This week I head slowly to New York City by Amtrak. In Life, Phase 3, you don’t have to rush or be perturbed by inevitable delays. Each night I’ll be in a hotel rather than a train, which gives me a chance to go walkabout in Chicago and Cleveland. My partner will join my in… Continue reading Iron Road to Gotham
Author: Tom Wilson
Long Trip, Light Backpack
Travel Gear: Eye-Fi Card
The best travel brings me face-to-face with the unexpected. I try to welcome the unexpected as part of the great adventure. Something to relish, a puzzle to solve, or an opportunity to practice wisdom and move on. With a bit of luck, I get to choose whether to make the unwelcome a positive experience, or… Continue reading Travel Gear: Eye-Fi Card
Kauai in a Box
A couple months ago, my partner, Dwight, announced he had some spare vacation days. That was my cue to rush to the computer and put together a trip to the island of Kauai (Hawaii) based on previous visits: Kauai in a Box. How you approach Kauai depends on your definition of activity. The Kauai.com list of… Continue reading Kauai in a Box
Yellow Camaro in Paradise
I don’t give a toss about cars. I drive a 1997 Honda Civic as little as possible. It still hasn’t clocked 80,000 miles. In the 1980’s when Dwight and I were looking for our first car together, a salesman proudly led us outside. “I have just the car for you guys.” We couldn’t believe our… Continue reading Yellow Camaro in Paradise
Urban Hike: Disputed Tracks
I sometimes wake in the night and listen for a distant train, a steady rumble as locomotives pull a mile of freight cars. Oil from North Dakota, coal from Wyoming or Montana, grain from Minnesota or North Dakota. I’m standing next to the railroad. The first snow of winter has melted, fresh snow is falling.… Continue reading Urban Hike: Disputed Tracks
My Worst Travel Fail
I have rarely felt more alive, more calm, more in the moment, more close to death. But that all came later that night. It was October 2011, northern India, Haridwar, one of Hinduism’s holiest places. The city is set in the foothills of the Himalayas at mile 157 (253 km) of the Ganges’ 1,569 mile… Continue reading My Worst Travel Fail
Changes of Gauge
Delta flight 160, Denver to Amsterdam, landed today (December 1, 2014) in Amsterdam with no Denver passengers on board. This is not uncommon: it also happened with DL160 on November 13. The explanation starts with a “change of gauge,” a term rooted in railroads.Track gauge is the distance between the inner faces of the two… Continue reading Changes of Gauge
An Old Lady with Attitude
What is this? Surely it’s not a hat. I came across this while reorganizing our kitchen drawers. It’s a tea cozy, designed to keep a teapot warm. It was 1999. I was in Glasgow, Scotland, visiting my elderly aunt. Her elegantly dressed, equally ancient neighbor presented me with the tea cozy she had knitted. The… Continue reading An Old Lady with Attitude
Dreaming of Kyushu
This winter I’ll be back in Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan’s four main islands. I will have visited Kyushu three years in a row: 2013, 2014, and 2015. I go back for the gentle subtropical climate while Minnesota’s long winter refuses to budge. Kyushu is a manageable size, about one-sixth the area of Minnesota or… Continue reading Dreaming of Kyushu