You Leave the Pennsylvania Station 'Round a Quarter to Four...
Read a magazine and then you're in Baltimore...
Nothing Could be Finer
Let's start on a Sunlit Sunday or a sunlit Monday, or even a not very sunlit Monday or Tuesday, or any day of the week. Even if it's overcast and gloomy at Pennsylvania Station the sun will be shining somewhere on our journey.
Our journey -- somewhere across America. The names of the trains are the some of the most romantic words I know. Valentine's Day is sweet to some, but give me the City of New Orleans or the California Zephyr or the Heartland Flyer. I'm off on a magic carpet on a ride of adventure. I'm not sure all that I will see and I don't know who I will meet, but the words fill me with excitement.
My first train trips were on the New Haven Railroad not quite fifty years ago. It doesn't seem that long ago, but when I put it in writing it is a long time and a different world ago. The stops stick in my mind...Berlin, Wallingford, Meriden and New Haven. These were the first trips I took alone. It was only a distance of forty miles, but I entered a new world. I was fifteen years old and I could go anywhere on the train.
I've since been as far north as White River Junction, Vermont and as far south as Harper's Ferry, West Virginia on Amtrak enjoying the scenery and the people. I got to see the small towns of America and the beautiful countryside. Yes, it's a lot slower than flying, but you can't see the autumn colors or the sun on a lake when you're flying over the country.
Now fifteen is a long time past but I can still go anywhere on the train. Here's to the states I've never seen -- to Michigan, Oklahoma, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska, to New Mexico and North and South Dakota. I'll be coming to see you and I'll be coming on the train. It may be a rainy day in New York, but it will be a sunlit day when I arrive. The journey makes the sunlight.
To all who took the Sunlit Sunday journey with me, many thanks. You made the sunlight.