“the most important reason for going from one place to another is to see what’s in between, and they took great pleasure in doing just that.”
– from the children’s book The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
I love trains. I mean, I seriously love trains. I even took a cross-country Amtrak trip by myself when I was 27. Did you know it takes two and a half days to get from Grand Forks, North Dakota, to San Francisco, California? I love the forward movement of a train, the feeling of anonymity as a passenger, the homes and fields and towns flashing by the window, and the long, long tradition of it.
May 11th marks the 144th anniversary of our nation’s first transcontinental railroad. On that day in 1869 in Promontory Summit, Utah, the “golden spike” became the final railroad tie added to connect the 1,776 miles of Central Pacific and Union Pacific railways.
So… Happy National Train Day to all! How will you celebrate?
