It was mid December, I had the rest of the month off, the feet were itching after a year spent indoors and I was looking for ideas. Europe had closed its borders and a blizzard was threatening to dump freezing temperatures and a couple of feet of snow and on a New York that had just decided to close its restaurants, bars and cafes a second time in response to a new wave of Covid infections. I couldn't travel to Europe or hang out in cafes; short, cold days precluded the long urban hikes that had sustained me through the close-down.
I discovered that I could buy a pass on Amtrak for two weeks of travel. Hmm, here was a chance to escape short, cold days, and the blizzard. I could catch up some much needed reading while watching the many geographies of the continent sweep past my train-window. Plus here was a chance to forage through those as yet unexplored nooks of the country.
Restless feet, a nostalgia for trains -I'd grown up with my face planted on train-windows as my dad used to work as a railroad engineer- and a curiosity about the country made me impulsively buy the two-week Amtrak train pass. Pass in hand, I now had to decide where to go. More news of the impending blizzard made warm sunny climes sound very appealing, so the next day found me and a trusted backpack stuffed with a sleeping bag and tent heading South to sunny Florida.
