northbound Train

It might come as a surprise to some of you (though probably not - ed) but my preferred method for traveling distances of about 1000 miles is by train.  To me there's no better way of traveling.  To start with you don't have to go through all that security nonsense that you do when you fly like showing up hours early just to stand on line, to stand on another line to take your shoes off and throw your water out and get yelled at by some dick head low level federal security guard all for the "privilege" of flying.  Then you get on the plane and if everything runs smoothly you're in the air a good half hour after when you were told your flight was going to depart.  God forbid there is some "weather" happening in either your destination or origin or that you have a layover somewhere you might lose a whole day in transit.  Then there's the ride itself.  It's noisy, you're crammed into tiny seats breathing reconstituted fart air and the only view is of clouds, which can be nice at times, but not nice enough to justify trip.  It's just a big old hassle, that if I could avoid to go about 1000 or 1500 miles, I would.

It's truly a shame that America does not have a real viable rail transport option.  What we have is a slow, expensive option in Amtrak.  It has been my experience that it's cheaper to fly somewhere than it is take a train, which seems counter intuitive.  I have had wonderful experiences riding trains place to place in Europe, both high speed and regular speed and I don't know why such a system can't be implemented in the USA (you know why - ed).

Anyway, I saw this map the other day and it got my mind wandering.

Could you imagine if riding from New York City to New Orleans was as easy as riding the subway from the Upper West Side to Brooklyn.  That would really be something.

And now for a little train music and hippies brought to you by the Grateful Dead

China Cat Sunflower > I Know You Rider  August 27, 1972